Key Highlights

[Intro Voice] Church unity fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God indeed desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Praise ye the Lord. Honestly, it is so good, so exciting to be here again for our marriage forum. Exciting because just looking at the faithfulness of God: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November. And today we are gathered for the last edition for 2025. The next time will be in 2026. We are just thanking God for life. We are thanking God for preservation. We are thanking Him for His mercies, thanking Him for our marriages, thanking Him for the ministry, thanking Him for the vessels, the different hands, people, individuals, technical experts, ministers, everybody that has worked together in this last one year for marriage forum to be a continuous program coming to us every second Saturday of the month. Honestly, we cannot but be grateful to God. We want to indeed appreciate God for the lives of different individuals that have been so beneficial and helpful to us to bring this program to us always. We thank the technical team. We thank everybody involved in every way. I want to welcome all our brethren again. Brethren joining us on Telegram, those ones joining us on Mixlr. We who are here physically bringing the program to you that are online, we want to say on behalf of everybody, our God be praised in the name of Jesus Christ. We want to go into our marriage forum for today. Like in what we sent out to all of us, I mean the handbill, the soft handbill that was sent out to everybody, you notice that what we are doing today is Key Highlights. Key Highlights. In the short note that followed, we wrote that the month of December marriage forum will be focused on key lessons from the several topics we considered from January 2025. We trust in the Lord that the reminder will be greatly helpful. May you be blessed as you come in Jesus' name. We trust God that reminder will be a great blessing to us as we try to remind ourselves of some things we said from January, February, March, April, May, June, July, all those things that we have learned. We just want to draw key highlights from them. I believe God that it will be a time of refreshing for us all in the name of Jesus Christ. So let us have a word of prayer as we start this morning. Almighty and everlasting Father, we are grateful unto you. We thank you for your mercies. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness. Lord our God, we say unto you shall the gathering of your people be. And Lord, unto you we gather this morning. Lord, please speak to our heart in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord our God, we pray that individually, collectively, you will meet with us at our various points of needs in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh Lord our God, let nothing prevail against your purposes for our lives, for our homes, for our marriages, for our children in the name of Jesus. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. So, Key Highlights. Lessons from the various topics we considered since January. If I am to ask us, can we even say all the topics that we took from January through to date? Brethren who are online, can anybody remember all the topics or somebody who noted all the topics and you want to communicate with us? We will appreciate. If you can do that within the next two, three minutes and you place it on either the WhatsApp group or the Telegram page or the Mixlr page. If you are sure you can still remember all the topics that we had, that will be 11 topics that we took for the year 2025. So let us wait just a minute or two. Let us see whether anything will come from the brethren who are online. Please place it on the Mixlr page, place it on the WhatsApp page, or place it on the Telegram page. We will get back to you. [background music] I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. Oh, with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness. With my mouth will I make known, I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. [Speaker 1] It appears nobody is saying anything. Okay. If there are, we will take it as we go on. But let us quickly move on to start gradually. If you are sure you have it, please just type it together and place it on the page. So I want to start from here, taking them one after the other. Our first meeting for this year was in January 11th. 11th of January. 11th of January. That was our first meeting for the year. And the topic for that day was Walking in Love. Walking in Love. Our conclusion for this lesson was if any husband or wife or anybody in a relationship, if you truly want to experience the awesomeness of God for the year, it becomes crucial for you to walk in love towards your spouse. Walking in love towards your spouse. That if anybody does not walk in love towards his or her spouse, or fiancé and fiancée, whichever way your status is, or maybe the one-to-be, if anybody is not walking in love, then what the person is going to experience will be something that will not be the extraordinary of God. Or the person will not qualify himself for something extraordinary because it was a prophetic declaration. We took it from 1 Corinthians 2:9 where the Bible says, "Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, it has not even entered into the heart of men what God will do for them that love Him." And the Bible says this is love, in that He has loved us, we ought also to love our brothers. So we saw that, particularly for people who are in marriage, if you don't walk in love towards your spouse, then I don't know what 2025 will have brought for you this year that we are rounding up. But our concern then was God was set to move in a mysterious way in our life, and God was instructing us that let us walk in love towards our spouses. That was the main highlight of lesson in our January edition. And honestly, I want to tell you that from the testimony I got from different families, God granted pleasant surprises to different families this year that we are rounding up. I mean pleasant surprises to different families. And the testimony was, "Oh, indeed, what eyes have not seen, what ears have not heard, what have not entered into the heart of man, God is able to do for them who love Him." And perhaps you are not yet in any relationship. You are just that matured single, you are just that single brother. And you are saying how does this relate to me? We made it very clear. Even if you are not in a marital relationship, or you are not in any relationship either you are having a fiancé or fiancée, you are not having all of that. You are just "brother very brother" or "sister very sister." Even if that is your case, we mentioned something very, very important. We said how much are you walking in love towards the brotherhood of believers? How much are you walking in love towards that brotherhood of believers? Are you truly walking in love? And that was it. If you are walking in