Instruction (2)

[Music] [Speaker 2] Churchly fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God will build for Himself a godly heritage. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tents Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. We give glory to our God again for today. We thank Him for His love, for His mercies. We thank Him for all who He is. We thank Him for all that He is to us. Indeed, our God is great. Our God is mighty. We want to thank Him for the privilege of entering into a new month again, the month of March. We appreciate God for His mercies and for His love. Indeed, it has been God. It is still God, and it will yet be God. We appreciate Him for having kept us through the month of January and February, preserving our lives and helping us, standing with us, standing by us, and undertaking for us severally in different ways. Honestly, God alone be praised in the name of Jesus Christ. I want to welcome everyone again to the month of March Singles Club, and I believe that as we all gather together this morning to fellowship together, it will be a time of refreshing in the name of Jesus Christ. One thing that is certain is that God will always remain faithful, and because He would remain faithful, we can be sure we His children we cannot be consumed. The Bible says in Lamentations 3:22-23, "it is the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, and His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness." I believe His faithfulness will continue to shadow us through as we move on through the year in the name of Jesus Christ. Let us have a word of prayer as we begin the meeting for this month of March. We remember that we started a very important topic in the month of February, which is Instruction. I said in the month of March, we'll continue from where we left the matter in February, the matter of Instruction. And so, we are taking the second episode of that topic today: Instruction. Let us have a word of prayer. Precious Father, we are grateful unto You. We thank You for Your love and for Your mercies. We thank You for Your goodness towards us. Our Father, we are really, really grateful for bringing us into this third month, which is the month of March. We are indeed grateful for Your mercies and for Your love. Lord, as we commence the meeting this morning, we pray that we all together—our brethren who are connecting on Telegram, our brethren who are connecting on Mixlr, our brethren who are gathered here physically—Lord, we pray that it will be a time indeed, a time indeed of visitation, a time indeed of blessing, a time indeed of encounter in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, our eyes are on You. Let nothing prevail against Your purposes for our lives in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. So, we move on from where we left the matter in February. We were looking at Instruction, Instruction particularly as we relate it to younger generation, relate it to our singles, our about-to-be married, young men, young women. The matter of Instruction. I must call back again or remind you again of some of the fundamental things we mentioned in the month of February. Number one, we saw that instruction is something to lay fast hold of. That is Proverbs 4:13, where it said, "Take fast hold of instruction; do not let her go; keep her, for she is your life." We saw that instruction is something that we need to lay fast hold on. Instruction is something we must not let go. Instruction is something that we must diligently guard not to lose them. Then we mentioned last month that, why is the Bible, why is the word of the Lord, why is the Holy Spirit instructing us that we must take fast hold of instruction? We must not let go. Why must we guard her? Why must we be intentional and deliberate about instruction? We saw that there are two things to note. We said on one hand, there are pressures. There are pressures that may want to make you leave instruction. We gave example from the life of Saul. Saul was told to wait for seven days. Unfortunately, there was a pressure. The Philistines were advancing. As they were advancing, they were advancing, Saul became afraid. Because he was afraid, he did not hold to the instruction he was given: wait for Samuel to come to do the sacrifice. Unfortunately, he went ahead to do the sacrifice. Immediately he was through with the sacrifice, Samuel appeared. Samuel said, "Why did you do it?" Then he said Samuel was not coming on time and all that. But the Bible says that was how the kingdom was taken away from him. So, we said one thing that wants to take instruction from you is pressure. The instruction of God to your life, the instruction God gave you, the revelation God placed in your heart, that thing that God told you: "This is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to do it. Wait for me." The promises of God for your life. Be careful, there are pressures. The second one we noted last month was provocation. Be careful, provocation can make you throw away instruction. We gave example in Moses. So last month, our focus was number one: you must take fast hold of instruction. You must not let go because she is your life. The reason why we must take fast hold of instruction is because number one, there are pressures. Number two, there are provocations. So, we must, if we don't guard our life against pressure and provocation, we may find ourselves losing the instructions that God gave us. We may find ourselves going against those instructions. That was our focus in the month of February. Now, in the month of March, this very first day of the month, what are we going to focus on under the topic Instruction, the second