Love the Solid Foundation for Holiness (8)

[Voiceover] Church fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness on Family Tents Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Another time in God's presence this evening to fellowship together, to learn from the word of God, to continue from where we left the matter last week. Let's take one or two songs together. Let's take this song together and from there we will move on this evening. [Speaker 1 and group singing] We want to say that You are good And all the miracles You've done has brought us joy. And we are changed and all the hope we have, We place in You right now. Father we declare, Father we declare that we love You. We declare an everlasting love for You. Oh Lord we declare, Father we declare that we love You. We declare an everlasting love for You. Oh Lord we declare, Father we declare that we love You. We declare an everlasting love for You. One more. Father we declare, Father we declare that we love You. We love, we love You. Oh Lord, we declare an everlasting love for You. Oh Lord we declare, Father we declare that we love You. We declare an everlasting love for You. [Speaker 1] Our Father indeed we declare that we love You. Lord we declare our everlasting love for You. Lord God Almighty, we are saying thank You for January, thank You for February, thank You for March, thank You for April, thank You for May, thank You for June, thank You for July, thank You for August, thank You for September. And Lord we are now in October. Lord, the tenth month of the year. We say Lord God accept our thanks in the name of Jesus. Our Father we appreciate You for preservation. We thank You for support. We thank You for assistance. We thank You oh Lord God Almighty for upkeep, for help, for grace. Lord, for Your providence. Lord we say we are grateful. Lord God Almighty, You have brought us into the last quarter of the year 2023. Baba God we say we are grateful. Accept our thanks in the name of Jesus Christ. And Lord we pray that as we go into the quarter, You will go into the quarter ahead of us. Lord God Almighty, You will make way for us in this quarter. Lord that our experience will be that of victory. Our experience will be that of fruitfulness. Our experience will be that of glory, grace, and power in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord we say we go forth into this quarter conquering and to conquer. We go forth into this quarter as victors. We will not be victims. We will be victors. We will not be victims. We will be victors in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Lord our God You will cause the works of our hand to be blessed. You will cause the fruit of our body to be blessed. You will cause all our endeavors and our pursuit to be blessed. You will cause our expectation to be established in the name of Jesus. And Lord as we all fellowship this evening, Lord we connect together. Our brethren who are on Telegram, our brethren who are on Mixlr, Lord we all connect together with we who are here physically. We are saying Lord Your spirit will work within us in the name of Jesus. There will be a manifestation of Your grace, a manifestation of Your power, a manifestation of Your presence. Lord You will instruct our heart. You will lead us in the way that we ought to go. You will meet with us individually. You will connect with us collectively. You will cause Your people to be blessed in the name of Jesus. Lord we declare according to scriptures, we will not seek You in vain. For the house of Jacob will not seek the Lord in vain. We will not seek You in vain. Rather Lord it will be that we will not go back the same way we came in the name of Jesus. Thank You eternal Father. Blessed be Your name our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Yeah, I want to welcome everybody to this quarter, the last quarter of the year 2023. Honestly when I look back at how we started in January with this theme, "Be Ye Holy because I the Lord I am holy." That's how we started in the first quarter of the year. And the Lord has taken us through so many topics upon topics under the theme. The dynamics of holiness, the place of holiness, the implication of holiness, the need for holiness, the work in holiness. So many things have been touched this year, all pointing our attention to the fact that the coming of the Lord draws near. The coming of the Lord is near. The coming of the Lord is imminent. There's a need for us to live as people who understand that there is an end and that end will come in a way that those who are not watchful will be taken by surprise. But for those who are watchful, that day will not take them by surprise. And like we have been saying throughout the course of the year, if the day of the Lord takes you by surprise then you can be sure you will not be with the Lord. You will not be with Him. Those that will be with Him are those that will not be taken by surprise. The scripture says those who sleep, they sleep in the night. Those who get drunk, they get drunk in the night. He said but we are not of the night. We are of the day. Let us be sober and be watchful. For the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, sudden destruction will come upon them suddenly. He said but you, you are not of the night that that day should take you unawares. We are not of the night. And the more I look at this and people were asking, does that mean that we know the exact day and time? I said no. I said if it is, if they say that you are going to write an exam at a time that will be declared by the university, at a time that will be declared by the government, and the government say go and prepare. As long as you are daily preparing, whichever day they announce will not take you by surprise. It is if you