Love ( the Foundation of Holiness 2)

[Speaker 1] Church Jesus fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. Let’s take this song together as we start this evening discipleship class. We thank God again for another time in His presence. [Singing] He can never never fail. Jesus never never fail. He can never never fail. Jesus the same forever. He cannot, He can never never fail. Oh, Jesus never never fail. He can never never fail. Jesus the same forever. He cannot, He can never never fail. Oh, Jesus never never fail. He can never never fail. Jesus the same forever. You are highly lifted up. There is no one like you. Halle, halle, halle, halle-lujah. You are highly lifted up. There is no one like you. Halle, halle, halle, halle-lujah. You are highly lifted up. There is no one like you. Halle, halle, halle, halle-lujah. Olorun to tobi, Olorun Baba gba. Olorun to tobi, Olorun Baba gba. Aye o gba, o f'unru se gbe. Olu gba o, o f'aye s'ogo. Olorun to tobi, Olorun Baba gba. [Speaker 2] Our God, we magnify you. Let’s magnify Jesus. Let’s magnify Him. Let’s magnify the Lord this evening. Let’s worship His holy name. Indeed, indeed, He is highly lifted up. There is none like Him. The God that the heavens of the heavens of the heavens cannot contain. The scripture says the heavens of the heavens of the heavens cannot contain Him. Oh, the heaven is His throne, the earth is His footstool. Oh, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, King of kings, Lord of lords, Alpha and Omega, we worship you. We worship you, our God. We worship you, Jesus. We worship you, we worship you. To you be glory, to you be honor, to you be praise in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name, our God. In Jesus’ name we worship. Amen. Almighty God, we come before you this evening. We who are here physically and our brethren who are joining us on Telegram, who are joining us on Mixlr. Lord, our God, we come all together before you. We are asking, Lord, as we continue a day from where we left the matter on love, the solid foundation for holiness. Lord, we pray. Ignite our heart with the flame of your love in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, ignite our heart by the power of your Spirit in the name of Jesus. Lord, set our heart ablaze. Set it ablaze for your glory. Set it ablaze for your purpose. Set it ablaze for your work. Set it ablaze for your pleasure in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name, our God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Yeah, we began the matter of love, the solid foundation for holiness. That was fortnight ago. Last week it was Joseph, an example of integrity. And our brother Michael speaking to us from Canada was able to make us see some crucial things about the matter of integrity last week. He made us to see that when you are not faithful, you are a wicked person. An unfaithful man is a wicked man. A man who collapses under pressure, there is nothing about his life in the first place. And then he made us to see that under any situation, under any circumstance, integrity is required of a believer. It is required that a man be found faithful. He said Joseph under that very difficult condition was found faithful. And he said it becomes important for us as believers to take a challenge from Joseph, that under any circumstance, we must make up our mind to be faithful. If you are found to be unfaithful because of some prevailing circumstance, it is because you didn't take a lesson from the life of Joseph. So many things were said, but that was just the summary, the basic summary of what he wanted us to see. And it was really a refreshing time last week listening to our brother Mike online speaking to us from Canada. And today we want to continue what we started two weeks ago. I started the topic, Love, the Solid Foundation for Holiness. And I've been able to make us see in the part one of this series that actually nobody can be holy except the person loves. Holiness is impossible without love. It is not just possible to be holy. If you look at it again with us as Christians, you will notice that it was the love of God. Bible says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believe in that Son should not perish but have eternal life" [John 3:16]. So I said that if you look at that very well, it is the love of God that is producing holiness in us. The first thing is that God loves. It is that love that now brought what made Jesus to die for our sin, what brought righteousness, what brought holiness was love. If God doesn't first love, nobody will be holy. Then we looked at Isaiah chapter 58 as a basis for our starting point two weeks ago. And there was something there we could not get to because of our time. So I just want to quickly get there. Let's go to Isaiah 58 and quickly round up what we started in that place about understanding the matter of love and holiness, the connection. Isaiah chapter 58. We have looked at verse 1, we have looked at verse 2, verse 3, verse 4. We stopped at verse 8. And the point in that place for those of us who were not here two weeks ago, just to bring you so that we can all connect together. In Isaiah 58, we saw that God told Isaiah to cry out to His people, to declare their sins to them, to declare their wickedness to them. And what was the wickedness of these