My Life, My Marriage, The Tongue

[Speaker 1] Lord, we thank you for another time in your presence. Lord, we thank you for this season in particular that we are celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you. We ask for the spirit of understanding. We ask for inspiration for the speaker and the hearers that we may all be blessed in Jesus' name. Lord, we thank you. Lord, as we worship you this morning, we ask, oh Lord, that you will inhabit our worship and praise in Jesus' name. [Singing] Adoration and power, oh majesty be unto the Lord. Adoration and power, oh majesty be unto the Lord. Unto the Lord, adoration and power, oh majesty be unto the Lord. You came from heaven to earth to show the way. From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky. Lord, we lift your name on high. Lord, we lift your name on high. Lord, we lift your name on high. Lord, we lift your name on high. Lord, we lift your name on high. You are God. You are not just big, oh. You are not just large, oh. You are a great God. You are God. You are God. Papa, you are God. You are not just big, oh. Eh, you are not just large, oh. You are a great God. You are big, big, big, big, big, big, big. Large, large, large, large, large, large, large. Great, great, great God. You are a great God. You are God. You are God. You are not just big, oh. You are not just large, oh. You are a great God. You are great. You are God. Jehovah God, you are not just big, oh. Aye raye, you are not just large, oh. Baba, you are a great God. You are God. You are God. You are not just big, oh. Baba, you are not just large, oh. You are a great. Binu re ba dun fowo re gbe Jesu ga o. Binu re ba dun fowo re gbe Jesu ga o. Binu re ba dun fojo re gbe Jesu ga o. Gbe ga o, gbe ga o, gbe Jesu ga o. Gbe ga o, gbe ga o, gbe Jesu ga o. Binu re ba dun fojo re gbe baba ga o. O fun wa o, o fun wa layo to po o. Binu re ba dun fowo re gbe baba ga o. Arugbo ojo alagbara giga giga. Binu re ba dun fojo re gbe baba ga o. Omo Olorun e ba mi gbe Jesu ga o. Omo Olorun fojo re gbe Jesu ga o. Eh, gbe ga o, gbe ga o, gbe Jesu ga o. Gbe ga o, gbe ga o, gbe Jesu ga o. He has given us victory. I will lift Him higher, higher. Jehovah, we lift. Baba has given us victory. He has given us success. Eh, Baba has given us victory. I will lift Him higher. Jehovah, I will lift Him higher. [Speaker 1] Let us say something to the Lord. Let us worship the King of Glory, the I Am that I Am, the Lord God Almighty. Let us worship our Lord, our Redeemer, our Helper, our Defender. Great and mighty God, oh Lord Jesus, we worship you. We appreciate you once again for this great, great, great privilege to be called sons of God. We thank you. We appreciate you for the great sacrifice. Lord, we thank you for this great love. We give you all the glory, Lord. We worship you, Lord. We bow down before you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for access to the Father. Thank you for making us sons of God, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus. We worship you. We appreciate you. Thank you, Eternal Father. We give you all the glory as we go into your word. Oh Lord, we ask for an open heaven. We ask that the floodgate of heaven be opened unto your people. We ask that both hearers and speaker will be blessed. We ask, oh Lord, that our life will never remain the same. We ask that you will meet us at the point of our need. Holy Spirit, we submit unto you. Thank you because you are here to bless your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We thank God again for another time in His presence this morning. It has been Him, it is still Him, and it will yet be God. We thank Him for His goodness. We thank Him for His favor. But for Him, we will not be where we are today. Particularly this season, as we talk about the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, Jesus is indeed the reason for this season. We are forever grateful for the sacrifice that brought redemption to us. We thank Jesus. We are ever grateful to God. But for Jesus, I just wonder what our life would look like. I just wonder what we would be. I just wonder where we would be. I just wonder what the devil would have made out of our life. All glory, all honor, all adoration to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are welcome again to this month's episode of Family Tent Ministry Marriage Forum. As you connect with us online, everywhere you are, we are welcoming you into this special month of April. The month of April is special because it is the month we of the Christian faith celebrate the resurrection, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are welcome to this month's Marriage Forum and we believe that it will be a time of blessing to you, to your marriage, to your life, and all of us will be partakers of His divine blessings and His mercies as we fellowship together this morning in the name of Jesus Christ. We want to look into the scripture again. Maybe I should begin like this. Our focus this month of April, we will be commencing a series that may run for several months. Every second Saturday like this, by 10:00 AM, we want to begin a series. It will run for—for the number of months that it will run, I cannot say precisely now, but I believe as we journey with the Lord, it will become clearer and clearer as to when we will be coming to an end of the series. The