episode? What are we focusing on today? What we are focusing on today is trying to comprehend, to comprehend this matter of life that instruction is. We want to try and understand why is it that the Bible says instruction is your life? Why is it the Bible says that look, be on your guard, be on your guard, instruction is your life? Instruction is your life. Why is the Bible making us to see that actually instruction is our life? Why is instruction our life? The matter of instruction, why does the Bible say instruction is your life? As we try to survey this matter this morning, I really pray that the Lord meet with each and every one of us in those areas that we really need Him most in the name of Jesus Christ. In beginning the matter, I want to call your attention to the picture I created in the month of February. We considered the picture in the month of February, the picture in Genesis, and that is what I want to really build on. I want to build on it so that you can properly comprehend why you must do everything to guard against pressures, why you must do everything to guard against provocations, not allowing pressure and provocation to make you to lose your life. When we say life, what is it that comes into this matter of life? When God says something is your life, what is God really saying? Now, I want to make reference to the book of Genesis. Let's go to Genesis. Genesis chapter 2. The book of Genesis, chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Let's see what God said when He was giving instruction to Adam. He's speaking to Adam. The Lord said, I take it from Genesis 2:15, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. You shall surely die.'" Now, I want you to note something as we look at the matter of instruction. This was the first instruction we are seeing in the Bible. I want you to understand something about God. Please understand something about God. What is going on here in Genesis? I want you to understand that it's a mystery. It's a mystery. That is why many times people don't understand fundamental issues that the Bible makes reference to when it comes to the New Testament. Please don't ever forget that while the two Testaments are separate Testaments, the New Testament rests squarely, it's resting squarely on fulfilling the Old Testament. In fact, if you remove the Old Testament, the New Testament doesn't have direction. What gave direction to the New Testament is the Old Testament. The New Testament only came to tell us that, see, everything God said He is going to do, He has done it. That is the New Testament. Everything that God said that He is going to do, it has been done. The Old Testament is where God was saying, "I am going to do, I am going to do, I am going to do, I am going to do. I will do this, I will do that, I will do this." The New Testament is just, "See, it has been done." It's just a fulfillment. So, if we don't properly comprehend some issues that are raised here, you might be having serious problem living a correct Christian life. In fact, the matter of life—please don't forget—that when Jesus came to the scene, what did He say? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in this Son will not perish but have everlasting life. It was the matter of life that was raised in this instruction. God said, "And God commanded the man saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.'" Please mark the word "freely." Freely eat of every tree, but there is a tree that you don't eat of. The day you eat, you will die. The day you eat, you will die. This was the first instruction. It is in this instruction that the matter of death was first mentioned in the Bible. So, I want you to comprehend death from God's perspective. The matter of death was mentioned by God as a consequence for eating a tree, from a tree. Which means Adam at this point was not in need of eternal life. Since he was made in the image of God and in the likeness of God, he was made to live like God. If there was no sin, Adam would have still been here with us. We too would have been here like this. It would have been eternal. Now, it was in this place that God introduced the matter of death. And death was placed side-by-side instruction. Don't forget where we are coming from. Take fast hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Proverbs 4:13. Don't allow pressure and provocation to make you to throw away instruction. Don't allow pressure, provocation, something pressurizing you, something provoking you, something that seems to be of another authority. Don't allow any of these things to make you throw away instruction. Take instruction because life is in instruction. You have seen the matter here. God said, "The day you eat, you will die." Now let's just look around this instruction, because this is where the deceit of the enemy is. Look around this instruction, brethren. This instruction that God is giving to man here, this instruction, is this instruction a way of limiting man? Is there any limitation in this instruction? "Of every tree of the garden, you can eat freely. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you should not eat. The day you eat of it, you will die." Now, I want you to imagine the garden. A garden of, the Bible says God made different kinds of trees to grow out of that garden. God planted a garden in the east of Eden. Out of the ground, God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God made trees, different trees. What Baba said is that you can eat, look, take mango, take—I'm just making example. We are not told the type of trees. I'm just making example. For example, there are 100 or 50 type of trees inside that garden. Mango, apple, carrot, banana—just naming fruits. God said eat banana. It's your food. I've commanded it for your food. So, look at different bananas. Look at them in their thousands. Just look at them in creation. And Baba said, "It is only one that you should not eat. Only one." Please, is that instruction a limitation or a liberation? You are allowed to eat everything except one. It's not the other way. Eat only one except everything. What I'm just trying to make you see is this deception of the devil when it comes to the matter of instruction. Many times young people are made to think that God's instruction is a limitation for enjoyment. "You know you will not have abundance. It will not allow you to enjoy. God's instruction, they are burdensome. The way of God is limiting. It does not allow you to, you know, you don't have all kinds of freedom." That is a lie. That is a lie. It is not true. Young man, young woman, don't be taken by this deceit of the devil. The instructions of God—in fact, look at how our Apostle John put it. He said, "And we know that His commandments are not grievous." [Music] May the Lord deliver our generation. May the Lord help our young men and young women today. In fact, even so many fathers and mothers, many adults that don't understand these fundamental truths. When we talk about monogamy, they say it's limitation. When we talk about not committing adultery, they say it's limitation. When we talk about not fornicating, they say it's limitation. "You need to be free to eat and eat and do anything." When we talk about moderation, they say it's limitation. [Music] May the Lord deliver our generation of young men and women today, and so many fathers and mothers. So many old men and women who are still children in heart, children in understanding. The commandments of God are not grievous. The commandments of God are liberating. The commandments of God are—look, I must tell a group of young men where I went to minister. You know what I told them? I said, "Listen to me. Listen to me. Even if there is no Heaven and there is no Hell, if everything ends here, and everything about Heaven and Hell is just a deception, if it is a lie, there is nothing like that, they are just deceiving us. I would still prefer to live the Christian life." The first truth I want you to see about instruction being life is that, number one, the instructions of God, they are not limiting. They don't limit you. The instructions of God are actually liberating. Look at how our Lord Jesus put it again. He said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. Why? My yoke is easy. My burden is light." The yoke of Jesus is easy. The yoke of Jesus is far easy. His burden is light. The burden of the Lord is light. The instructions of God, they are not heavy. They are not things that are heavy. They are things that are light. If you are seeing instructions of God, they are heavy, if you are not seeing them as light and enjoyable, it means something is fundamentally wrong with your spirit man. There is a blindness somewhere. Something is blinding you from the truth of God. So, the first thing I want you to see about instruction—when we say that it is your life—is that what God is offering you is something that is easy. It is when you go against instruction that you are going into what is heavy. You are going into what is a labor. "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden." It is when you leave the Lord's instruction that you are going to carry a burden that is heavy, a burden that is not light. So, the first thing I'm trying to make you see about instruction, when we say that it is your life, is that what God is offering you is something that is easy. It is life because it is easy. It is light. It is not a burden. It is not designed to press you down. It is not designed to limit you. It is not designed to cut you short. That is not the design of God's instruction because it is actually life. Number two. We are looking at instruction. Why is instruction your life? It is when you go against instruction that you are going into what is heavy. You are going to what is a labor. It is when you leave the Lord's instruction that you are going to carry a burden that is heavy, a burden that is not light. So, the first thing I'm trying to make you see about instruction, when we say that it is your life, is that what God is offering you is something that is easy. It is life because it is easy. It is light. It is not a burden. It is not designed to press you down. It is not designed to limit you. It is not designed to cut you short. That is not the design of God's instruction because it is actually life. Number two. When we look at this Genesis chapter 2, God said the day you eat it, you will die. The day you eat it, you will die. Instruction is your life. Eventually they ate it. When they ate it, they died. They died. But the death that they died, that death that occurred, was not a biological death. It was not a biological death. It was actually an eternal death. It was an eternal death. Because when they died, you will notice they did not fall to the ground. Biologically, Adam was alive. God still questioned him, "Where are you?" He said, "I hid myself," and all that. So, the death that God was talking about in this place was not a biological death. The death that God was talking about in this place was an eternal death. Now, it was that eternal death that brought Jesus back, that brought Jesus to the stage where Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in this Son will not perish but have life." So, the life that God's instruction in Eden was, was found in Jesus. That life, that thing that God's instruction was, when they ate it, it was when Jesus came that