people? Their wickedness was that they came before God very pious. In fact, they were even questioning God back that, "God, why is it that we are fasting and you are not listening?" [Isaiah 58:3]. So God was giving an answer to the matter of their question that you say you are fasting. Is that the kind of fast that I have appointed? That true fasting is not to deny yourself food. That is the secondary aspect of fasting. There is a fundamental fasting, there is a primary fasting. By the time we began to look at what was the primary fasting, He was telling them that number one, the day you said you are fasting, you the employers, you didn't pay your employees their salary. You kept their wage in your hand, you were cheating them. You saw people that were in need, you didn't give them your food. You saw the hungry, you didn't feed them. You saw the desolate, you didn't bring them in. The widow you didn't help, the fatherless you left them, and you say you are fasting. Is that the kind of fast that I have appointed? And so we saw that if a man does not walk in love, whatever he calls fasting or prayer is a useless thing. It has no base, it has no meaning. We saw that God was saying that to really be pious is not first by denying yourself food, is by living a life of love towards your neighbor. That is what it first means to be pious. To be pious is not to wear long faces and go on 40 days not eating. Not as if that is wrong, but we saw what Jesus said. Jesus said there are the weightier matters of the law [Matthew 23:23]. And what are the weightier matters of the law that we considered two weeks ago? He said love, faithfulness, and justice. He was speaking to the Pharisees. He said you can pay tithe of the smallest thing, but you have left the weightier matters of the law. You are not just, you are not faithful, you don't love. He said you're supposed to first do these weightier matters, then those minor ones you don't leave it undone. So if you leave those weightier matters undone, what did Jesus say? He said, "You hypocrites. You evil people. Religious nonsense." So there are things that weigh more than certain things. Loving and living a life of reaching out, of connecting with your neighbor's situation, of loving your neighbor is first more fundamental to your prayer life than your not loving them and denying yourself food. If you first walk in love, then you now deny yourself food, then it will have meaning. But if you don't walk in love and deny yourself food, then it will be a waste of time. That was the basic thing we discussed two weeks ago. And then we were to look at the further consequences of working in love. That is where we stopped two weeks ago. The further consequences are from verse 8. I will just read them as I try to go to a continuation from Isaiah 58 today. In Isaiah 58 from verse 8, it says when you walk in love, what is going to happen to your life? It says, "Then your light shall break forth like the morning." When we walk in love, what are those things about love? Share your bread with the hungry, bring the poor into your house, those that are naked you cover them, you undo the heavy burden, you don't strive, you allow the oppressed to go free, you don't cheat people. You see when you do all of that, what is going to happen? It says your light will break forth. And then I noted something that day. I said you cannot replace walking in love, living a godly life with prayer. There is the place of prayer, there is the place of godly living. What you ought to live godly about, if you don't live the life and you think by prayer you can just bulldoze your way, sorry. That is what we are seeing. You cannot just bulldoze your way. After all even in the New Testament, the Bible says it is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man [James 5:16], of a godly man that has effect. So when you walk in this love, when you live a life of love, when you give your bread to the poor, when you are concerned about the fatherless, when you look at those who are hungry, when you don't oppress people, when you are just in all your relationship, you don't hold the wages of people to yourself, you don't cheat on people, you don't cheat on your brother, you are true, you are just, you are faithful with people, what will happen to your life is that as you walk in this love, something will happen. Your light will break forth. *Ile o le mo k'ojo ma yo, ase Oluwa ni.* That is, there can't be a new day and the morning light don't come because it is an eternal decree of God. There have been war, there have been killing, there have been confusion, there have been death, there have been bombing, there have been... just think of everything that has happened on planet Earth ever since the beginning of time. Has there been a day that morning don't come? When He says your light will break forth like the morning, *ile o le mo k'ojo ma yo.