theme for the series is: My Life, My Marriage. My Life, My Marriage. Under this theme, we will be considering various topics. We will be looking at considering, looking at different issues. As you connect with us online, perhaps you have questions, you can also send them and definitely we would respond to them as the time permits for us. Your question can come in. Remember, it is a forum. It is an interactive forum. It is a teaching time, it is a discussion time. That is why we are saying that if you have questions, you can send in your question. If you want to be calling us later, by the end of the program, the number on which you can reach us and other information will be passed across to you so that you can later reach us even if you want to reach us after the program. My Life, My Marriage. In beginning with "My Life, My Marriage," what is life? What is marriage? My Life, My Marriage. As Christians, we make reference to two kinds of life: the biological existence and the eternal life. Our biological existence and then our eternal life—eternal life offered in Jesus. When we are talking about His death and His resurrection, where the Bible says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." So, there is the biological existence and there is the life eternal that is given to man through the death and resurrection of Jesus. As we move on in our discussion, we will be making reference to these two forms of life: my life, my biological life, and then the matter of eternal life. My Life, My Marriage. Marriage, for us as Christians, we understand marriage from the perspective of the Bible. For us as believers, marriage originated as an institution from God. It is an institution that has divine origin that originated from God. God created Adam and later created Eve, and thereafter ordained that a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one. It is from this perspective we are looking at marriage. Marriage as ordained by God as having divine origin. Marriage as an institution involving a male and a female. Marriage, an institution that commences at the point where a man leaves father and mother, receives the blessings of the parents to join his wife and the two become one. Marriage, we are looking at it from that perspective. My Life, My Marriage. We are looking at it from that standpoint. So while there are several definitions for marriage, there are several conceptualizations for marriage, there are several perspectives, philosophical points of view to marriage, we are looking at marriage under this discussion as having divine origin. The divine origin coming from the Almighty God, manifested in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God who redeemed mankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. We are looking at marriage as an institution ordained by God between a male and a female. We are looking at marriage as commencing at the point where the parents bless their children, the man pays dowry as requested by the father or the family of the woman, and the woman becomes his wife. We are looking at marriage from that standpoint. So, My Life, My Marriage. While there are different ways or methods or means by which people enter into marriage today, from the point of our discussion, we are looking at those other means of entry as an aberration. The point we are looking at, we are talking about marriage that commences at the point of parental blessing upon a man, upon their children, and the man pays the dowry to the father or the parents concerned over the lady and the lady becomes his wife. That is what we are referring to as your marriage. Your marriage. My life, my biological life, eternal life, your marriage. That is the series we want to commence. That is the series we want to start with. For today, we will be starting from a very interesting topic. Why we are starting from this topic, I believe as we journey on in this series, I trust that the Lord will grant us life, health, and strength to all continue together. You will be there and I will be there. You will be able to connect with us more and more online and we move on together in the name of Jesus Christ. So I think the topic will be clearer as we move on. We are starting today with the topic: The Tongue. The Tongue. My Life, My Marriage. The Tongue. We will be looking at some biblical references as we navigate this matter of the tongue. The first scripture that I will read is Proverbs 12:18. Proverbs 12:18. Here the Bible says, I am quoting from the KJV Bible: "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health." "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health." That is Proverbs 12:18. Let me try and read some other translation for you apart from the KJV Bible. Let's make it clearer as we read verse 18. I want to read the Amplified translation and the NLT, New Living Translation. Proverbs 12:18, Amplified: "There are those who speak rashly, like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." NLT: "Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing." We are talking about My Life, My Marriage. Of course, if a tongue is like the piercing of a sword, you know what a sword is meant for. What is a sword meant for? A sword can be used for several things, but particularly when we talk about sword, we are talking about an instrument that is used for battle. In being used for