Mf Nov 7 2018 Building With Godly Wisdom

[Background music: Singing and orchestral music] [Speaker 1] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tech Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] As I prepared for this meeting, I hear the Lord giving me an instruction as to what should guide our ministration for today and by His mercies tomorrow. I want us to turn to Genesis 25. Genesis chapter 25, as we look at something there about the family of Isaac and Rebekah. From verse 19. [Speaker 3] Genesis 25:19-26: This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. [Speaker 2] Chapter 27 of the same Genesis. [Speaker 3] Genesis 27:1-10: When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," he answered. Isaac said, "I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die." Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, 'Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.' Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you." [Speaker 2] I believe we know the end of the story. But the Lord caught my attention to something very important as we begin this family enrichment message. If you take your mind back to how the family started, Rebekah gave birth to these two children when Isaac was how many years old? From what we read, he was sixty. Isaac married at what age? Isaac married at forty. Rebekah gave birth to those two children when Isaac was sixty. Now, for Rebekah to become pregnant and have those children, who did the praying? Isaac. But of course, not as if Rebekah had not been praying. Is that not true? She would have been praying. But the Bible made it so clear that at a point Isaac took it up and said, "No, my wife will not be barren," and cried unto the Lord. I was speaking somewhere and I said if you are privileged to marry a brother who is Isaac, just give glory to God. Then you have a prayer partner. But if you marry a brother who is Elkanah, you are marrying a prayer point. Now, I pray when our children get married, they will marry prayer partners and not prayer points. But if you look at that story, Isaac prayed and the children came. When they came, joy! Wow, great! And wow, babies are here, let’s rejoice. Between when those children were born and when Isaac was about to depart, there was a process. There was a process of gradual putting away. There was a process of gradual disassociation. There was a gradual but steady process of gradual disunity, such that by the time our brother Isaac was about to die—please, any version of the Bible that you are carrying, can we see that verse 5 together? Chapter 27. Any version of the Bible that you are carrying. Not just verse 5, sorry. Can we see between verse 5, 6 through 7? Now, it says, "Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to..." who? "His son." Please, any translation that didn't use "his son"? Please, is there any translation? I've checked seven translations. Is there any one that did not say "his son"? There is no translation. The Bible says, "Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son." Now, that’s one. Verse 6. Please check your Bible again. "Rebekah said to her son." Isaac, when Esau was to present the picture that Isaac had, the matter was no more "their children." Baba said—Isaac and Rebekah speaking to "his son," come closer here. Rebekah spoke, she spoke to "her son." The Lord seriously bothered my heart with these two verses as the basis of our discussion with you today and as the Lord helps us into tomorrow. I want to beg couples that are here, families that are here. You have not... I don’t know you, I don’t even know your story. But the Lord said the way you started... if you look at the journey now, certain things that came in as blessings have become the reason, not for divorce... you know other translations will say divorce. I like King James. He says, "I hate putting away." Divorce is the endpoint of several putting away. Do you understand me? Maybe initially both of you normally sleep in one room. At a point, you go to your own room, I go to my own room. What is that? Putting away. At a point, we were spending the income together as family income. But today, you spend your salary, let me spend my own. At a point, it was just one car in the family. At a point, God increased the family, there are now two cars. It became, "Don't touch my car, oh. Don't touch my car. It has become mine and then hers." At a point—are you following me, brethren? The Lord said as we go together in the course of our discussion, please I am begging every husband and every wife. I am not saying that you are divorced, but there are several putting away. The Lord said the way you started, it was joint prayer that brought Isaac and Esau. But today, it has become Esau is the son of Isaac. What is it that the devil has given that has become the basis of division? One day when the money was not so much... you know somebody said something and it made sense to me. He said when there is no money, you know a good wife. When there is much money, you know a good husband. At