* You become unstoppable. You become a life that nobody can withstand, nobody will be able to stop you. Nobody can stop you from coming forth. Nobody can stop you from shining forth. Nobody can stop your glory from being seen. Nothing can hide you. It will become there is no enchantment against Jacob [Numbers 23:23]. It will become there will be no divination against Israel. Every weapon fashioned against you shall not prosper [Isaiah 54:17]. The tongue that rise against you in judgment shall be condemned because your light cannot but shine. When a man lives a life of love, a man's light cannot but shine. And when you see a man's light cannot but shine, I want you to look at light again in another order. Like when the Bible was talking in Ephesians chapter 1 [v17-18], He says that the light of God may flood your life. He's talking about which light? The light of revelation of scriptures. Revelation is a light. God just opened your eyes to something, a light will just shine. "Wow! So this is the truth." Talking about light. He says your light will come like the morning. You rise up morning after morning, revelation upon revelation, inspiration upon inspiration. Now when a man is not having revelation, is not having inspiration, is not knowing the truth, can that man live a holy life? It's not possible because revelation is the key. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free [John 8:32]. So it is as light comes that you are able to live a life of liberty, the liberty wherewith God has set us free. And what is that liberty? Liberty is the ability to do what we ought to do, not what we want to do. A man who only does what he wants to do, not what he ought to do is in bondage. Liberty is ability to do what you ought to do as against what you want to do. Because there is light, revelational light of truth has set you free from whatever bound you. I'm talking about love, the solid foundation for holiness. As you begin to walk in what God was calling love in this place, but you see actual love. I'll show you this in a biblical instance. It’s a very familiar story. Acts chapter 10. Who is that man? Cornelius. Look at what the Bible says about Cornelius. "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always" [Acts 10:1-2]. Deal your bread to the hungry, bring the poor into your house, care for your brother. Don't oppress anybody. Be just, be faithful with people. Be true in whatever you are doing in your relationship to others. He says this man, he gives alms generously to God always. Bible says about the ninth hour of the day. By ninth hour you know the Jews divide the hour of the day by three-three hours. About the ninth hour of the day, talking about around 3 in the afternoon. He saw clearly in a vision. He says, "Then will your light break forth." The man did not see anyhow. *Ko ri baibai. O ri bayii.* It was a clear vision. Your light will break forth like the morning. He saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming to him and saying to him, "Cornelius!" And when he observed him, he was afraid and said, "What is it, Lord?" So he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have come for a memorial before God." [Acts 10:3-4] Please, what brought the light of salvation into that family? Was it just prayer? Your prayer and your alms. Walking in love. This man does not know salvation. This man would have perished in ignorance. But there was a work in love. He was praying, but he was working in love. And the Bible says, "Your prayer and your alms." The fact that you were concerned about people. The fact that you look out there for the poor. So don't be thinking that this principle has changed, it’s just an Old Testament thing. No, it has not changed. What brought eternal salvation? The light. Do you know by the virtue of this, go and call Peter. What happened to this man? Number one, while Peter was still preaching, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. That was a new level of spiritual encounter. While that was going on, Peter said, "Who can forbid them from being baptized?" He was baptized. This man moved from the realm of being an outcast to the promise of the Holy Spirit, entered into the core of everything. He had the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues, they were baptized, they become children of salvation. What led to it? Your prayer and your alms. Love, the solid foundation for holiness. This man was living before, but he would have died in his sin. There is a righteousness that God had made available, that is in Jesus Christ. This man is not aware. I'm telling you when you walk in love, you will see how your light will shine, things you don't understand, how God may begin to give you insight and understanding and revelation. And you'll be looking as if, "Ah, thank you Jesus. I never knew that it is like this, I never knew this truth." It is coming because you are walking in love. I'm showing you it's not just a light of riches and defense and money and finance. No. It is also, it also brings spiritual turnaround. Look at how a complete unbeliever, when the revelation got to Peter, he said, "No, it's unclean." What did God tell him? "Do not call unclean what I have cleansed." [Acts 10:15]. God was marshaling an apostle from somewhere. "Go to that place without questioning. Follow them without questioning them." And despite all his conservatism, God brought him to a place where somebody must get salvation. Look at how God was undertaking for a man. Which kind of man? The man whose prayer and alms came before God. Love, the solid foundation for holiness. The more self-centered you are, the more you lock all doors against your life. Self-centeredness closes doors against you in several ways. Spiritual doors, financial doors, breakthrough