we got it back. Now, so in trying to understand life, "Instruction is your life," what is this life? Now, in looking into this place, you will see that when God said that they will die, that life will go away from them, what God was saying will go away from them was not the biological life. What would go away from them was actually what Jesus came to restore back. Now, to understand what Jesus came to restore, I want you to look at it. Jesus also said that whosoever believe will have eternal life. In John 10:10, He said, "The thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come that they might have life, and that life abundantly." So, Jesus came to give back the life that was lost in Eden. So, it means to understand when the Bible talks about life, we need to now understand what really happened when the life went, when we say "Instruction is your life." We need to understand when that life is taken, what is it that will be missing. To be able to appreciate what will be missing is to properly understand the ministry of Jesus Christ. Because He was the one that came to give back that life. So, what exactly comes into eternal life? We can better appreciate it by what Jesus came to give us back by looking at Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 53 as a basis for trying to understand this matter of life. Look at what the Bible says talking about Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He will grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him." Talking about Jesus Christ. "He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Now, from verse 4. Please follow this thing from verse 4. "Surely He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows." Now, I want you to make—understand what life is. What life is. What Jesus came to offer us in exchange for our death. It is the best way to know what actually life is. What Jesus gave to us, what Jesus made available when He said, "I have come that they may have life." What are those things that He made available for us? The more you can understand the things that Jesus made available when He said, "I have come that they may have life," the more you can comprehend what the Bible meant when the Bible says, "Look, instruction is your life." Because what took that life away from them was that Adam and Eve let go of instruction. Every time you are letting go of instructions, I want to let you know what you are inviting. When you say that instruction is your life, what you are letting go, the life that you are letting go, I want to amplify it for you. What you are inviting when you are allowing instruction to go, when you allow life to go, when Adam allowed life to go, and he was dead, he became biologically alive, but he was eternally dead. What is it that actually got missing? What are those things that death implies? What are those things that is implied in that death? That's what we are trying to look at. That is what we are trying to survey for us to understand. Now, in looking at Isaiah chapter 53, the first thing that left, the first thing that left, look at what Jesus said. Look at what the Bible says about Jesus. The Bible says, "Surely He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows." So, I want you to understand something. When the Bible says "Instruction is your life," every time you are allowing instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange, number one: grief. Surely, when Adam allowed life to go, what came in exchange for that life, when life left, when he allowed that instruction to go and he became a dead man? Every time you allow instruction to go, what is coming in exchange? When the Bible says, "Instruction is your life, don't let her go, it's your life," it's that number one: you are bringing griefs. Number two: you are bringing sorrows. The Bible says, "Surely Jesus bore our griefs." When He said, "All who that labor," every time we are working outside the instruction, what we are carrying with our life, what we are carrying are griefs. The thing that we'll be for our griefs and our sorrows. Every time you allow instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange are griefs, number one. Two: sorrows. Surely, Jesus came. When He came, what He came to take away from us was our death. The death that we died, number one, they were griefs, different type of griefs. Number two, He came to take our sorrows. So, what is embedded in life is actually joy. Joy. The more you can understand what Jesus came to restore back, the more you can comprehend what Jesus came to give us back. When He said, "I have come that they may have life." What exactly comes into eternal life? We can better appreciate it by what Jesus came to give us back. So, what exactly comes into eternal life? We can better appreciate it. What Jesus gave to us, what Jesus made available when He said, "I have come that they may have life." What are those things that He made available for us? The more you can understand the things that Jesus made available when He said, "I have come that they may have life," the more you can comprehend what the Bible meant when the Bible says, "Look, instruction is your life." Because what took that life away from them was that Adam and Eve let go of instruction. Every time you are letting go of instructions, I want to let you know what you are inviting. When you say that instruction is your life, what you are letting go, the life that you are letting go, I want to amplify it for you. What you are inviting when you are allowing instruction to go, when you allow life to go, when Adam allowed life to go and he was dead, he became biologically alive, but he was eternally dead. What is it that actually got