a point, things used to be together. Things used to be together. But at this point, things are not like that. Although Rebekah and Isaac, they were still under the same roof, but what Heaven saw was a different picture. And the Lord said as we go through these two days together, I want to ask husbands that are here, I want to appeal to wives. If there are areas where you have put away... even though you are shouting, "Thank God, thank God, thank God! We thank God for our home, thank God for our children!" Baba say, "No. Look inward. Look inward. Are there no areas of putting away? Are there no areas? Are there no some parts? Have you not isolated yourself, that you in your room, you are a graduate and a big graduate?" If you offer the prayer and say, "I am not divorcing, oh, but I know what I am doing," you don’t know what you are doing. You don’t know. If you know it, you will know that the Lord said, "I hate putting away." So brethren, as we journey together this evening through tomorrow, as we sit together, as we talk together, as we go together, what the Lord wants you to be looking at... husbands should not be looking at the wife and saying, "Hey, hear what Baba is saying. You, you, hear!" That's not it. Don't begin to look at others. Look at yourself. Where have I put away? Likewise, look. Where have you said, "No, let him be on his own. I will be on my own." Although the house is together, it's still under the same roof, but you are operating different agendas. Isaac had one agenda—"What do you need?"—Rebekah had another agenda. They are under the same roof but different agendas. And the evil thing that you even remember, "Okay, I know what to do. I will turn the children against him. I will turn the children against her." Or maybe you are even competing for the attention of the children. You want to show who loves them most against the other one. It's a satanic agenda. You are struggling to gain the attention of the children against your husband, against your wife. You want to say, "Look, don't mind him, oh. That's how he normally acts, that useless man. This is your mother, I gave birth to you, I am the one that loves you." Is it that kind of agenda? What are the kind of things going on? I don’t really know. But what I am saying that the Lord called my attention as we are preparing for this program, he said, "Son, tell men and women to look into areas of their lives where there are putting away." The Bible says, [Psalm 133:1] "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity." If you look at that scripture, Psalm 133, something is very clear from that scripture. Look at that scripture very closely. You will notice that... I want you to skip some verses and look at something in that scripture. We just skip some verses and put some things together. Psalm 133. I want us to see... if you skip verse 1, look at verse... I want you to join verse 1 to the last verse. My version says... please look at the verse 1 and the last verse. The whole of verse 2, if you look at it, they are just comparative languages. It says, [Psalm 133:1] "How good and pleasant it is when God's people"—and I want to say when husband and wife and their children—"live together in unity." Now look at verse 2. "It is like oil that pours..." that is just a comparison. "Running down the beard of Aaron, running down Aaron’s beard down to the collar of his robes," is comparison. "It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion," what is that also? Comparison. So remove all the comparison. Just match together verse 1 and the last sentence. "How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore." The Lord wants to bless. The Lord wants to extend life. The Lord wants to surprise couples. The Lord wants to extend life into your marriage, into your home, into your children, into your purpose, into your career, into your business, into your academics, life in whatever you do. But there is a condition. What is the condition? They must dwell in unity. The unity I'm talking about is not same roof. They must address every putting away. I know you have been blessed, I know you want life with blessing. The Lord said, "Even life." Even life. You may not understand that, but I don't want to waste my time on that. But the Lord wants to extend life. Life into your marriage, life into your children, life into your purpose, life into your career, life into your business, life into your academics, life into things you do. But there is a condition. Baba is saying we must address every putting away. I'm not talking about divorce. Divorce is just a terminal thing. We must address every putting away. And I want to address the children in a similar way. The youth. Maybe Daddy has done some things and you have made up your mind, "Don't worry. By the time I grow up, I will deal with you." The Lord is addressing you this evening. See, you may not grow up. You may only grow old. I'm begging you. "Mommy has done something... I will show them." You don't need that. You don't need that. I beg you, you don't need