love, if you are indeed walking in love, then somehow, somehow God will not allow you to be forsaken nor your seed to beg for bread. God in His own way will meet you at your points of needs in the name of Jesus Christ. That was our focus in January and that is Walking in Love. In the month of February, we took another topic which is Life and Your Marriage. Life and Your Marriage. And what is it that we tried to consider under this topic? Life and Your Marriage. What do we consider? We actually, Life and Your Marriage ran from February, it went into the month of March. Life and Your Marriage continued into the month of April and of course May. January, February, March, April, May. It will tell you that there is so much to discuss under that. There was so much that we discussed under that topic. And eventually, we closed the matter of Life and Your Marriage in the month of July. So July, February, March, April, May, June, and July. Wow, that was quite a long one for Life and Your Marriage. February, March, April, May, June, July. That topic alone went for six months. It took us, it brought us into the second half of the year. And what are the things, what are the main lessons, what are the highlights from Life and Your Marriage? Under Life and Your Marriage, that was when we considered two important scriptures and I would like to read it to remind you again. 1 Peter 3 and then Psalm 34. We read these two scriptures to establish something. 1 Peter 3, please let's see that scripture together. 1 Peter chapter 3. I'm opening my Bible here. 1 Peter chapter 3. I take it from the verse 8. It says, "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires life and love to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Now, this was the text that we read. Now, we read this text in the New Testament and we saw that it was actually a reference to a principle of God which was stated in the Old Testament in Psalm 34. Let's see Psalm 34 from verse 12. Psalm 34 from verse 12. It says, "What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lip from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and His ears towards their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth." Now, we said then that when you look at this scripture, you see something very, very fundamental. This scripture was what was directly quoted by Apostle Peter in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 8 to 11. So we saw that this principle of life is not just an Old Testament principle. No. Because it was this same scripture that Peter quoted in talking about having eternal life. When he said, "Who is he who loves life?", Peter was making reference to this in 1 Peter 3 from verse 8 about the matter of the Christian life, the eternal life that we got from God. So we now saw something very, very important. That actually God has a recipe. There is a recipe for life. I hope you know what recipe is. Recipe simply means what you need to put together to get something. So we saw that there is a life recipe. So Life and Your Marriage was looking at the various recipes of God and we took that from February, March, April, May, June, and July. That was what we considered for those six months of this year. And what are these recipes? They were the things that the Bible outlined in Psalm 34 and 1 Peter chapter 3 from verse 8. God's recipe for life. "What man is he that desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil." And we took time to expand evil. We will not be doing the expanding now because we are just looking at key lessons, key lessons from the various topics of this year. What is evil? We made evil very clear. We said when your tongue, there is a twin evil. One is backbiting. Backbiting. When you speak ill of people behind them but you speak good of them before them. If you are somebody like that, then you may not find life in your marriage. Particularly when you now bring it into your relationship, then you are a dead man. Evil that can be in the tongue is when also the tongue is unnecessarily critical. And then we went to the next one. It says the other recipe is lying. We made reference then when we were considering it that every time you tell a lie, the truth is that you are dying in installment. Every lie is an installmental death. And we gave the example then that it is like cigarette. They say smokers are liable to die young. When they are smoking it, do they fall down and die? No. In fact, they will tell you, "If it is affecting me, why have I not died?" That's what they will even tell you. But gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, what is happening? All the cardiac area—oh, that's too big a medical term—all your heart where you have your lungs, where you have all of those things, all those areas, what is happening is you know locomotive stove. I hope you know this stove they call locomotive stove. Do you know locomotive stove? It is your usual stove that any time you put it on, it cannot give you blue flame. It will be giving you yellow, red, and all the back of your pot will become black. Then locomotive stove is the indigenous iron that we put together like this, then put wood all around it. Anything you put on that fire, all the back will go black. That is what cigarette becomes for the cardiac area. They don't know that they are piling up the way you pile those things at the back of the pot. That is how cigarette is piling up things and then one day, one day, one day the effect will come. It is the same thing with telling lies. And I remember then I gave a practical example. I said look at Judas. It has been long he has been stealing money. You know he was the treasurer. Many church treasurers are still like that today. Because I handled a case recently and the lady was just telling me of what happened in their church when one of the church financial persons was busy stealing, stealing, stealing, stealing. Nobody even knew that he was stealing. It was when judgment came. By the time judgment came, a particular sickness started. Nobody knew he was stealing. It was then that he now came to confess. Of course, he died of that thing. A sickness started that knew no medical cure and prayer could not resolve. He was just decaying. I mean he was decaying from the private part. He was just decaying, decaying, decaying. You know you are not dead but the thing is bringing out maggots. You know you are decaying. When the thing continued for months, months, months, months, and they have done everything, he now saw the need to confess that what happened was this and this and this, that God will have mercy. But mercy never—I didn't say mercy never came. God could have given mercy and still accept him inside heaven. So I wouldn't know. But that was what killed the man. He went on and on like that until eventually he died. Everything was just—and there was no cure. There was no medical remedy. There was no medical solution. And I don't know what type of ailment is that. I don't know how to describe it. When you