battle, by a sword a man kills his opponent, he kills His opponent or he kills an enemy. So the Bible says the tongue can perform the function of a sword. The tongue can slaughter. The tongue can kill. So in relation to My Life, My Marriage, from that scripture we are gathering that there is a way some people speak, and in their speaking, they are actually drawing up a sword and with that sword they are pressing through their life or the life of their spouse or spouses, or they are piercing through their marriage just with the use of the tongue. So the tongue, from Proverbs 12:18, is something that can have a direct effect on the on your life, a direct effect on your marriage, the life of your spouse. The tongue can have a direct effect. Again, I read another scripture, still in Proverbs. I want us to see Proverbs 15:4. Proverbs 15:4. That's another scripture again that makes reference to the tongue. Proverbs 15:4, I read the KJV translation. Here the Bible says, Proverbs 15:4, KJV: "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit." Let me take the Amplified translation: "A gentle tongue with its healing power is a tree of life, but willful contrariness in it breaks down the spirit." Willful contrariness in it breaks down the spirit. NLT translation: "Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit." So we are looking at something, we are linking them together. My life, the life of my spouse, the life of that person I have a relationship with, the life of my fiance or my fiancee, that relationship. Number one, we said when the tongue is rash, when the tongue has cutting remarks, then it becomes like a sword. A rash tongue is a sword that cuts through the life, that cuts through the marriage. Again, we are looking at perverseness, perversity in the tongue, that can be translated as a deceitful tongue, a lying tongue. A lying tongue, when a tongue lies, when it is perverse, when it is not honest, when it is not truthful, when it is not upright, when it is not sincere, when it is not straightforward. He says perversity in the tongue is a breach in the spirit, breaks down the spirit. It means when a tongue is sincere, when a tongue is truthful, when a tongue is gentle, when a tongue is straightforward, when what is coming out of that tongue is the reality of what is happening—there is no cover-up, nothing is hidden, there is sincerity in the tongue, the tongue is upright, the tongue is sincere—the Bible says such a tongue will bring healing. It is health, it is life. It is a tree of life. Don't forget our theme: My Life, My Marriage. That life can be sustained, that your life can be sustained, that your life, that your marriage, can be sustained by a tongue that is sincere, by a tongue that is gentle, by a tongue that is wholesome, by a tongue that is straightforward, a tongue that what comes out of it represents the reality of what is going on, a tongue that does not have cover-up, a tongue that is not deceitful. But when the tongue is deceitful, when the tongue is not gentle, when the tongue is rash, when the tongue cuts like the piercing of the sword, when the tongue is deceitful, the Bible says it will not be a tree of life. Can we look at the direct opposite of a tree of life to become a tree of death? So there is an instrument in you that can directly affect your life and then destroy your marriage. You need your life to run your marriage. But once the life is destroyed, the marriage will die. You need your life. You don't need a broken spirit to run a marriage. You don't need a shattered spirit to run a marriage. You don't need a spirit that has been broken, a spirit that is depressed, a spirit that has been crushed to run a good marriage. You need a spirit that is alive, a spirit that is healthy. Mental health—of course, that is why you discover that the World Health Organization defines health as not just the absence of diseases but something that encompasses psychological well-being, physical well-being, social well-being, mental well-being. So a man may not be having any biological discontinuity, but the person is not healthy because he's depressed, because mentally he's shattered, psychologically the person is broken. Why? Because there was a tongue in that marriage that is rash. There is a tongue in that marriage that is deceitful. There is a tongue in that marriage that cuts through the life. There is a tongue in that marriage that is not wholesome. There is a tongue in that marriage that is not sincere. There is a tongue in that marriage that does not represent the reality of matters. A lot of cover-up, a lot of lies, a lot of deceit. It's all proceeding from the tongue. And so the people in that marriage, either the husband, either the wife, they are not healthy. And because they are not healthy, they cannot run a healthy marriage. I don't see a depressed man running a healthy marriage. I don't see a depressed woman running a healthy marriage. I don't see a man or a woman whose spirit has been crushed by the rash tongue of the husband, or whose spirit has been crushed, a man whose spirit has been crushed by the deceitful tongue of the wife. I don't see them running a healthy marriage. A marriage cannot be healthy. So what do you expect in that marriage? Instability, brokenness, trouble, fight, contention, restlessness. I told you in my earlier post on Facebook, which is just a