are not daily preparing. I said the implication of the coming of the Lord is that we must live every day as if that is the last day on earth. That is the way to live. You must live every day as if that is the last day, as if there will not be a tomorrow. Live consciously, don't live carelessly, don't live foolishly, don't live stupidly. Live consciously, conscious of your salvation, conscious of your redemption, living unto the Lord every moment, every hour, living as somebody who knows. And that was what we took time to look at under the topic living with eternity in view. You remember, it was something we considered for almost three, four weeks, living with eternity in view. Living with an understanding, looking at eternity that eternity is actually now. There's nothing like tomorrow. That tomorrow is just a consequence of today. The way you live today is the outcome of that tomorrow you are going into. The way you are living now is the outcome of tomorrow. So actually tomorrow is a collection of many todays. Is that not true? Is that not true? What you call tomorrow is a collection of many today. So if today you are living correctly, what happens tomorrow? What happens tomorrow? Tomorrow you will be living correctly because what you are calling tomorrow is just a consequence of today, just a consequence of today. That day will not take us unawares. It will not take us unawares. It will not take us unawares. Can we pray for a minute or two about that? That Lord that day will not take me unawares. It will not take me unawares. It will not take me unawares. That day will not meet me, it will not meet me by surprise. I am not of the night, I am of the day. I am of the day. I am not of the night. Those who wallow in sin, they wallow in sin in the night. Those who live anyhow, they live anyhow in the night. But I am of the day. I am conscious that there's a coming of the Lord. I will live in view of His coming. It will not take me unawares. It will not take me unawares, it will not, it will not, it will not. By the power of grace divine. Oh consecrate me now to Thy service Lord by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope and my will be lost in Thine. By the power of grace divine. By the power of grace divine. By the power of grace divine. That day will not take us unawares. He who has begun the good work in me is able to finish it. Can you pray in confidence? He who has begun the good work in me is able to complete it. Oh He who began that good work in me is able to complete it. The Lord who began the good work of salvation, the Lord who gave me power to become a child of God, the Lord who gave me right to become a child of God, the Lord who started with me is able to finish it. He's able to finish it. He has alpha-ed my life, He will omega it. He has alpha-ed it, He will omega it. That day will not take me by surprise. Oh as we are marching through this last quarter of the year, we'll be taking different time to pray. We may pray at the beginning, we may pray at the end. There'll be so much time of prayer in this last quarter. and that is why you are seeing what you are seeing this evening. There'll be so much time of prayer, praying about the things we have been hearing through the year, spending some times to pray about them. I will not sleep in the name of Jesus. By the working of the Holy Spirit, by the working of His mighty power. I will not sleep, I will not get drunk. I will be awake, I will be alert in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. I will not live carefreely, I will not live carelessly, I will not live foolishly. I will not live carefreely, I will not live carelessly, I will not live foolishly. I will live as the wise, I will live as the prudent. I'll be prudent about my life. Not by power, not by might, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not by power, not by might, not by power, not by might, but by the power of the Holy Ghost. It's about Jesus. Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus. How I love calling that name. How I love calling that name. Sweet Jesus, blessed Jesus, Lord Jesus. Every day Your name is the same. That name, the name, the name of Jesus is greater and higher than all names. At that name sicknesses bow. At that name demons tremble at the mention of Your name. It is not an ordinary name. Oh the name of Jesus. I will be victorious by that name. Oh I'll be victorious by Jesus. I'll be victorious by Jesus, by the blood established in the covenant of the Lamb. The Bible says they overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb, by the power of their testimony, for they loved not their life unto death. By the reason of the blood of Jesus that has been shed for us, we overcome by the word of our testimony. As we pronounce, as we decree, we will go forward. We will go forward by the word of God. Lord help us to pray that eternity will always be in view. Eternity will always be in my view. Eternity will always be in my view. Any time I want to take any decision, eternity will always be in my view. In whatever I want to do, eternity will always be in my view. Eternity will always be in secret, in open, everywhere I am, eternity will always be in view. I will take every action in view of eternity. I will take actions in view of eternity. I will take action in view of seeing Jesus. Oh Holy Ghost, oh do it again. Oh do it again in my life. Open my eyes to see Jesus daily seated upon the throne. Holy Ghost do it for me. Oh Holy Ghost I pray do it for me. I say do it again in my life. Open my eyes to see Jesus daily, every day, every hour, every time, every moment daily oh seated upon the throne. Thank You Lord Jesus. That day will not take me by surprise. It will not take me unawares. It will not take me unawares. It will not take me unawares. He who began the good work in me, that's my confession. He who began the good work in me is able to finish it. He who began the good work in me will finish it. He will finish it. I am confident in the Lord that He who began the good work, the Bible says He's the author and the finisher of my faith. The Lord who authored my faith will finish it. He's able to finish it. He's able to finish it. I will not fall by the wayside, I will not fall by the wayside. I will tarry to the end. Can we all pray this prayer, that popular song. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Keep me burning to the end of the day. Give me oil, give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Keep me burning to the end of the day. Oh give me oil, give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Keep me burning, give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Keep me burning to the end of the day. Two more times, give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Oh give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Keep me burning to the end of the day. One more time, give me oil in my lamp, baba keep me burning. Oluwa give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Olorun give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Keep me burning to the end of the day. Oh the last prayer I want us to pray before I open up with the issue of the word of God is this. Father set my heart ablaze for Your name. Jeremiah said something. I was reading something. He said Your word, they were like fire in my bones. You see if the word of God become a fire inside your bone, you cannot live anyhow. You cannot live carelessly. You cannot live foolishly. You cannot live stupidly. When fire is burning inside your bones, when there is fire, when fire is going on in your bones. Hey I want you to pray the Lord and say Lord Baba set my heart ablaze. Lord set my heart ablaze. Set my heart ablaze. Fire. Fire let Your word be fire in my bones. Let Your word let them be fire, let them be fire, let them be fire. Let Your word be fire, let Your word a fire, a fire, a fire burning intensely inside my bones. Burning intensely inside my bones. Make Your word fire. Make Your word fire. Make Your word fire. Make Your word fire. Nobody jokes with fire, nobody plays with fire, nobody's casual around fire. People are careful around fire, people are cautious around fire. Lord let Your word be fire, fire in my bones, fire in my bones, fire in my bones, fire in my bones, fire in my bones, fire in my bones, fire in my bones, fire. Thank You Father. Thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. Thank You Lord. Thank You Holy Spirit. Blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name Lord. Blessed be Your name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We magnify You. We worship You. We bless Your name. Oh Lord You are able. You are able. You are able. More than able ah to accomplish what consigns me today. You are able. Oh Lord yes You are able. You are able. More than able ah. Lord You can handle anything that comes my way. Lord You are able. Hallelujah. More than able. Lord You can do much more than I can ask or think. Oh Lord You are able. Yes Lord You are able. More than able to make me all You want me to be. Are you there you are afraid? Are you there you are wondering? Are you there you are thinking? Ah I hope, I think, I feel. Oh I want you to know what the Lord is saying. I want you to know that the Lord is more than able. I say the Lord speak into us this evening, say look I am more than able. You are more than able Lord. You are more than able. I can carry you. If He carries the weight of the world upon His shoulder, then He's able to carry you. He's able to carry you. Set aside your fear. Let courage rise with danger. Let courage rise with danger. What is the future going to be? The future will be bright. He say I know the thoughts that I have towards you, they are thoughts of good, not of evil, to give you a hope and a future. What will the future be? You don't need to fear the future. You don't need to fear, you don't need to be afraid of the future. Oh You are able. Yes Lord You are able. More than able ah. Lord You can handle anything that comes my way. Lord You are able. Hallelujah. More than able. To do much more than I could ever think. God can do more than you can think. He can do more than you can ask. He can do more than you can imagine. He can do, He can do, He can do, He can do. He can do, He can do, He can do. Don't make God too small. Don't make God too small. Don't make Him too small. He can do more than you can think. He can do more than you can imagine. He can do more than you can think, He can do more than you can imagine. He's able more than able. He can make me all He wants me to be. Oh He's able, He's able. He can make me all He wants me to be. Master He's able, He's able, He's able. He can make me all He wants me to be. Lord You can make me all You want me to be. Lord is our confession tonight. Is our confession tonight that You can make us. Lord You can accomplish what consigns us today. Lord You can accomplish it. You can accomplish it. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. Oh Lord You can accomplish it. Lord God Almighty, it looks everything like Joseph will not become all that You want him to be. But Lord after all the wickedness of men, after all the deceit of men, after all the manipulative influence of the wicked and the domineering influence of the wicked, after all that happened, imprisonment, the betrayal, the lies, the blackmail. Lord Joseph became all You want him to be. Lord You can handle anything that comes our way. You are able. You are bigger than our mountains. You are bigger than our mountains. You are bigger than our challenges. You are bigger than our challenges. You are greater than the greatest. You are wiser than the wisest. You are bigger than our challenges. You are more than them all. You are more than able. You can handle anything that comes our way. Lord You are able. And Lord we are confessing tonight that we will be all that You want us to be. Lord we are becoming all that You want us to be now. Lord we are entering into all that You want us to enter into. No matter what the gate of hell does, it is written, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail. We proclaim tonight over our lives, we proclaim tonight over the church of God in Nigeria, we proclaim tonight over the church of God. We say hear oh heaven, give ear oh you earth, harken oh land, hear the word of the Lord. I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail in our lives. The gates of hell will not prevail. In our land the gates of hell will not prevail. In our homes the gates of hell will not prevail. Thank You eternal Father. Thank You Holy Spirit. Lord speak to our heart as we look through scriptures. Thank You Father. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Let's look at what we were looking at last week just to remind us of one or two things as we move on into the matter. We have been looking at love, the solid foundation for holy living. Nobody can live a holy life that does not walk in love. You cannot, it is not possible. The only way that holiness can find its expression in our lives is if we walk in the love of God. If the love of God does not operate in us, then we cannot live holy. And then last week, we were considering 1 Corinthians chapter 12 into 13. We saw spiritual gifts, how people were gifted diversely spiritually, and then the Holy Spirit by Apostle Paul was to show them the best way to operate the gift. And then having spoken about the gift in chapter 13, from verse 1, we saw last week, he said though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I'm actually a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. And that though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries, which is not possible but if in case you can understand all mysteries, I was trying to make people see that look, there's no man that can understand all the mysteries. Nobody can know all the mysteries of God. We know in part and we understand in part. But if it happens that you alone can even understand all the mysteries of God and you have all the knowledge, and though you have all the faith so that you could remove the mountains, but if you have not love, then you are still nothing. And then having compared love with the gift of tongues, which was something that was so prevalent among the Corinthian church, they would gather to worship and there's so much disorder, this one speaking, that one speaking, everybody wants to show that yeah, I can prophesy. That was what was shocking them and they were thinking that they were at the climax of spiritual things. And Paul made them to see that look, you are nothing with all of those things if you don't have love. And then he joined to that, that of knowledge and mystery. And then he went beyond that to the place of giving. That even if you are a martyr, you die you give your life to die for Jesus and you don't have love, then you are still nothing. And then somebody was asking me that is it possible for somebody to give all of these and not love? I said of course, because you don't know what love is. Love is not giving. You may be giving and there is still no love. And then the Bible now took time to explain what love is and we saw the whole of that last week. That even if you have all the mysteries, you have all the faith, you can do all the giving, but you are somebody who is not patient with the fault of others. You are somebody who does not bear with the mistakes of others. You are not tender-hearted. You are not somebody who forgives. You are not patient and you are not kind. Then all of those gifts, they are useless in your life. They are useless. If you are somebody who envy, somebody is prospering, you don't want anybody to shine more than you. And sometimes when you want to even display your gift, you say I have a solo just because you want to show that no, I'm better than one person. I'm better than one person. I'm sorry, all those things that you are doing does not count to anything. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Love does not do showmanship. He wants to show anything for show. And sometimes they call you to round up prayer, you want to show that look, you have all the scriptures in your head. Father according to Matthew chapter 5 verse 6, we say Matthew... you may not be doing anything wrong but as long as you are doing that and you are not doing it for show there's no problem. But you are doing that because you want to show. There's nothing wrong with having several translations of the Bible. You put King James, you put NIV, you put this, you put that, all of them are before you. Bible dictionary, Bible that. If you are doing that because you want to know God is good. But if because you know the brethren are coming you want to impress them that ah me I'm not at your level, I study all hard. You see I have a translation here, I'm just checking my Bible dictionary now. Ah I'm sorry, love does not show up. Love does not show. There's no show-up in love. There's no show-up in love. There's no show-up in love. And we looked at all of that last week. Love is not arrogant. Love is not rude. No matter how gifted you are, no matter the level of knowledge and mysteries you know, if you are not clothed in humility you are nothing. You are nothing. Humility is a sign of love. Being humble