are just decaying as if you are dead but you are alive. You are bringing out maggots. You know he later confessed his sin. The lady was telling me. So he was telling me that that became something that brought serious terror on people's hearts. "So God can judge like this." Nobody caught him. He was the one that later confessed, linking the two together. How he had been stealing small, small, small, small over the years. And that was also Judas. Judas was stealing small, small, telling lies, telling lies. At a point, he even made an apostolic speech for mission and it was still based on a lie. "Why all of this waste? Why all of this waste? Let us sell this thing and put it in the pot so that we can give money to the poor." An apostolic speech. But the Bible said he did not say this because he loved the poor, but because he was a thief. So men can even speak intelligently and beautifully but the motive and intention could be wrong. Eventually, what killed Judas? Was it not the same stealing? Judas never knew Jesus would be taken. He thought they would have collected their money and then escaped. Scammer. He would just kiss Jesus. You know they have always tried to take Jesus but they could not. He will just pass through their midst. So all his mentality was—and Jesus was speaking in the midst of all of them that, "One of you will betray me." And everybody was going, "Is it me?" Even Judas went, "Ah, Master, is it me?" Oh, I'm talking about lies. Some husbands are like that. Some wives are like that. Some people in relationships they are like that. You are never honest. You are never truthful. Anybody who keeps telling lies is dying in installment. That's what we learned in that lesson, God's recipe for life. Once you are not truthful, you are dying. You are not only deceiving people, you are getting—you are not getting away. You are dying away. And that's what happened to Judas. Eventually, what happened to all the money? He went to return the money. Eventually, the Bible says he fell down and his belly—is it not similar to what happened to that man that was also rotting away? Let us be careful. We looked at that. We looked at no matter what happens, turn from evil and do good. Another recipe considered in another month. And the bottom line to that is that let us be careful. Anybody who is revengeful will not enjoy life in his marriage. If you are revengeful, you will not enjoy life. Marriage is made up of forgivers, not people who want to revenge. Again, we saw again among the recipe the place of peace. It says, "Seek peace and pursue it." We learned in that month that don't ever forget peace is dynamic. Peace is not static. The more you are making peace, the more peace is running away. So the Bible says, "Seek peace." As you get him, what will peace do? Peace will run. Pursue it. Don't let peace go. You must understand that peace is dynamic. Peace is not a static thing. "Oh, I have done it, there will be peace." No, there's nothing like that. Peace is something you are constantly working towards in your marriage, in your relationship. You are constant—there is always a constant reason. Sometimes you have offended your spouse, your dad, your mom. You have offended the person, your in-law. And then you are trying to say, "I am sorry." And they say, "Sorry for your head, idiot. You now know that you are sorry." What do you do? You are seeking peace. What is peace doing? Peace is running away. Is it not running away like that? It's running away. What do you do in that situation? What does the Bible say you should do? Pursue it. He said, "You are sorry for your head." "I know you are very angry. Just still forgive me." You are pursuing peace. You don't say, "Heh! After saying I'm sorry you are still insulting me. You too you are stupid." You see peace has gone away. You are seeking peace. You must learn to seek peace and do what? Pursue it. These were things we learned in the course of the year. We are just reminding ourselves again and I will tell you why I'm reminding us. Actually, I wanted to go to "Childlessness and Marriage," Episode 5. I was putting that together yesterday night and I was about to send the topic out when it became, "No, no. Move that further. Remind yourself again of all as you close this year." And as I was wondering, it began to dawn on me it is because these truths, they are eternal truths. These truths are eternal truths. There is nothing like a message is for 2025, it does not apply in 2026. No. And I see God trying to make us see that as you round up this year, check again whether the various instructions that came to you, whether you were able to put them in place. Because let me tell you one thing. When you are receiving instruction from the Lord and those instructions, they are not accumulating in your life—do you know what you are? Do you know what you are when you are receiving instruction from God and those instructions they are not accumulating? Accumulating means that they are determining your lifestyle. They are checking the way you live. Do you know what you are? Apostle Paul described it or the Hebrew writer, depending on your perspective, but I feel more that Paul wrote Hebrews than any other person although some scholars argue that it may not be Paul. The Hebrew writer argued something. He said a land that constantly receive rain but yet it is bearing thorns and thistles for the person who is tilling that ground, that ground is near unto what? Is near unto cursing. When you are alive—look at the way Jesus put it. He says a man had a garden and then this tree, this fig was planted. And every time they put things, but the fig is not bearing fruit. What did the owner say? "Take out the axe! Cut out the tree!" He said, "Why is it doing what? Encumbering the land." Do you know what that means? You are eating fertilizer inside soil. You are not bearing fruit. Mind you, other plants could have used that fertilizer and they will do well. So why encumbering the land? Before the gardener now said, "Please let me give it one more year. This time around I will do something special. I will dig around it. I will put more fertilizer. If after that one it still does not bear, I will be the one to cut it off." Telling you that when you are receiving from the grace of God, God expects that you—it becomes a part of your life. It becomes something in your life. It becomes what instructs your life, what directs your life. It becomes something that becomes a guide, a focus, a counsel, a statute, a judgment for you. When it is not like that, you are a land that is near unto cursing. They will soon withdraw the rain. They will soon withdraw the fertilizer since what you are bringing is not useful. And that is actually the instruction for today marriage forum. As you round up 2025, we are pleading with you. What is it that God have been trying to make you see in your relationship in your marriage, in your relationship in your relationship whether you are already inside the marriage or it is a case of fiancé