it. And maybe Mommy has told you something, "See, see, see, don't mind your father. Don't mind him, oh. He's just like that. How much did he give you? One hundred naira? Take this two hundred, don't mind her. She just doesn't want you to learn." I don’t know what you have done and you have set the children in challenge. But I'm begging that young boy or that young girl who may be feeling any kind of bitterness against parents, from whatever direction or dimension, for whatever reason. I want to appeal to you, you don't need it. You don't need it. You don't need it. Make up your mind that I will not be a strange boy. I will not be a strange girl. Even if my parents are godless, I can be godly. Do you know that? I was somewhere addressing some youth one day and a young man came to me after the meeting and he said, "Sir, I have something to tell you. I have something to tell you. In a situation where you have a man you cannot describe as a father, a useless person, somebody who torments and frustrates your life, must there be any reason why I should come under that person?" And I said, "Young man, you are not getting it correct. It is not your father that said 'Honor me and it shall be well with you.' It is God that said 'Honor your father.'" I said so your father’s irresponsibility should not make you irresponsible. He has chosen not to serve God. It should not stop you from serving God. You go back and honor him. I don’t know whether you stand as a child and you feel the way Mommy and Daddy do, "He, he, he, he..." They will be wearing big clothes to church, "He, Daddy is a liar, oh. Before he left, he beat Mommy. Daddy is playing double life." Don't mind them. Don't take that matter into your hand. What you ought to do is to be praying, "God, save my mom. God, save my dad. Let them be correct." Don't let their life to make you useless. So tonight, this is the burden and the entire burden of our ministration to you. The ministration that brought me and my wife to Beedi office. That is the burden of our ministration. Everything we want to do among you is how under God and by the working of His Spirit, how we can bring couples to the point of unity. How they can see areas they need to reconcile, things they need to forgive, things they need to let go, things they need to overlook. Things they need to say, "Oh, oh, oh! No, Lord, we will return again to our first love. We will go back to how we started. It doesn't matter the level of disassociation and disintegration, we will integrate again." And I pray that as we move on, the Lord will bring families to this point at everywhere where there is disintegration in the name of Jesus Christ. Wise builders. Wise builders. What does it mean to be wise? What does it mean to be wise? The Bible itself tells us what it means to be wise. Can we see the book of Job? The book of Job, Job 28. The Bible tells us what it means to be wise. [Job 28:20] "Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?" That's a question from the Bible. The Bible itself provided an answer for it. "It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed from the birds in the sky." Please understand it. Hallelujah. Wisdom is not philosophy. Wisdom is not necessarily common sense. Wisdom is not necessarily... you know sometimes we think cultural wisdom as divine wisdom. Do you understand? Let me give you an example. I was in Lagos for a ministration and it was a bit rough between the youth and the elder. Later I got a word of that. But what led to that thing came out and then what led to that was that there was a family that was striving to have at least an issue, but there was no issue. So maybe the board of elders or some group of elders or an elder—I don’t know how it happened—advised the young man. I want to show you why cultural wisdom may not necessarily be wisdom. You know the Bible says wisdom is hidden even from men. When Rebekah was acting that way, what was she doing? In her eyes, was she not wise? Wisdom is hidden even from men. So they advised the young man. They brought this Yoruba adage: "Omo Yoruba o ki n f'akwaja ti o ba bi sile a bi si ta." That was the wisdom they gave the young man. Let me translate: that a Yoruba man will not marry a maid, if the child does not come from the one inside, it can come from the one outside. That looks like wisdom, maybe cultural, but that is foolishness in the scriptures. "Awon eda mi, eda ni won," they are not elders. That is not to respect anyone, but there are men who grow up, who grow old but don't grow up. That was the advice an elder gave the young man and then the young man went and was doing that. Some youth saw wisdom and the elder were telling some of the youth that God gave us different grace. That some people have the grace to wait ten years for life, some don't have the grace. So those who don't have the grace, God provided a way. You know sometimes people get confused whether it came from church or it came from I don't know where. That was the argument. So I had to come in and talk on the matter. You see