follow-up to what we are discussing today, that we will be looking at matters that make the rate of marital instability today to become alarming in our society. Marital instability has become so alarming, so alarming. It has become the concern of researchers, the concern of religious leaders, the concern of families, the concern of the health sector, the private sector, the organized private sector, concern of individuals, concern of government. Because marriage today represents so many things that is not healthy. Marriages today have become wasters of life. You will hear this one, this person stabbed the wife to death. That person stabbed the husband to death. This person killed the husband, this person killed the wife. That happened, this happened, so many troubles, alarming things, worrisome trends in society. And this series that we are looking at, My Life, My Marriage, is actually a voice, lending our voice to this matter of this alarming rate of marital instability among people of all walks of life in society. The religious, the non-religious, the intellectual, the illiterate, the rich, the poor, the seemingly devotees of different religion. The trouble cuts across all walks of life. The trend is alarming. The magnitude is something that calls for concern. And as a ministry that is concerned about the family, we are lending our voice and we are starting a series: My Life, My Marriage. And we are encouraging you as you start the series with us today, continue the series, invite friends, let's look at this matter, send in your questions, call us. We must find a path out of this problem. And I believe that Jesus is the answer for the world today. We believe that Jesus is the answer. We believe it. We are persuaded of that. And we are looking at this matter and we trust that the Lord, our God, will meet with your marriage. Is there trouble in your home? There will be peace. Is there contention? There will be rest. Jesus that we are celebrating His death and resurrection today, said—made a statement in Matthew 11:28-30. He said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." We believe as a ministry, because our ministry is a faith-based ministry, and it's the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, we believe that the peace of Jesus, the rest of Jesus, will rest upon your marriage in the name of Jesus Christ. We are looking at the topic: The Tongue. The Tongue under the theme: My Life, My Marriage. Still on the matter of the tongue, I still want to read a scripture, another verse of the scripture, still in Proverbs. Proverbs is that book of practical wisdom where we can learn a lot of things. It's a book of practical wisdom where we can learn so many things. Now let's look again at another scripture. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:21. Proverbs 18:21. Let's see that scripture together. Proverbs 18:21. I will read again as usual, I will read the KJV translation, I will read the Amplified translation, and I will read the New Living translation. Proverbs 18:21, the Bible says: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." Life and death. Our theme is My Life, My Marriage. That life, whether the biological life or the eternal life, that life, that your marital life, life and death are also in the power of the tongue. That very tongue in your marriage. Your tongue in your marriage. Life and death are at the disposal of your tongue. Your tongue. Life and death are at the disposal of your tongue, depending on how you use it. You can bring life and you can bring death. Let me read the Amplified translation. It says: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or for life]." That's the Amplified translation. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it, whether for life or for death. Whether for life or for death. So let me take the NLT translation. The NLT translation says: "The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences." The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. So the Bible is just telling us into which direction, in which direction are you putting your tongue? In which direction are you indulging your tongue? In which direction are you using it? But what we are seeing this morning is that My Life, My Marriage has a strong association with what? With your tongue. My Life, My Marriage has a strong association. There is a relationship between your tongue and your life and your marriage. And what is the relationship? Relationship is that the tongue can bring death and it can bring life. In other words, the tongue can either promote life, that your life, it can promote it. It can help it, it can sustain it. And in sustaining your life, it sustains your marital life. It sustains your relationship. It sustains your association. It sustains it. At the same time, death. That same tongue, used in another direction, can destroy you, can kill your life, and so kill your association, kill your relationship, and kill your marriage. And the Bible says whichever one you indulge—another translation says those who love to talk—in other words, if you look at the journey from where we took it, we have looked at two important things about the tongue. We talked about number one, there is a tongue that speak like the piercing of the sword. We saw that that tongue is a tongue that is rash. A tongue that does not reflect deeply, that