and fiancée, or maybe your relationship even with your parents, your relationship with your neighbor? What is it that God have been correcting you about? What is it that God have been instructing you about? And yet that thing is still—we are rounding up the year in few weeks' time and yet your life have not changed. That thing that constitute a problem with those around you, they are still in your life. They have been saying you are never truthful. And now we are rounding up the year, you are still not truthful. They have been saying that why is it that you are not accountable to people? Maybe there are people like that. They are not accountable to people. They feel they can just live their life the way they want. Or you give people you are somebody who don't stand by your words. You don't ever say what you mean. The reason why that is like that is because when you tell somebody, "I'm coming now," the person will not see you. And you will have no recourse to even tell the person that you are sorry the next time you see the person. You just take it for granted. "Ah, I didn't see you." "Ah, I was busy, don't worry. I will try to come around next tomorrow." Aha! What happens is that what is it about your life that God has been speaking about? As we round up 2025, it will be good you don't carry those things to 2026. It will be good you see that, "Okay, these few weeks that remain, let me deal with these things in my life." That is about Life and Your Marriage. The need for our tongue not to speak evil, the need for us not to be deceitful, the need for us not to do evil, depart from evil but to do good, the need for us to seek peace and pursue it. That is the recipe of God for life. That is the recipe. Those things they are the recipe. Once you put these things inside your life, once this is your character, you know what you will discover? You will discover that there is life. You will enjoy life. You will enjoy peace with God. You will enjoy rest with God. You will enjoy favor. You will enjoy life. Life is not going to eat in Mr. Biggs. Because that's what some people call, "Ah, let me enjoy life!" And they go and eat processed chicken. Chicken that—I don't want to go into types of food. Let's leave that. But life, life—what makes life life is quietness, rest, peace. Please, how do you buy those things? How do you buy peace? How much do you offer to get peace? Is there a way to buy it? But the Bible says the Lord will be a strength unto His people and the Lord will do what? He will bless His people with what? With peace. So what really makes life life are not things you can buy with money. They are not. But God is saying that if you follow this my recipe, what will happen? You will enjoy life. May we enjoy life. May we enjoy life in our marriage in the name of Jesus Christ. [Speaker 2] I handled a case like that. I'm talking about Life and Your Marriage. There was an ailment—I don't want to mention who of the party, it's people's private personal matters, so it's not meant for public consumption—but one of them was having a particular ailment. And the ailment persisted for years. So I was asked, "Let's join in prayers and everything." So we were praying and trusting God. The couple they are visiting hospital and coming out. But one day, I was talking with the one that was not having the ailment. He said, "See, oh, this thing have taken away all the joy in our home." These are highly placed people. These are people that money is nothing to. So what I'm trying to make you see, what makes you enjoy—I tell people, if you seek money, if you pursue money at the expense of God, you are a mad person. Because the money cannot give you life. What makes life, money cannot give you peace, cannot give you rest. It can—the person that can give you, you throw him away to go and make money. Rather, you are supposed through God to make money. That's the correct way to make money. That is through righteousness, through holiness, through godliness. Through not telling lies to get—not being deceitful. You bought something for 50,000. You want to sell to the brethren. Because you want to increase your profit margin, you are telling the brethren that you bought it for, "This thing I bought it for 90,000. I don't want to make any gain because you are my brother. Buy it for 100." And the person say, "Ah, thank you. I'm really grateful. I really appreciate." And the person bought it for 100,000. Mind you, you bought it for 50. You have made extra 40. And the person is thanking you for considering the person as brethren. You know, so it's very important. You see, these are very, very important things. Let us learn to go the way of life and my prayer is that as for me and as for you, we will enjoy life in the name of Jesus Christ. Let's see after that, after we looked at that, we looked at—in the month of—that ended in July, Life and Your Marriage. So we move to the month of August. In the month of August, what is it that we looked at? I'm trying to open my notes just to be sure I'm following through. Okay, in the month of August, a final word on Life and Your Marriage. Okay. The next one was the topic that now brought us to the end of the year, that brought us to November. We tackled another topic. It's also a series. We started Childlessness and Marriage. Childlessness and Marriage: Four Biblical Examples. And we want to remind ourselves again of highlights of this lesson, of highlights of the things we learned. Brethren who are here, how many of you were in any of all these editions? You were in some of the editions. Oh, do brethren want to talk or I should keep talking? Brethren, do you have something you want to say, as some things you took home? Okay, [unclear: best guess], you want to talk from any of the lessons. Okay, let's take the mic please. Use the mic so that brethren online can hear you. Okay, let's have you. [Speaker 2] Praise God, sir. So in the course of the teaching, we looked into four biblical examples. We looked into Abraham and the life of Abraham and Sarah, Hannah and Elkanah, then Zechariah and Elizabeth. I can't remember the fourth example. But then what I learned from the life of Abraham and Sarah was the issue of not waiting on the promises of God. Abraham had received the promise but he could not wait. He was convinced by his wife and same thing with Hannah's husband too. They could not wait on the promise of God. And you mentioned one thing, that the response of God to our challenge sometimes wait. So when we are passing through some challenges, what God expect us to respond, or the way God expect us to respond to that challenge is to wait. So instead of Hannah's husband to wait in intercession, to intercede for his wife, he could not wait but rather he looked for an alternative to Hannah. So the same thing Abraham too did. But Zechariah on the other hand was seen as a man who interceded for Elizabeth and I think you mentioned that it was Zechariah that prayed for Elizabeth to conceive and God answered their