doors, divine help, divine undertaking. Some things that God will just bring somebody to change something in your life. I didn't understand I wasn't connecting these things, but you see sometimes when I think back to some things that now happened long, long ago in our life, we were just following God and every time I remember this case of Ayorede in UniBen. We were in the fellowship. And then new students were resuming, 100 level. Some of them came to the fellowship. And then by way of the fellowship meeting with the new student, some of them said, "Ah, we just came in today, we don't know where we will sleep." They began to make arrangement for where these 100 level students will stay. I was in 300 level. I was on ground because I did not go home. Most of because we have one or two works to also do on campus. Fellowship that day and then it was okay, Dawole, why not this person? I said okay, no problem. As I was saying no problem, I just remembered that when I was leaving the hostel, what was left was the only thing I will eat for that night. There was no food for tomorrow. I was coming from a background where my parents will give you food, they set you to go for one month even though that thing will not take you for one week. But you are to go for one month because the money have to be divided across a lot of the children. And so as we were going, my mind was just saying maybe I should say look, young man, I don't have nothing. But somehow I just said okay let's go. When we get to the house, the last food in the house I place on the table, I gave the young man who was a stranger. He ate, we finished eating. I did not know what will happen the following morning. By the following morning, woke up and then I just reached out to the young man. I said, "I'm sorry, I don't have any food again. Actually what we ate last night was all the food I had in the house. But I'm hoping that somewhere somehow God will provide, maybe by the time I go out today, see some of the brethren we'll be able to get something to eat." And the young man said, "Ah, that big bag that was making me to fall, it's not clothes that I have inside. It's food. My parents gave me yam, oil, rice." And the boy was just opening all the bags. Milk, Milo, Nido, sugar, cornflakes, yam, rice. And he said, "Uncle don't go anywhere. Let us live on this. If it's finished my parents will send again." It was on the strength of that living with that young man that I was for another one month. As we were talking together again, I got to know that the young man is from Ondo State. Oh, I said, "I'm the national president of Ekiti students." By the time we were leaving, they were the one that replaced us. Because we're supposed to replace ourselves, they were the one that replaced us as executives. Just one contact, just one act of love, provide a place for him to sleep. Look at the breakthroughs that followed. The breakthrough for Ondo State Christian students, the breakthrough for my own life, to take me out of famine. There's a lot of things about... what you stand to lose is far, far greater than what you gain in your selfishness. That man is not stupid who gives away what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. It's not stupidity to give away what you cannot keep to gain what you cannot lose. And one of the ways to do this is to walk in love. He says your light will break forth. I went to Cornelius because it was something that touches my heart when God was taking me through this matter of love, the solid foundation for holiness. And I saw that indeed, wow, such a great light, not only of material prosperity but even of spiritual prosperity can accrue to a man who walks in love. So the light there is not only the light of material prosperity, it's also the light of spiritual prosperity. Your light will break forth like the morning. Look at what walking in love does again. "Your healing shall spring forth speedily." Hallelujah. "Your healing shall spring forth speedily." And then your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Look at what happens in verse 9. "Then you will call and the Lord will answer." Do you see the connection between love and prayer now? "You shall cry and He will say, 'Here I am.'" If you do what? If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of finger and the speaking of wickedness. Malicious speaking, backbiters, tearing down your brother, tearing down, speaking like the cutting of the sword, doing everything to destroy people with the things you say. The speaking of wickedness, gossip. People don't know how much God hates this thing. You say things about people that when people see them, they hate them. Be careful. If people offend you, speak to them. Finish it with them and leave it there. If you cannot speak with them or talk with them, then forgive them. And truly forgive and forget it. Don't go around and begin to tear down, tear down, tear down, destroy the person as your way of revenge. These things I call them roadblocks. Be careful of roadblocks. You are blocking your way. You are putting... you know what is roadblock? If the government don't want you to pass through a particular place, they'll go and bring these heavy, heavy stones that tractor will come and drop. You know them, that they used to partition road. Be careful not to be placing roadblocks, blocking your way with some things that you are doing. You won't know that you are creating roadblocks for yourself. God is particularly concerned with the vulnerable, people that are helpless, people that cannot speak up, people that you can just intelligently cheat them and then you just explain it away and they will not even see that you have cheated them. I want to make us understand this thing. The message came to me in Yoruba language actually. *Mo ni omo ma sora fun egun asale.