towards people, having a low esteeming others better than yourself. Those are elements of love. What love really is. That's why I tell people that love is not a feeling, love is an act. Love is an act. Love is doing. And what you are doing is what the Bible mentioned in that place. Love does not seek its own. Anybody who is self-centered, no matter how gifted or spiritual, is a useless person. Is a useless person. I could remember I was telling you that a case of a man of God who took his congregation to another man of God's auditorium to do a particular ceremony. And then I don't know how I walk into the two of them and the ones who owned the auditorium was saying that look, you know it's my auditorium. So all the thanksgiving offering must come to me oh because it's my auditorium. You think I will give you for free? All the... then that one say no, the people that came they are my own, I'm collecting it. Ah I began to wonder should pastors be striving over this kind of thing? It should be oh you take it, no you take it. But it was the other way around. Love is not self-centered, it does not seek its own. Love is not easily provoked. Are you somebody who easily get angry? I saw something that made a lot of sense to me. A brother will always shout on the wife just any small thing and when they ask him say you see I have a very short temper. You know, that was what he used to justify his misbehavior. Until one day that something happened. It was a something I read, it's not something that I experienced or so but I read it. So the story go that something happened. The brother was driving one day and I don't know what happened that he has a to-do with this military checkpoint. So the person that was there was female army officer. And then as the matter goes, the female army officer just said, "Gentleman shut up!" and then he kept quiet. "Sit on the floor there!" So he sat down. He sat down calmly. I mean calmly. Very calmly. After hours, and what's what happened was that the person said the first was actually with the military officer, so that was why he got there and he was trying to talk. So that one now say, "Look, who are you talking to? Shut up! Sit down!" And then he was there. After several hours, bro was calm. The brother who has a short temper was calm. He became a calm person. And his temper was short. What happened to the temper that became long? We do not know. So he was calm. You know, and then after some time, after two, three hours, he said, "Thank you ma. Yes ma, yes ma." "Get your key." "Yes ma, yes ma." "Get to your car." "Thank you ma, thank you ma." And then he was smiling. What happened to the temper? So they now told him that why is it that before this person you did not lose your temper? They said, "Bro, your problem is not short temper, your problem is that you don't have respect for your wife. You don't have respect." You see many things we justify because we don't walk in love. We don't walk in love. Love is not easily provoked. Love does not think evil. Love does not rejoice in iniquity. People in secret sin in whatever, no matter how gifted you are, all those things they make you nothing. Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Love rejoices only with truth. Love walk in truth, it speaks the truth, it stays with the truth. There's nothing like omo ilu ni wa. Even when the person is wrong, you want to stay with the person. Ah you know that's my tribal man, it doesn't matter what he has done I will stay with him. That is foolishness, that's not love. Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Love rejoices in the truth. Love is able to bear all things. Say, "Look, I can't bear this with you." Love can bear all things. That's the scripture. Say, "Look, I can't take that. We must scatter this fellowship." Ah no matter how gifted you are, it means you don't know what love is. Love can bear all things. Love can bear with insult. Love can bear, love can... that's why I tell people, many of the thing we call spirituality, we don't know what it means to be spiritual. Because we think spirituality is marokababa ye, roro, yaha. That's what Paul is saying, it's not about that. That you can raise up the dead does not make you spiritual. That is just your gift. If you can raise up the dead and you cannot bear, you cannot bear insult, you cannot bear cheating, you will almost die. Some people if they cheat you now with ten naira you can almost die. You know in such things, you look like we are spiritual, we don't know what spirituality is. Honestly, we don't know what it is. And so the Bible is making us to see love can bear all things, love believe all things, love can hope in all situation. Love endures all things. These are things you need to look at in your life then you measure whether you are spiritual. When these things are in your life, you discover that you cannot but live holy. That is the point. Because what we are trying to make us see is that until you can walk in love, you cannot live a holy life. That is the point that we are making. You cannot live a holy life. Love is the solid foundation for holiness. Because as we have come to see it now, that's what I want to pick in this place, you discover that love is actually conduct. Is that not what we are seeing? Love is actually how you conduct your life. And I want to ask you what is holiness? Holiness is in conduct. Righteousness is a gift. Christ is our righteousness. I am never struggling to be righteous. I'm a righteous man. I will never try to be righteous, I got that as a gift. Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my wisdom. But when it comes to conduct, holy conduct, it becomes a thing we do because we have been made righteous. He made us right. We are God's righteousness so that our conduct can be holy. If you want to put it in other way, if you look at Romans chapter 5, he says: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Then he went on and went on and says: "This hope does not make us ashamed. Why? Because the love of God has been shed abroad in our heart." So do you see what God did? What God did was that in making us righteous, He shed His own kind of love in our heart. That can break the problem is not that you don't have love, the problem is that you have bottled the love. If only you can be broken. If you can break, if you can forget yourself, like he said, "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself." If you can forget yourself and live with this holy fire, what is the will of God? What is the purpose of God? The Bible says David having served God in his own generation. May that be your portion. Serving God. A passion that look, what drives my life, I want to serve God in my generation. Bible say David having served God in his own generation, he slept with his fathers. And that is why God could not summarize that seventy years. Methuselah lived 969 years. That 969 years was summarized in four verses. Just four verses. He was born, he grew up, he gave birth, he died. Four verses. But there was another man, he lived for just seventy years. 1 Samuel was about him, 2 Samuel was about him. The Kings could not leave him, the Chronicles he was there. His throne, his throne, his throne, ordinary typical throne. It's not as good as that of Solomon, I hope you know. Are you aware of that? That throne that he sat upon became an eternal throne. The Bible says Jesus will sit upon the throne of his father David. The throne of Jesus became the throne of David because he served God in his generation. He served God. So what was to become eternal for Jesus was called by the name David. Go to the Revelation you will find David there again. Psalms is about David. The proverbs that Solomon was giving you, what did he tell you? He said, "What I learnt, I was the beloved of my father and I learnt anything from him." The wisdom Solomon displayed, the foundation of that wisdom was in who? Was in David. He said, "Thou Solomon my son, love the Lord of your father and serve Him with a willing mind." Was it not when Solomon left that mind that his life entered into problem? Serve with a willing mind. If you serve Him, He will be found of you, but if you forsake Him He will forsake you. He warned Solomon. Then Solomon because of his love for many women, his heart was not perfect again. Go and check it when they wanted to measure Solomon's life. They said his heart was not perfect again towards God like the heart of his father David. What precedent are you setting for your generation? Serve God! He served God in his own generation. That is the point I'm making. God could not summarize seventy years. He couldn't summarize it. So I tell people it's not how long, it is how well. What do you do with time? What are you doing with every day? That's what I mean by living consciously, living purposefully, walking in love. Love does not do this, love does not do this. This is what love is. Where do I get love from? Lord, Your love has been shed abroad in my heart. Everything making me not to walk in this thing I reject you, I break myself loose from every selfishness, from every self-centeredness. The love of God is in my heart. You know that the more you confess the grace and the truth of God over your life, it becomes a reality? The Bible say if you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth, what will happen? You shall be saved. Believe what God said about you. I am who God says I am. I am what God says I am. The more you confess, the more you proclaim, the more you see it. You see my problem is, that's what we're talking about the brother who said he has problem with short temper. It is because he has not have an encounter. When he had an encounter what happened to his temper? That is the truth. You are who you are because you have encountered nothing. When you encounter reality, you will be a changed person. May you have an encounter. May you have an encounter. May you have an encounter that is real. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. So we said all of that about love last week. That love is the solid foundation for holiness. And I want to move on to show you something very important today as we look at something in the book of Proverbs. Love the solid foundation for holiness. Love the solid foundation for holiness. And I want you to see this verse and when you look at it you begin to see that wow, so there is a connection between where you are going and what and what you are living from. Look at Proverbs chapter 21 verse 21. We want to compare it with Ezekiel chapter 25, 15 to 17. Proverbs chapter 21 verse 21, we'll see different translation for that scripture. Proverbs 21:21. Modern English version. Proverbs 21:21 says, "He who follows after righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness and honor." He who follows after righteousness and mercy, that person will find life, righteousness and honor. Yes, can we see another translation? NIV. "Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor." Whoever pursues what you are pursuing in life is righteousness and love, what will happen? You will find life. Prosperity and honor. Whoever pursues righteousness and love, then you have been given to us as a gift and you want to walk in love because the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart, you know what love is, love is a conduct. Anybody who pursues that, that person cannot lose life oh, he can't lose life. The person will find life, he will find prosperity, he will find honor. Yes any other translation? Amplified. "He who earnestly seeks righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness and honor." He who earnestly follows after that, find life righteousness and honor. Any other translation? NLT. "Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love finds life, righteousness and honor." Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness and honor. The Message says, "Whoever goes hunting for what is right and kind, the person finds life itself, a glorious life." Whoever goes hunting for what is right and is kind, the person finds life itself, a glorious life. What is it that what am I trying to make you see? Please look at what we read here. You are seeing something very crucial. That if you earnestly crave after righteousness, mercy, loving kindness, you will find in addition to that thing, life, righteousness, honor, prosperity. Now let's compare what we read now with what we have in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 25:15, 16 and 17. Ezekiel chapter 25 verse 15, 16 and 17. Please read it for me. "Thus says the Lord God, because the Philistines acted in vengeance and took revenge with malice in their heart." You see what these ones were hunting for? What were they pursuing? Vengeance, revenge. Why are they doing that? There was malice in their heart. "And with ancient hostility sought to destroy Judah." What is ancient hostility? What is that telling you? Unforgiveness. Unforgiveness. "Therefore, thus says the Lord, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebuke and they will know that I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon them." Please what brought what made these people not to find life? Righteousness, honor, prosperity. What made them not to find it? They did not walk in love. They did not walk in love. What I'm trying to make us see, if any man does not walk in love, the truth is that the scripture says when we look at it last week, it profit you nothing, you are nothing, you are a clanging cymbal that does not make any good you are just noise and not sound. What I'm also trying to make you see is that you are also sowing the seed of your own ruination. When you don't walk in love, you are sowing the seed of your own ruination, you are ruining yourself. Let us pray. Let us follow after loving kindness, let us follow after love, after righteousness so that we can find life. So that we can find prosperity, so that we can find honor. Don't with your own hand dig your own grave. Don't with your own hand dig your own destruction. Don't destroy yourself with your own hands. Jonas thought he was doing it against the people of Nineveh but unfortunately it was for his own life. He missed out of the purpose of God if not that God was merciful and God had to bring a wind, bring storm, bring so many things to bring him back into purpose. That is how some people driven by revenge, driven by unforgiveness, driven by malice have missed out maritally, have missed out spiritually, have missed out even in connection, say prosperity, financially. They have missed out because they are driven by what should not drive them. What is your driver? That is our focus this evening. What is driving you? What is your driver? What is your driver? Talk to the Lord tonight. Father we thank You for this evening. Lord we just commit ourselves into Your hands. Lord we just pray, we just pray, we just pray, we just pray this evening. Lord our God we commit particularly as we commence this last quarter of the year. Lord may we not be driven by the seed of our own ruination in the name of Jesus. Lord what drives us may it be Your purpose, Your will, that which You have wrought in us. Lord we pray. Lord may that which drive us be that which drove God in the name of Jesus. For it is written, for God so loved the world. So great, so mighty, so powerful, so wise, so with all every power belongs to Him. But that which was the driver was love. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Lord God Almighty, that which You want to drive us is that which drove You. and that is why You shed Your love abroad in our heart. Lord I pray this evening for us. Whatever else may be driving your life apart from the love of God that is shed in our heart. Whatever else will have been driving your life before now. I pray this day may that operation cease in the name of Jesus. May your new driver, that which drives you become the love of God that is shed abroad in your heart in the name of Jesus. And Lord we pray for the church of God this evening. We pray for our brethren who are connecting with us on Mixlr, connecting with us on Telegram. Lord we pray for the church of God. Whatever else will have driven us before now, whatever else might have been our driver. The scripture say that which my Father have not planted will be uprooted. May they be uprooted in the name of Jesus. May our driver become that which drives God in the name of Jesus. For the scripture says, for in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters anything but faith expressing itself in love. That is what matters. May our faith find expression in love in the name of Jesus. Thank You eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [Voiceover] 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 aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class, every Monday 5:00 PM; Adolescent and Singles class, 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 at Ilesa Bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very-Joy filling station along Igede-Ekiti road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handle: familytents@yahoo.co.uk, familytentsministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentsministry.org. Our phone numbers are 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you.