prayer. That's what I learned. [Speaker 1] Thank you so much! Thank you. Okay, another person want to speak. Ma, if you want to speak from any of the lessons, any of the things. [Speaker 3] Yes, the series was very, very impactful series. I cannot actually pinpoint to the particular one right now but the things that have actually been solid for me was one of them is the issue of prayer. And that when there is issue, when there is a challenge of childbearing, we should not resort—we should not resort to blame game. We should not start blaming that either the mother or the wife that is responsible or the husband that is responsible. That whether it is the wife or the husband, what ought to happen is that should be a matter of prayer. And that is what the difference between Isaac and Elkanah. Isaac who prayed for Rebekah and Elkanah who threw Hannah to one side and go and get Peninnah. Yes, the issue of prayer that when there is such an issue that is a matter of prayers, I mean fervent prayers. Another issue I also, another question I also asked then was the question I raised that these days in modern times there are couples who feel that maybe childbearing is not important to them. I asked that whether it was right for believers to actually say that, "Okay, we don't want to have children." I discovered that it was not the right Christian thinking about the issue of marriage. That part of the purpose that God instituted marriage was that He wants to multiply His seed on the earth and that whenever we are going into marriage, the issues of whether we want to have children or not, it must not—it's something that we must look forward to. You must not be like the world that says that we don't want to have children. So that is—those are the things that I can remember. Yes, sir. [Speaker 1] Thank you very, very much. I don't know whether Mama have something she wants to say from any of all the lessons. So I won't be the only one saying all the lessons. Let people who are around say what they learned at any of the topic, not any particular. And if you want to tell us from all the topic, you have the floor, ma. [Speaker 4] On the topic Childlessness and Marriage, we learned that we should not stigmatize those people that are waiting upon God for the fruit of the womb. Rather, we should pray along with them. We should not just stigmatize them and be putting blame on either the wife or the husband. We should stand by them and pray for them. [Speaker 1] Yeah, the in-laws! When we are talking about the role of in-laws: brother-in-law, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law. When there is challenge, what is your attitude to this thing? And one thing that came that we said about that is when you want to compare those four marriages, the four marriages. I know that we noticed something, that see, any man, any man—man, I'm talking of man, not human being, but man in terms of a male gender—any man who have not learned the secret of intercession is not a marriage material. That person should never marry. You are not fit for marriage. What the—I made reference to that very, very categorically. I said if you look at Zechariah, he was an intercessor. They were both stricken with years, they were old, everything was—in fact, it got to the point where Zechariah have concluded that there will be no child again. And for him, the marriage continues. And we noticed that Zechariah was praying and standing with God all through because when the angel say, "Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to a child, your prayers have been answered," the angel told Zechariah that, "Your prayers have been answered." But he said, "Ah, is it the time to answer the prayer? We have given—we have left that behind. It cannot be again, we're already too old." That's when Michael said, "Ah! Gabriel! Me I am talking, you are questioning? You will not be able to talk until it happens." But it tells you that he has given up the hope, but he's still believing in his wife. We saw the same thing in Isaac. Those were the two that were similar to themselves. The Bible says it was—the Bible says, "Now Rebekah was barren." [Genesis 25:21] That was the scripture, making us to see that the problem was from the wife. It said, "Now Isaac—Rebekah the wife of Isaac was barren. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife Rebekah. And she conceived and have twins." But unfortunately, sister Hannah married a prayer project, not a prayer partner. And you know men who are not prayer projects, they look for alternative to God. Men who are not intercessors, they look for alternative. Once a man is a prayer project, he will always trouble a woman. That's the truth. And I said watch your life. I said that then about those of us who are about getting into marriage. Watch your life. What is the level of intercessor you have built over your life now? Is your prayer even able to carry your life, talk of carrying somebody else? Your own prayer, has it been able to carry your life or you are prayer collector? "Mama this, pray for me. Mama that, pray for me. Mama—" you yourself, you get the point? You now want to carry load on what cannot carry any load. If you put pumping machine on "I better pass my neighbor," what is going to happen to the generator? If you put pumping machine on "I better pass my neighbor" generator, what is going to happen to that generator? So if you are still "I better pass my neighbor," why are you going to put more load on your head? Just stay with lighting bulb and the computer. Don't bring in freezer because the woman will begin to cook, you will need freezer. Don't bring in additional things into your life. Stay single! But people don't want to build capacity but they want to bring in capacity. Irresponsible men! Build capacity. It is same thing too for our sisters, I said it that day. I said look at it. That does not mean that it is only men that must learn the secret of prayer. Because a woman who is not a prayer warrior will be useless in the life of a man. She will be useless. Go and check the beginning of the scripture. Bible never called Eve "wife." It is culture and it is culture that called woman "wife." In the from the perspective of eternity, she is helper. There is nothing like wife. It was over time that culture words now begin to also appear in scripture, "the wife of this." But the actual intent of a woman from eternal perspective, God did not say, "I will give him a wife." What did God say? "I will make a help suitable for him." [Genesis 2:18] And that's why I tell some men, if you reduce your wife to house help, she will never be help for your life. A house help is different from a help, a man's help. And it is very, very simple. You don't need a wife to eat food. You don't need a wife. You can enter restaurant and you will eat good food and you will not have sinned. Am I correct? You don't need a wife to wash cloth. If you bring dry cleaner, they wash all the cloth, have you seen? But have sex with somebody else other