does not consider the consequence, the implication of what is to be said. That is why in some aspect of the scripture, still in Proverbs, the Bible says "Hast thou seen a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him." When you see a man who is rash with his tongue. We saw that those who make cutting remarks, those who speak rashly, they actually speak in a way that cuts like the cutting of a sword. That is, they destroy, they kill, they pierce through. The other thing we saw about the tongue is that there can be perversity in the tongue. The tongue can be perverse. Some tongues may not be rash, they may not be piercing. They could be very, very gentle. They may look very, very innocent. They look so, so harmless. In fact, when they are even about to speak, you will be thinking "this person cannot hurt a fly." But perversity can be on that tongue. Insincerity, deceit, deceitfulness, all kinds of craftiness, pranks, duplicity, wiles, manipulation, all kinds of things can be on that tongue. The Bible says when a tongue is not perverse, it's a tree of life. But when a tongue is perverse, the Bible says it breaks the spirit. Now we are looking at a scripture that says life and death are in the power of the tongue. So whichever one you indulge, whichever one you like—says those who love talking—so the one you love doing determines the consequence you get. In other words, those who love to be rash with their tongue, those who love to be deceitful with their tongue, what will they get out of it? They will get the death that is in the tongue. What I'm saying is that that tongue of yours may neither sustain your life nor your marriage. May not sustain your relationship, may not sustain your association, just your tongue. Because there is death in it. How do you bring the death? You bring it by your cutting remarks. You bring it by the perversity in it, the deceitfulness, the lies, the hypocrisy, the insincerity. As you bring those things into your life and you bring them—of course, if it is in your life, of course, it will be in your marriage. That's why I've always believed that until you get a sincere life, you can also not get a sincere tongue in a marriage. It is individual life that translates into the marital life. You can't separate your life from your marital life. So if a man, before he entered into marriage, has not been sincere with people, has been deceitful with them, there is perversity in his tongue, he is never straightforward, you can be very sure it is with that same tongue that he will deceitfully get into marriage. And it is in that marriage he will also be deceitfully running the marriage. I don't know whether you understand what I'm trying to say. What I'm saying is that life, life cannot be separated—My Life, My Marriage, they are inseparable. And then my life, my marriage, my tongue, they are inseparable. If there is life in your marriage, it is about your tongue. If there is death in your marriage, it is about your tongue. If there is life in your life, it is about your tongue. If there is death in your life, it is about your tongue. So the matter is about the tongue. And I said we are starting this series, My Life, My Marriage, with this topic: The Tongue. We don't know for how long this series will run, My Life, My Marriage, but we are starting with the tongue. I'm showing you a very small element of you, a very small part of you that is so vital in your marriage. One small organ, compared to the hand, the leg, the total size of the body. Look at the ratio of the tongue to the total size of your body. I believe as we go on, this matter will be clearer when we get to the New Testament where we'll be looking at this matter more and more. But we are making you to see something very practically, that life and death, there is the power of the tongue. Depending on how you indulge the tongue determines the consequence that you get. So your life, your life, your individual life, your marriage, your marital life, your association, your relationship, that your life in it is sustained or destroyed by your tongue. By your tongue. So how are you using your tongue? So let's see what the Bible says finally in that same Proverbs as we look at the last scripture in that Proverbs. I want us to see, this time around, Proverbs 21:23. Let's see that scripture together before we go to James. Proverbs 21:23. I will read the KJV translation. It says: "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles." I pray you will be wise with your tongue. I pray your tongue will not trouble your soul. I pray your tongue will not trouble your marriage. Your tongue can trouble your soul. And when your soul is troubled, your marriage will be shaken. Your tongue can trouble the soul of your spouse. And when you trouble the soul of your spouse, of course you are troubling your marriage. What I'm saying is that with that very tongue of yours, you can be standing against God. You know the Bible says a man shall leave father and mother and shall be joined to his wife. You remember how we defined marriage under in during our conceptual clarification? Say a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one. That is what we call marriage. That is what we mean by marriage under our discussion. Any other thing else is different. And he said they are no longer two, they are one. Whatsoever God has joined