the point I'm making? Cultural wisdom are not necessarily wisdom. I'm not saying there is no wisdom in culture, but I'm saying cultural wisdom are not necessarily wisdom. The Bible says, [Job 28:20] "Wisdom, the wisdom we are talking about, is a wisdom that is hidden from men." That is, even human perception cannot grasp this wisdom. There are many things that look as if a man is wise when he is acting them, but the man is actually foolish. There are many things that people with high intelligence, "I know what I am doing." I remember one day teaching in my class, I don't know which of the levels of students I was teaching, and then you just find this girl who almost 70% of the breast was outside. So I left the front of the class, I went to the back of the class to finish my lecture. When I was through, I went to her. I said, "Why are you like this?" She said, "No, sir, you know we are in a free world. We are living in a civilized world." I allowed her to finish all she wanted to say. You know sometimes our youth, they have not even seen an airport before, but they will be talking as if they are whites. They don’t even have passports. They think Westernization is civilization. I'm not against Westernization, but I'm only saying that certain things are taken in excess. I was in a church one day and they were singing, "Yidoma baba baba baba baba, baba daddy daddy daddy, babapi babapi." What is "babapi"? It is "Idinma." No "babapi." You know sometimes we can avoid grass, you are not wrong. But I'm just trying to address something. After all that language, I just said... I used the scripture. I said, "One time when we were boys, if you want before we can see the breast of a girl, we must have paid price. We will give this, we will give that, we will do all kinds of things, we will entice her, we will fetch water for her mother. After several years and everything, then one day we will visit her and she visits you because she's now your girlfriend and then you can begin to unbutton to see there." I said, "But you, you are very bad. Nothing is seen and your breast is outside." Then she carried her bag and put it on her chest. I'm saying that wisdom is not human thinking. The wisdom we are talking about is not just, it's not even philosophy. There is a wisdom and it's unfortunate today that every time when husbands and wives want to act, they depart from this wisdom. There is a wisdom, not earthly wisdom, not worldly wisdom. There is a wisdom and that is the wisdom we are talking about tonight. How can I build as a husband, as a father, as a wife, as a mother, as a youth, as a boy? How can I build my life on this wisdom? How can I build my marriage on this wisdom? This wisdom that is hidden from men, that is concealed from the birds of the sky. Verse 23: [Job 28:23] "God understands the way to it; he alone knows where it dwells." He alone. In other words, until a man finds God and keeps step with God, he remains foolish. He can never be wise. Any time a husband is acting towards his wife outside the fear of the Lord, how is he acting? He's acting foolishly. Any time a wife is acting and she acts outside God, how will she be acting? She'll be acting foolishly. The family has become so troubled today that you almost describe the family as an endangered species. Storms everywhere. What God has ordained for our rest and our blessing has become a thorn in the flesh of man and the heart of society today because we just forgot. We just forgot. Either we forgot... but the Bible also said, [Romans 1:21] "Because they refused to acknowledge God, their understanding became darkened." Because they refused to acknowledge God. The family has become so troubled today. Troubled, troubled, troubled! Troubled everywhere! What should not be mentioned inside the church is being mentioned. You just wonder what is going on. But I'm here to show you, we don't need to wonder too much. It is because we forgot that family of all institutions that we know—economic, political, health, mention all of them—it is only the family institution that is a product of God’s brain, a work of His endeavor. It came out of God. And until you find God, you cannot understand family. It came out of God. And the same thing applies even to my young people. Someone said, "You know what they mean when they say making love?" I said, "Because you are foolish. Everything you call making love, sex, all of that, all the organs, all the emotions, everything you use, came out of who? It came out of God. It is not of good that He's the God of sex. Our God created sex. All the organs involved, all the hormones, the progesterone, whatever that's working inside, who created them? Our God is the God of sex. If you take sex after God, you miss it completely." We normally forget these things. We just act as if we are one... no, it's because we've lost our identity today. We need to rediscover ourselves. You know Augustine said something. He said in His image we were made, and until we find His image, we can never find our rest. In His image we were