than your wife. But sometimes we reduce our wife to house help that they can no more help us. God designed her to help the man. I am not saying that a woman who is not domesticated is a useful woman. It is uselessness not to be properly domesticated. But unfortunately, you don't even know that it is both men and women that should be domesticated. That's again is patriarchal society where we domesticate women and we don't domesticate men. And so the man say, "No, women is for kitchen." Madness! Show me in the Bible. Show me in the Bible. Go and check scriptures. Jacob, who was a chief cook, that his brother came and the aroma could not let that brother have eternity. Give me—it was a boy! He was not a sister. I tell people, look into Bible and learn correct things. Your wife is ill and you cannot enter kitchen now and cook, you are running here and there. "Hey, where is salt? Where do we normally even put oil?" I don't know! We should learn the correct things about life. We are just wrong things. We should domesticate both our male and female children. I was talking in a public forum. I said I don't know when last my wife went to the market. For them, man of God will just sit down and office, not on the responsibility of it. That's why society is dying today. Jesus, what made Jesus Jesus was that He served. Not that He was served. Anybody who sit to be served does not have the mind of Jesus. Jesus served. And He told us we should not be like the Gentiles. Am I correct? He said among them, those who are over them, they sit down to be served. He said but you, let the greatest be the servant. [Matthew 23:11] But we don't learn these things. What makes you a husband is not that you fold your leg and one woman is running here and there until she die. Like the case that happened in Port Harcourt. The lady was not even into her—she was still running, she was still cooking, she just slumped in the kitchen and that was all. Somebody was not doing—I don't know! We have a wrong conception. I tell people, we don't look at Bible. Then they go and say, "The Bible say the man is the head." [Ephesians 5:23] When the Bible say the head, what does it mean to be a head? Who is the head of the church? Who came looking for you? Who came dying for you? Who is busy interceding for you so that you don't get lost? So to be the head is to serve. It's not to sit down. It was wickedness and self-centeredness in human society that led to crossing leg, reading newspaper. That's the truth. Both of you, both of you have gone to the office. You both came back by 5 o'clock. You cross your leg waiting for food. So who should go and cook the food? Then you should reverse it the other way. You, don't go out like I go out. You say go out so that you can bring in money. Again, you are then both of us should also enter the kitchen if both of us are going out. We should reason. But we are not reasoning. In those days, because I still remember my own father's days, my stepmom was exclusive, I mean full-time housewife. She doesn't need to be hustling here and there joining vehicle running here and there to bring money home. And that is why she is in the kitchen. But society has changed today. Am I correct? We want—in fact, I was speaking to a young man, he say, "Ah, me I don't want to marry liability oh! The woman must be—" Oh goodness! I am not against you. You don't want to marry liability. One salary cannot help oh, it is two salaries. And I just quickly chipped in to him. I said, "I hope you are also understanding that when both of you go out and you come back, both of you should also enter kitchen and come out. Both of you should take care of the children and come out." I said, "I hope you are not carrying the mentality of how your father—" I said your father then, your mother was a full-time housewife. Because he was trying to say, "Once I marry like this, ah, thank God, no more cooking. No more washing cloth." He has not entered! He is already looking at the privileges. And that's why I made the statement to him. I said, "If you reduce your wife to house help, she will never be able to help you. She was brought to help you. It is you. Intercede for you, stand by you, bear your burden, bear your deep concern, your things that are inside your—" Do you know that when a man is scattered, a woman can be a counselor to him? If you have been able to make your wife to be your help, you will not enter depression because she will help you. She will bring you back to your feet. We lost the purpose of marriage. We do a lot of things. I am not saying people should not be domesticated, but I'm only saying that we should understand how things should run. And I'm saying that what led us into all of this was the issue of the wife. That when I say a man should be an intercessor, I am not saying that a woman is a useless thing in the home. If Hannah don't have a correct prayer life, her own is finished in that marriage. Do you know that it was the prayer life of Hannah that gave her Samuel? And for you to know that Hannah was a correct help for Elkanah, do you know that the book where you mentioned Peninnah was the book of Samuel? God wanted to tell Samuel's story. Do you know that they didn't mention one of the names of all the children of Peninnah? It was the story of Samuel that eternity was interested in. And it said First Samuel. So it now let us to know the circumstance that led to the birth of Samuel. If not, there is no where Peninnah name would have entered eternal record. But the woman who did that was Hannah. So I ask sisters, are you a woman that can carry a man? Because you are a helper. See, if something want to help something, it must have strength. Am I correct? If something is falling from my head and you want to help me and the thing is falling to you, you are also falling, can you help me? You must have some stamina to be able to help. So actually a woman should be a contributor, a support, a giver. So I'm not reducing women, but I'm just trying to make us see that from that challenge, that when there are life challenges—we only just take childlessness. In the face of life challenge, it is so important that we have sons, we have daughters, men, boys, brothers who have grown to become intercessors, who can carry a nation by their prayer. Those are the type of people we need in marriage. We don't need brothers that will become prayer projects. Brothers that are so scattered when things go on, and then they will be looking for Peninnah to go and marry. And then they will be coming back to tell Hannah, "Am I not more to you than 10 sons?" If you are more than 10 sons, why are you looking for a son in Peninnah? If you are more than 10, am I not better to you than 10 sons? You already 10. So which one are you looking for again? You already 10! Just deceit of the tongue. So these are lessons that we put together. And one lesson I must mention that we must not leave out. Please if there are any questions, questions should have been put together because it's almost 