missing? What are those things that death implies? What are those things that is implied in that death? That's what we are trying to look at. That is what we are trying to survey for us to understand. Now, in looking at Isaiah chapter 53, the first thing that left, the first thing that left, look at what Jesus said. Look at what the Bible says about Jesus. The Bible says, "Surely He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows." So, I want you to understand something. When the Bible says "Instruction is your life," every time you are allowing instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange, number one: grief. Surely, when Adam allowed life to go, what came in exchange for that life, when life left, when he allowed that instruction to go and he became a dead man? Every time you allow instruction to go, what is coming in exchange? When the Bible says, "Instruction is your life, don't let her go, it's your life," it's that number one: you are bringing griefs. Number two: you are bringing sorrows. The Bible says, "Surely Jesus bore our griefs." When He said, "All who that labor," every time we are working outside the instruction, what we are carrying with our life, what we are carrying are griefs. The thing that we'll be for our griefs and our sorrows. Every time you allow instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange are griefs, number one. Two: sorrows. Surely, Jesus came. When He came, what He came to take away from us was our death. The death that we died, number one, they were griefs, different type of griefs. Number two, He came to take our sorrows. So, what is embedded in life is actually joy. Joy. What exactly comes into eternal life? We can better appreciate it by what Jesus came to give us back. What exactly comes into eternal life? We can better appreciate it. What Jesus gave to us, what Jesus made available when He said, "I have come that they may have life." What are those things that He made available for us? The more you can understand the things that Jesus made available when He said, "I have come that they may have life," the more you can comprehend what the Bible meant when the Bible says, "Look, instruction is your life." Because what took that life away from them was that Adam and Eve let go of instruction. Every time you are letting go of instructions, I want to let you know what you are inviting. When you say that instruction is your life, what you are letting go, the life that you are letting go, I want to amplify it for you. What you are inviting when you are allowing instruction to go, when you allow life to go, when Adam allowed life to go and he was dead, he became biologically alive, but he was eternally dead. What is it that actually got missing? What are those things that death implies? What are those things that is implied in that death? That's what we are trying to look at. That is what we are trying to survey for us to understand. Now, in looking at Isaiah chapter 53, the first thing that left, the first thing that left, look at what Jesus said. Look at what the Bible says about Jesus. The Bible says, "Surely He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows." So, I want you to understand something. When the Bible says "Instruction is your life," every time you are allowing instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange, number one: grief. Surely, when Adam allowed life to go, what came in exchange for that life, when life left, when he allowed that instruction to go and he became a dead man? Every time you allow instruction to go, what is coming in exchange? When the Bible says, "Instruction is your life, don't let her go, it's your life," it's that number one: you are bringing griefs. Number two: you are bringing sorrows. The Bible says, "Surely Jesus bore our griefs." When He said, "All who that labor," every time we are working outside the instruction, what we are carrying with our life, what we are carrying are griefs. The thing that we'll be for our griefs and our sorrows. Every time you allow instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange are griefs, number one. Two: sorrows. Surely, Jesus came. When He came, what He came to take away from us was our death. The death that we died, number one, they were griefs, different type of griefs. Number two, He came to take our sorrows. So, what is embedded in life is actually joy. Joy. What is inside life? What Jesus came to restore. So, to understand what Jesus came to restore, I want you to look at it. Jesus also said that whosoever believe will have eternal life. In John 10:10, He said, "The thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come that they might have life, and that life abundantly." So, Jesus came to give back the life that was lost in Eden. So, it means to understand when the Bible talks about life, we need to now understand what really happened when the life went, when we say "Instruction is your life." We need to understand when that life is taken, what is it that will be missing. To be able to appreciate what will be missing is to properly understand the ministry of Jesus Christ. Because He was the one that came to give back that life. So, what exactly comes into eternal life? We can better appreciate it by what Jesus came to give us back by looking at Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 53 as a basis for trying to understand this matter of life. Isaiah chapter 53. In looking at Isaiah chapter 53, the first thing that left, the first thing that left, look at what Jesus said. Look at what the Bible says about Jesus. The Bible says, "Surely He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows." So, I want you to understand something. When