made! And until you rediscover this image, you can never find rest. That's why families cannot find rest today. God! When we talk about wisdom, when you are talking about what is wisdom... when you say wisdom, only God knows the dwelling of wisdom. So anybody that does not have a consistent walk with God, the person will always be foolish. Verse 24: [Job 28:24] "For he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heaven." Hallelujah! Do you know what that means, brethren? What He sees is that... I'm looking for how to illustrate it. I'm looking for something very simple that I can use to illustrate this verse. How do I do it? Okay, okay, okay. Look at this very simple story. Somebody took bike to get to the office. Unfortunately, the bike developed a fault along the way, but not too far from the office. The passenger gave the okada rider a hundred naira which is the bargain to the office, expecting at least twenty naira or thirty naira since he had to trek the remaining. Do you understand me? When okada rider collected the hundred naira, he put it in the pocket. "Ah, Mr. Man!" He said, "Ah, what is the distance that you are still asking for change? Can't you walk the remaining? Look at this selfish man!" And because he didn't say anything, the okada man rode off. Do you understand me? That person was annoyed and walked away. In the mood of that, he got to the office. A fellow colleague greeted him. But because he was preoccupied, what we call displaced anger or transferred aggression... aggression was transferred. Do you understand? So in that frustration, he got to the office. The people greeting could not even hear and then he went somewhere and was still brooding over the pain, the injustice. And after some time the person became himself or herself and then came back and then he greeted back the fellow who greeted earlier. And the person just looked like "who is this?" He was confused. "Ah, what's wrong?" But the other friend was saying, "Ah, look at this idiot. We are waiting for you to answer." From his own level of judgment, that person was proud. But from his level of judgment, was that the issue? Why did that person act that way? He had limited knowledge of the situation. For anybody to be able to act wisely, he must have the total view of the situation. So the Bible says, [Job 28:24] "For he views the end of the earth and sees everything under the heaven." That's why only God can act wisely in every situation. As for man, man can only have some parts of the information from this end, this end. He can't put everything together from the beginning to the end. As we are seated here now, none of us can describe exactly what will happen at the close of this meeting before we get to the junction. Who can describe exactly? None of us. Can you tell, limited man? And yet we act and talk as if we know everything. We are so limited. I wish husbands can be humble. I wish wives can be humble. I wish youth can be humble. Let us humble ourselves under God. Only God is wise. Only God is wise. So what does the Bible say? Then He looked at wisdom and appraised it. He confirmed it and tested it. And verse 28: [Job 28:28] "And he said unto the human race, 'The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.'" So any time I act towards my wife outside the fear of the Lord, what happened to me? No matter how wise that thing may look like, what is it? It's a foolish decision. Any time I choose to do evil, any time I choose to do something against my wife that I don't pray God to do to me, what is that? Foolishness. "Fear the Lord!" What did God say? "What did He say?" "No, this is not what God said. I can't do otherwise." That is wisdom. "Eh, I will show you. You want to be hot?" To depart from evil, that is what? Understanding. That is why if you come to the popular scripture that we are more familiar with, you will see there the Bible says in Matthew, Matthew chapter 7. I believe that one you are more familiar with. Matthew chapter 7. I take my reading from verse 21. Many times people don't link 21 together with everything that is said up to 27. I read from verse 21. [Matthew 7:21-27] "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" That will not be our portion in the name of Jesus. Our portion will be "welcome, thou good and faithful servant" in the name of Jesus Christ. But we cannot but read these scriptures so that we can take lessons from them. Now if you look at the verse 24, you will notice that 24 begins in my translation with a "Therefore." Some will say "Then." Some will say "Therefore." Am I correct? I'm not an English specialist, I'm a medical physicist. But I know that in English, "therefore" presupposes that what is going to be said is premised on what was said earlier. That's the function of "therefore" in starting a conjunction that premised the following sentence with the preceding one. So when He said, "Not all who say 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom, but those who do the will," then He now said "Therefore." He's trying to illustrate