11:30. I'm rounding up to close. If there are questions, we will go beyond 11:30. If there is none, we actually close. Now, another thing I want to remind us about in Childlessness and Marriage was how God normally deal with challenges. We should never forget that. We should never forget how God deal with challenges. We learned that in the life of Abraham. What did God do to solve the challenge? We saw that number one, God spoke to Abraham. When there is a challenge in the life of a believer, God speaks to them. So anybody that cannot receive of God should not enter into marriage. It is not just about money. I am not saying money is not important, like somebody asked me in one of the programs I went for. He said, "Sir, you have talked about all the spiritual things, you didn't even mention money." I say you don't understand something. That once your spiritual life is correct and have direction, you will discover that real poverty is not the absence of money, but the absence of vision. And I gave him my story of how I entered into marriage. I am not saying money is not important, but what I'm trying to say is that there are weightier matters that once those things are solved, other things it is easier to solve them. Abraham receive of God. He was discouraged, God spoke to him. He said, "Eliezer will not be your heir. A son from your own loins will be your heir." That's number one. To enter if you are entering into marriage as a man, as a woman, you must be somebody who can hear God. Not because of childlessness, but that is what it teaching us that in handling challenges. Number two, what did God do with Abraham? We saw also that God gave Abraham a vision. God said, "Abraham, stand up, stand up. Look! Look! Look up, look up!" And he looked and he looked. He said, "Can you see the stars? Can you see them? So will your children be." [Genesis 15:5] I said it is very, very important that people going into marriage or people who are in marriage, they must be able to see the invisible. You must be able to see it. It is one thing that God does when God want to solve critical problems. And I gave example of Elisha when they were surrounded by the army of Syria. And the young boy woke up, when he saw them, "Hey! Boko Haram! We are finished! Kidnappers! Bandits!" And as he was busy trying to run around, you see the man of God did not pray because he was seeing. What did he simply say? He said, "Those that be with us, they are more than those that be with them." That servant did not understand. "I'm sure the servant did like this, did like this, did like this." He said, "Man of God, is it because you are getting too old or that you are talking like this? Maybe old age." It's not old age. Elisha saw that he was still restless. What did he do? He then prayed for him. He said, "God, open his eyes." That tells you that there is something about a believer. Something that makes up the believer is the open vision. You must be able to see. If all that you can see is with your physical eye, ah, you are a useless material for marriage oh! If all that you can see. Because treasures, they are actually invisible. The plan of God, the Bible says what eyes have not seen, what ears have not heard, what have not entered the heart of man is what God prepared for who? So if all that you can see is what eyes can see, can you get the one God prepared for you? No! You must be able to see what eyes cannot see, must be able to hear what ears cannot hear. Thank God, God has already prepared salvation for him and what happened? He could see it! He said, "Those that be with us are more than those that be with them." When they open the eyes of the young man, and he saw chariots of fire. I can imagine that young man saying, "Oya, e ma bo (Oya, come along)." You try us! Try us! So what I'm trying to make you see, when you see people acting so differently from you in the face of obvious problem, they may be seeing what you are not seeing. And that is why you must pray to see. The young one could now understand why the master was calm. Did you not understand it now? And that is it! When somebody can see, they will be so calm. They will be so much at peace. You say, "Ah! Do you know that this and this?" He say, "Don't worry. God is taking our marriage somewhere. Things will soon change." "Ah! You know they said—" "Don't worry!" Because he could see what you cannot see. And you who cannot see, because you believe what you are calling confederacy what others are calling confederacy, you begin to look for solution other than the ways of God. It's very, very important that we can hear and we can see. And another thing that we learn in conclusion from Childlessness and Marriage is that please let us be careful with what we say with our mouth and how we perceive believers. The Bible says Abraham, God called Abraham at 75. Is that not? When God called Abraham, we saw that Abraham obeyed God. When he got to Canaan, he built an altar to God who spoke to him and there he communed with God. So Abraham did not only become born again, Abraham also had a walk with God. He was walking with God. He could hear God, they were talking. Yet, despite all those qualities in their life, there was still barrenness. So don't think that when people have challenge it because they are not good Christians. That was something we also learned. Please don't think that, "Eh, people that—hmm, hmm. Maybe they have committed one sin in their church. That is why God is—" Don't let us always think that way about people. We should be very careful. Don't think because people are not getting good jobs sometimes they seem to be struggling, say, "Hmm, ah! Me I prayed then, hey! And God did it!" Don't be—we should be careful about what we say about people and our perspective of success, our perspective of having and others not having. They may be very, very good Christians. And although sometimes you may even be the one supporting them with 10,000 monthly, and so that you will be perceiving them that maybe they are not serious believers. That may not be their story. God may be taking them through a stage. We should be careful how we perceive people in challenges, particularly when we feel that we are successful. We should be very, very careful. Despite all those work—and I make mention here—that was the mistake of Job's friends when they came to him. They said, "Job, confess your sin." And he says, "Sin? I have not done anything." "Ah! Look at all everything they said about Job. The joy of an hypocrite is for a while. His joy will not last because God will take his joy away." They said all manners of things about Job that eventually when God came, God said they had sinned. And that the Job should go and pray for them so that they can be healed because of what they were saying about another believer. Let us be careful that you are having things well and others are having it difficult. Be careful what you say. Be careful how you perceive them. If God did not tell you anything particularly, believe