* Afflecktion that comes in your night. Because in your night is when you want to rest. You know when you are active and you are busy and some things happen you may not feel but when you want to rest and affliction starts. God said connected to those kind of afflictions are the things you do to those who cannot fight you back, to those who are helpless. You will do it, you will go away with it, it will look like nothing will happen, for 15 years nothing may happen, for 20 years nothing may happen. The way it came to me is, *egbe ni fun iwa banije ti a ko le baje. Egbe ni fun iwa banije ti a ko le baje nitori o lagbara to. Egbe ni fun ohun ti n se arekereke ti a o le se arekereke si. Ojo ti o ba d'ekun ati banije l'ao ba o je. Ojo ti o ba d'ekun ati se arekereke l'ao se arekereke si o. Egun ojo ale mbo.* That woe to him who spoils but has not been spoiled. You are doing things that cannot be done back to you. You are dealing craftily and it could not be done back to you. He says when you will cease to do it, when you think I have gathered enough, I want to rest, that is when it will come back. Connected with these things is how you deal with those who are helpless, how you deal with those who cannot fight you back, how you deal with those who cannot do anything back against you. He says stop that. Stop oppressive the helpless. Stop it. Stop oppressive the helpless and stop making false accusations. Stop false accusation and stop spreading vicious rumor. Then you will call, the Lord will answer. "Yes, I am here." He will quickly reply. If you walk in love, there is no barrier to your prayer. If you extend your soul to the hungry, that's verse 10, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in darkness. That's another direction. Arise, shine for your light has come, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Darkness will cover the earth, gross darkness the people, but the glory of the Lord will shine upon you. In famine you'll be satisfied, in confusion you will have direction, in war you will have peace. When contradictions are going on, you will be apart. Your light shall dawn in darkness and your darkness shall be as noonday. Hallelujah. *Okunkun mi a d'osangangan.* Your darkness as noonday. The Lord will guide you continually. Are you seeing that? Please, when the Lord guide you continually, what happens to holiness? Will you be able to live a holy life? Will you be able to live a godly life? "Come walk with me down road the straight and narrow... come walk with me, I cannot walk alone. The road is rough and there are subtle dangers... come walk with me, come and see me through." If the road is rough, if there are subtle dangers, who do you need to walk with you? Is it not the Lord? Because the Lord is my shepherd, so what? I shall not want. Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. Even in the presence of my enemy, you will prepare a table before me. Because the Lord is my shepherd, surely goodness, mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Where will I be dwelling? In the house of the Lord. Why? The Lord is my shepherd. It is this type of people that God concluded with in verse 12, that they will be the ones that will call the repairer of the breach. What am I trying to make you see this evening? Actual love for God. John 14:15, John 14:21-24. "If you really love me, you will keep, you will obey my commands." He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to Him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my words. My Father will love him. We will come to him and make our home with him." [John 14:23]. God is love. He who dwells in love, dwells in God. This is the death of real spirituality, when God come to dwell with a man, the Trinity come to dwell with you. I'm talking about levels of spiritual growth, levels of spiritual maturity, levels of spiritual reality. There are levels. There is the glory of the sun, there's the glory of the star, there's the glory of the moon [1 Corinthians 15:41]. Under the glory of the moon, witches they can fly, but they cannot fly under the glory of the sun. There are things that when the wicked want to do, they don't want to do under the glory of the sun, they are waiting for the glory of the moon. There are things that when it's about your life, certain things cannot just operate. Let us pray, brethren. May the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [Speaker 3] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God’s word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission hit. Our regular activities are: discipleship class, every Monday 5:00 PM; adolescent and singles club, every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; marriage forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilowe community, opposite Very Joy 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.