that matter. In illustrating that matter, the Lord now said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is a wise man." Every man who hears what I say and puts them into practice is a wise man. The other one, "Everyone who hears what I say and does not put them into practice is a foolish man." It is the Lord that said so. Anybody that hears what God says on the matter and does contrary... if he's a president, he's a foolish man. If he's a big lawyer, he's a foolish man. If he's a doctor, he's a foolish man. If he's a teacher, he's a foolish man. All of them are the same kind, they are all foolish men. So that means we can say there can be big, big giants in the lives of people. People... it’s possible for a man to be an intellectual giant but a spiritual dwarf. Because the Lord levels everybody into one category. Anybody at all, you may call the person any other name, but as long as the person does not put into practice what the Lord has said, what is that person? A foolish person. For me now they may call him "Lecturer." Is that his actual name? That is human title. What is his name? Foolish man. In some other area they may call him "Teacher of the Word of God." Men may call him that. But if he does not put the Word of God into practice, what is his actual name? Foolish man. You may be a medical doctor. If you don't act according to His word, what are you? Foolish man or foolish woman. It is the Lord that said so. It is the King of Glory, the Creator and the Redeemer, the Maker of the Heavens and of the Earth, the Lord of Lords, the God of Gods, the King of Kings, the I Am that I Am. He said any time you see a man, any time you see anybody, they may have several decorations that you may use to decorate them. Those things are just decorations. You know you can decorate food? You just call me "Professor, Doctor..." He doesn't look at where men decorate men. But God don't look at men like that. God looks at men only from one area. What's the area? Whether they are foolish or they are wise. And tonight, I'm just begging you. Let us humble ourselves under God regardless of who or what you think you may be. Only God is wise. Only God is wise. So how do I build my marriage and Heaven can see me as a wise man? How do I build my marriage and Heaven can see me as a wise woman? How do I build my relationship for those of us that are single? How do I build my relationship? You are mature, you are single... in such a way, in such a way, in correct relationship already? If the church is not aware, you are not in a correct relationship. If the church is not aware, they know why the two of you are together. How do I build that relationship? How do I build my life? You are mature, bachelor or sister. How do I build my life in such a way that Heaven will see me as being wise? How do I do it? I put into practice what the Lord said. That is wisdom. What is that? That is wisdom. Anything outside that is not wisdom. It is not. It doesn't matter how it may look. I remember one of these films that we were watching one day and a youth leader and a choir... the youth leader, a male, and a choir leader, a female, who were in relationship. The youth leader was about to travel out of the country and then he told the sister, "There is something we must do. We need to sleep together before I go." She said, "No, that will be wrong, it's fornication." The young man said, "No, it will not be wrong. Our parents know we are to marry. Now I am about going to either the US or UK. There should be a token between us that when I get there, I will always remember you. And while you are here, you will always remember me. I just need this covenant, this covenant of love. We need to act it." And the sister said, "Okay, okay, okay. I think you are right. You are right. It’s true, it’s true." And then she allowed that. So is that not wisdom? No. I'm talking on human wisdom and God's wisdom. I'm talking of how sometimes as youth, as husband, as wife, we rationalize. We rationalize a lot of things. We bring rationality into the Word of God that is clear. What is clear, what is so clear and plain in the scripture. We begin to give some kind of explanation. We become too complex for the Holy Ghost to manage. We become too intelligent for God to lead. There is a Godly wisdom. And that wisdom is very simple. It says "Do what I say." That's the wisdom. Please, is it too complex? Is it too complex? It’s simple! But you know, it is the simplicity of it that makes men not to practice it. It is too simple. You know I spoke to a man one time. We were in a church, yes, we were in a church, in one ministration. That day it was... we were talking on husband and wife submission and we were talking about it. Then a hand... one of the men just stood up, one of the leaders of the church, and he said, "Sir, I have a question. In a situation where your wife, you know she's against you. Your wife is wicked. Your wife is..." let me borrow the language, "your wife is a Jezebel! Where your wife is a Jezebel, what am I to do as a man?" He