that, "Oh, let's see how our brethren get out of this challenge. Let's pray, let's stand with them. Let's give them all the support that we can give them." And stop having a sense of, "Me, ah, me I know how to do it well. Me it is because, it is because, it is because—" No, it is not so. The Bible says the race is not to the swift, the battle is not to the strong. Favor is not always to men of skill, nor riches to the wise. He say but time and chance happens to them all. [Ecclesiastes 9:11] Whatever you think you have is just a chance that God allowed you to have. Everything about life is a privilege. That's one thing you must know. Everything about life is a privilege. There is nothing you merit. You are just privileged. That's one thing I tell, you know, I remember discussing with my son one day. We were driving out or we were strolling out or we were driving out, and he saw they wrote somewhere they wanted to write "this house is for sale." So they wrote something like "this house for sale" something, they could not write the English correctly. So when he read it, he started laughing. "Haha, what was making you to laugh?" He said, "Ah—" I now called his attention. I said you don't laugh at such things. I said it just because you were privileged that your parents were educated, that's why you went to school. If somebody else have given birth to you, maybe a truck pusher, you may not be better than the person who wrote that thing. You didn't choose your parents, you remember? I said so be careful. He got the lesson. You see many times we just take life—we just think that we have right, it is something about us. We didn't see all the chances that God gave us. Chances of who is your parent, chances of who is your uncle, chances—all we don't see all those chances. We just feel that, "Yes!" Do you know that if for example your mom and your dad had been one Arabic person who did something, who did something, or one Hausa boy who gave birth to an—you could have been the child of that person too? Or you don't think so? You think, "No, haha! God knows that I should go to Phutha (school), so God knows the kind of parent—" No, no, no! Those things, they are just mercies that you receive. And so you now see the point of somebody picking something saying, "Ah, look at these useless stupid people! They don't—they did not even value education. Useless human beings that they are." What make you to value education? Was it not because of privilege that you are? Let us help us to look at life correctly. It's something—so let us be careful when we see people with challenges, with problems, with this. That's another lesson we learn from that. People can be actually walking with God and yet there could be serious challenges and challenges that will persist in their life for a long time. Abraham was 75, a child never came until he was 100. 25 years. Somebody else who gave birth when Abraham was called, the child will have finished university, will have served, will have been working. And Abraham who have a walk with God is still waiting for a baby. And yet he has a walk with God. God was speaking to him. And at some point he say, "God, come say look, I have told you you will have a child." So it's just—it's very, very important to see these things. The same thing goes for Zechariah. Bible said they were blameless. Is that not what the Bible says? They were blameless! [Luke 1:6] Were they not blameless? Were they not upright before God? And yet when did they give birth? So don't always think that it is sin that make people not to have things. I'm not saying that sinners prosper. No, that's not what I'm teaching. But let us be careful about how we just judge and perceive people. That's the point we are making. As we close for today, we close for today. Let us just talk to the Lord. Talk to the Lord. It's just bringing all of these lessons again together. Bringing all of these lessons again together, things we have discussed in the course of the year. What is the Lord telling you again, reminding you of as we close 2025? As we close 2025, this is our last edition for 2025. Next time we will be meeting it will be learning at another angle in 2026, the Lord sparing our life, the Lord keeping us till then. If Jesus have not come, if we are still here. Let's just talk to the Lord. Lord, help me. Lord, help me in walking in love, walking in love, walking in love. That was how we opened the year. Walking in love. May we walk in love, may we walk in love. Living the life, living life, bringing life into our marriage, into our home. Living in life and then understanding the place of challenges in relationship. Lord, please help us in all. Lord, help us. Lord, help us. In all of this, Lord, we pray that you help us. We pray that you help us. We pray that you help us. We pray that you help us in every way, in everything. Lord, our eyes are on you. Our eyes are on you. Our eyes are on you. Lord, we pray, please help us. Please help us. I want to invite our Mommy, Professor Mrs. Faderin, to please close the meeting for us. [Speaker 5] Our Father and our God, we thank you for year 2025. Thank you for all the lessons from January till December. We return all glory unto you. We say blessed be your name in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] Thank you Father for all we have learned in this program. We say to you be the glory in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] Lord, we pray unto you that you will help us to be the doer of your word in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] Lord, we pray that our marriages will glorify you in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] As many that are having one challenge or the other in their marriages, Lord, we pray that you intervene in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] Lord, we pray that if Jesus tarries, year 2026 we will enjoy you more in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] We pray for this ministry that you continue to enlarge the coast of this ministry in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] We pray that you continue to increase the strength of this ministry in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] We pray for Dr. Olusoya and his family. We pray that you continue to uphold them in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] For every member of this ministry, we pray that you continue to keep us in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] Thank you, everlasting Father. As we are preparing for Christmas, we pray that you keep us in Jesus' name. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 5] For in Jesus' mighty name we have prayed. [Audience] Amen. [Speaker 1] Let's share the grace in fellowship. 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. [Intro 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 5:00 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 Rejoice filling station along Idjare 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.