the Bible says "Instruction is your life," every time you are allowing instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange, number one: grief. Surely, when Adam allowed life to go, what came in exchange for that life, when life left, when he allowed that instruction to go and he became a dead man? Every time you allow instruction to go, what is coming in exchange? When the Bible says, "Instruction is your life, don't let her go, it's your life," it's that number one: you are bringing griefs. Number two: you are bringing sorrows. The Bible says, "Surely Jesus bore our griefs." When He said, "All who that labor," every time we are working outside the instruction, what we are carrying with our life, what we are carrying are griefs. The thing that we'll be for our griefs and our sorrows. Every time you allow instruction to go, what you are getting in exchange are griefs, number one. Two: sorrows. Surely, Jesus came. When He came, what He came to take away from us was our death. The death that we died, number one, they were griefs, different type of griefs. Number two, He came to take our sorrows. So, what is embedded in life is actually joy. Joy. And absence of grief. Number two. Number three. I've mentioned two. What is the life that's in instruction? When the Bible says instruction is your life, what it meant is that instruction is that which is your joy. Your joy in life, your joy is instruction. The absence of grief are instruction. When we say it's your life, absence of grief, grief and sorrow, they are the—when you want to demonstrate what death is, number one, grief. Number two, sorrow. What is encapsulated in death, what's inside death, and what's inside life is what I'm bringing out one by one. What is inside life is joy and absence of sorrow. When man dies, what came upon man were griefs and sorrows. Instruction is the source of your joy and absence of your griefs. When God wants to give you peace, God packages the peace as instruction. When God intend to give you joy, God packages as instruction. When God want to take grief away from your life, God package it as instruction. So, when you let instruction go, what you are allowing to go is that you have allowed your peace to go. You have allowed your joy to go. You have allowed your absence of grief to go. You have invited restlessness. You have invited sorrows. You have invited griefs. That is not all. That is not all. He said, "The chastisement for our peace is upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed. By His stripes we were healed. By His stripes we were healed." Are you getting that? When you allow instructions to go, what you are inviting is all manners of sicknesses, all manners of ill health, all manners of ill health. When the Bible talks about sickness, don't just be thinking of presence of diseases. When the Bible talks about, "By His stripe we were healed," that healing was restored. What is restored is not just the absence of ailment, absence of disease. When we talk about health, there is psychological health. There is mental health, emotional health. There is physical health. There is social health. Health covers virtually every, almost every area of your life. When we say, "By His stripes we were healed," that is why you notice in 3 John 1:2, it says, "I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." What I'm trying to make you see is that embedded in life, embedded in life is also health. Jesus Christ died and by that His death, He brought back healing to heal us from diverse kind of ailments. The ailment could be spiritual. It could be psychological. It could be emotional. It could be mental. It could be physical. So, when we are talking about life, life is talking about absence of all kinds of ailment, emotional one, psychological one, mental one, physical ones. The list is almost endless. Instruction is your life. So, the point I'm making this morning is that why the reason why the Bible therefore says, "Take fast hold of instruction. Do not let her go." Don't let instruction the Lord gives you, don't let instruction from His word, those things He tells you in your devotion, in your quiet time, by way of inspiration, by way of revelation, by way of instruction, by way of listening to His word, by way of hearing His word. The instruction that comes to your heart, instruction guarding your heart, don't let it go. Don't let provocation, deception, and pressure make you to leave instruction. Because once you allow instruction to go, your life is gone. Your joy is gone. Your peace is gone. You have invited, once instruction goes, that is what you have allowed to go. You have become naked. Let's see how this played out in the Garden of Eden, and then we close the meeting for today. Let's see how the matter played out in Genesis 3 after they ate the fruit. From verse 6. "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves covers. And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden." Are you seen something here? When death came, there was nakedness. May you not be disgraced. May you not be naked. When death came, there was nakedness. I'm talking about grief. I'm talking about sorrow. I'm talking about absence of peace. I'm talking about ill health in the absence of instruction. When they allowed instruction to go, you see what came: nakedness. You see what came: fear. Nakedness, fear, trembling, hiding. They were no more at peace. They were no more at rest. Why? They have allowed instruction to go. And because instruction left, of course, what will be coming in now will be the things that are the marks of death, the things that are implied in death. When God said, "You will die," what God meant is you will