said, "Love her." And he was shocked. "Ah! It's as if you don't understand. It's as if there is another condition apart from just to love her." He wanted something more complex than that. He wanted something more spiritual. Ah, our generation makes me afraid. This generation! They will use high-sounding words of great minds. They are a well without water. They are clouds that don't carry rain. The thing that you see, the thing that you see... we are moving of higher minds. The thing that you see... we are becoming or trying to find ourselves! But no! We are not identifying today. We need to rediscover ourselves. You know Augustine said something. He said, [unclear: "In His image we were made and until we find His image we can never come to our rest."] Do you understand that? In His image we were made! And until you rediscover this image, you can never find rest. That’s why families cannot find rest today. God! When we talk about wisdom, when you are talking about what is wisdom... [unclear: "k’osoyonogbon, t’okoyinogbon, omoyinogbon,"] when you say wisdom, only God knows the dwelling of wisdom. So anybody that doesn't have a consistent walk with God, the person will always be foolish. That is why as I close tonight, tomorrow we will be going into different issues of instruction of what the Lord said, how the Lord said. We will look at them closely. We will examine them closely. But my plea tonight, I beg you under God, regardless of your state or who you think you may be, only God is wise. Only God is wise. I want us to bow our heads. I want us to pray. I don't know how the message tonight came to you, but I want you to pray. I want you to respond to God. How is your marriage? Are there several putting away in the name of seeming wisdom? Some kind of wisdom. Some kind of wisdom. Are there putting away here and there? Look into it. How has been the journey? How is the home front? How is the journey? Are you a wise mother? Are you a foolish mother? Are you a wise father? Are you a foolish father? Are you a wise husband? Are you a foolish husband? Let’s look inward. Let's respond to God. Are there things you need to correct? Are there things you need to amend? Are there things you need to look into again? I want you to begin to lay a foundation against tomorrow and say, "God, whatever you want, whatever you want me to know, Lord, please instruct me in the course of this weekend. Whatever you want me to see, Lord, please open my eyes. Lord, is there something I need to adjust? Is there something I need to do right? Are there projects I need to abandon? Are there things I must stop doing in my marriage? As a young man, is there something I must stop? Is there something I'm doing wrong in a corner?" Look unto the Lord and say, "God, please if You will need to break me, break me. If You will need to cage me, Lord, cage me. Anyhow, Lord, all I'm saying is that Lord, I want to be wise. I want You to describe me as a wise man. I don't want to be carried away by the titles that men are calling me. I don't want to be blinded. All I am looking for from You, Lord, is that You will look at me as a husband and say this is a wise husband. And You will look at me as a wife and say this is a wise wife. That You will look at me as a youth and say this is a wise youth. This is a wise girl. Lord, help my life. Lord, help my life. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Oh, don't allow me, Jesus. Do not allow me. Oh, don't allow me, Jesus, to go away empty-handed." I want you to talk to the Lord one more time. "Lord, don't let me finish this weekend empty. Lord, Lord, meet with me. It is only the Lord that can help you. If the Lord doesn't help you, there's nothing I can do. It is the Lord that forms a plan and follows His water. It is only God that can give it. Say Lord, whatever it is about my life, Lord, speak to me as a person. Deal with me as an individual, that Lord, I may be a wise builder in my marriage, in my home, in my life. Lord, help me." Thank You, everlasting Father. Oh, blessed be Your holy name. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Almighty God, we just commit our lives into Your hand. Lord, I have just released to my brethren the burden that You raised in my heart. Lord, I have prayed. The Bible says no man goes to war at his own expense. Lord, I'm asking tonight, I know that You want to address Your people, You want to address issues, You want to deal practically with us. Lord, so I am praying that Lord, as we share this burden in ministration, Lord, beyond my voice, Lord from this moment, cause them to begin to hear Your voice. Lord, from this hour, let Your word come to them in accents clear and plain. Lord, as they go, as they go in their quiet time, those things You want to deal with... Baba, I'm asking, Lord, begin to point matters, begin to point issues, begin to deal with every man as an individual. Lord, God, build Your church in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Father. In Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. [End music]