become naked. What God meant is fear and sorrow will be there. Fear will come, sorrow will come. He called him, and then he said, "I was naked" and whatever. And then, "Why did you eat?" and all that. What followed: accusation. The woman, the serpent—self-justification that does not allow many people to have peace in their marriages today. You don't want to see how you are wrong. You're only concerned with how your partner is wrong. How you are wrong is not important to you. What is important to you is how your partner is wrong. "It is the woman, it is the serpent, it is the—" You don't want to see where you are wrong. All of these are consequences of death. They are consequences of death. And so, it is very, very important for us to see how it played out. Look at the sorrow of the woman, "The serpent deceived me." Oh, may you not have regret. Look at the regret she's now having. Regret. I'm talking about sorrow. I'm talking about grief. I'm talking about absence of peace. I'm talking about absence of good health. Look at what played out again. He says, "Look, I will put enmity. Enmity. Enmity between thy seed and the seed of the woman." You see that? Enmity. "I will multiply your sorrow, sorrow in conception." Sorrow. "Multiply—you will try to rule your husband, but he is going to master it over you." Strife. Strife. To the man, "Cursed is the ground for your sake. It will not bring you again only food; it will bring thorns and thistles. And out of your sweat, laboring, you will eat." Because somebody somewhere compromised instruction. So please, I want you to bear in mind, every time you allow instruction to go, it is these four things that are leaving your life. What you are inviting, when the Bible says you will die, what life, the life that is in instruction, is those four things. Inside instruction God gives you—why you must not allow the instruction to go—because inside that instruction, is the absence of your grief. Inside that instruction, is your joy. Inside that instruction, is your peace. Inside that instruction, is for you to be in health, to prosper and be in health. That is why instruction is your life. That is why instruction is your life. I pray for you this morning, wherever you are listening to me. You will not be naked. Adam and Eve became naked. It's when we leave instruction, we become naked. You know what has gone from your life? Joy is gone. Peace is gone. You have invited sorrow and grief. You have invited inability to prosper. You have invited, yes, you have invited all manners of ill health, emotional ill health, mental health, psychological ill health. Those are the things you have invited. You have become naked. I pray for you, young man, young woman listening to me wherever you are this morning. Please take fast hold of instruction. Don't let instruction the Lord gives you, don't let instruction from His word, those things He tells you in your devotion, in your quiet time, by way of inspiration, by way of revelation, by way of instruction, by way of listening to His word, by way of hearing His word. The instruction that comes to your heart, instruction guarding your heart, don't let it go. Don't let provocation, deception, and pressure make you to leave instruction. Because once you allow instruction to go, your life is gone. Your joy is gone. Your peace is gone. You have invited, you have invited sorrow. You have invited grief. You have invited calamity. When instruction goes, that is what you have allowed to go. You have become naked. As we close this morning wherever you are, one more thing before we close. I don't know if any of you have questions. Brethren who are online, if there are questions, you can bring to the Telegram page. You can bring to the WhatsApp page. Brethren who are Mixlr, you can bring your questions on the Telegram page or to the WhatsApp page. Please, if you have questions before we close this morning, Instruction, instruction, instruction is your life. If there are, so that we can take note of them quickly, and we can respond to them before we go ahead to pray this morning. If there are questions. Technical, do we have record of questions? Are there questions coming from anybody? Please take note if there are, so that we respond to them this morning. Okay, no question from that end, and no question coming from anywhere. Let's go ahead to pray. Wherever you are this morning, I want you to talk to God. Just a very simple prayer. Very simple prayer. "Lord, Lord, Lord, help me to stay within the edge. Lord, I will not break the edge. Because he who breaks the edge, the serpent will bite him. Lord, help me to stay within the edge of Your instructions. Lord, help me to stay within the edge of Your instructions, for they are my life. Within the edge of Your instruction. Within the edge of Your instruction. Lord, Lord, Lord, in the name of Jesus." Thank You, Eternal Father. Our Father, our Father, we pray this morning. Lord, in everywhere we find ourselves, everywhere we are holding our post, may we remain faithful at our post. May we remain faithful. May we remain faithful. May we remain faithful. I pray we will not be naked. We will not be naked in the name of Jesus. Lord, I pray for everyone listening to me this morning beyond my voice. Lord, please cause them to hear Your voice. Thank You, Eternal Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. We will meet next month, the first Saturday in April, by the mercy and the grace of God. See you then in Jesus' name. Amen. [Speaker 2] This message is coming to you from Family Tents Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite very joyful filling station along Ije-Aare 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.