together, let no man do what? Put asunder. Now what I'm saying is this: your tongue, your own tongue, can be putting your marriage asunder. Your tongue. I'm not talking about the tongue of your spouse. I'm talking about your own tongue. Bible did not say the tongue of your spouse. He said your tongue. Of course, your spouse also have her own tongue or have his own tongue, whichever way the case may be. Or your fiance or your fiancee, that your association. He says whosoever keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles. And when you keep your soul from trouble, you keep your marriage from trouble, you keep your home from trouble, you keep your family from trouble, you keep your children from trouble, you keep the whole of your life from trouble. Let's read the Amplified translation. Amplified puts it in a way that is very, very interesting. It said he who guards his mouth—mind you, the tongue already has a guard. If we want to bring some sense of humor to our discussion, you see how God place the tongue between thirty-two teeth like a chain around it so that it does not just go out anyhow. Something should chain it down. God did not stop there. He put the lips again. So there are two gates, gate one, gate two that you must open before the tongue can come out. Maybe God is trying to say be careful with this tongue, even biologically. That's just a sense of humor anyway. It is not written in the Bible anywhere. But I'm saying that there seem to be two gates before you get the tongue where it is secured. And it is so important. The Bible says that he, he, he who guards his tongue, the person who guards it, the person who keeps it, the person who watch over it, he say keep his soul from trouble. What are the troubles? We have mentioned them earlier. What is the first trouble? He that speak like the piercing of sword. What is that kind of a tongue? Bible say it crushes the spirit of the spouse. Your tongue can bring depression. Your tongue can bring mental imbalance. Your tongue can make the other person to commit suicide. Your tongue can kill the spirit of the other person so that by the time you want to use the other person, the other person is already dead inside because of the way you use your tongue. You can save yourself all of these trouble. What is the other thing? You can save yourself the trouble of your tongue being a tree of death. That is, the fruit people eat from that tongue is death. You can save your marriage, you can save your home, you can save your children, you can save your association, your relationship. You can save them all of these trouble if you will guard your tongue. And quickly, I want us, with this background in Proverbs, I want us to now see one of our main texts for today. Let's go to the book of James. One of our main texts for today, with all of this background from the book of Proverbs, let's see another of our main text. Let's look at something again in the chapter two of that same James. In the chapter two of the same James that we just read. In the—sorry, chapter three, chapter three. Chapter three, not chapter two. Chapter three. I want us to look at something in chapter three. Having noted in chapter one that what? What did James note in chapter one? A man religion is vain if he does not bridle his tongue. Coming to chapter three, he now took time to address the matter. He said, "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." I would come back to this verse one of chapter three later. "For in many things we offend all. I'm still reading the KJV. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." Amplified: "Not many of you should become teachers, self-constituted censor and reprover of others, not just teachers of the word." I hope you are getting the meaning of that teacher now. Do you get the meaning of that teacher now? Some people have this managerial—this magisterial spirit of feeling that they are ever right and everybody is ever wrong and so they are the person who always have superior understanding of every issue. They have this superior concept of themselves, this superiority complex. And that is what he's trying to address. He's not talking about because teachers are given to the church to teach. But sometimes he's also telling us as teachers that the purpose of teaching is not to make yourself a judge. Not to make yourself a judge. But that is not the place where I want to rest. My brethren, for you know that we teachers will be judged by higher standard and with greater severity than other people. Thus, we assume greater responsibility and the more condemned. For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. If anyone does not offend in speech, never says the wrong things, he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his own body and to curb his entire nature. NLT translation: "Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should be teachers in the church, for we teachers will be judged more strictly. Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and also control ourselves in every other way." Are you looking at scripture? We want to give you Yoruba translation of that thing. Okay, let's have it. "Eyin ara mi, e ma se je oluko ni pipo, ki eyin ki o mo pe awa ni yio jebi julo. Nitori ninu ohun pupo ni gbogbo wa n sise. Bi enikan ko ba si sise ninu oro, ohun na ni eni pipe, ohun ni o si le ko gbogbo ara ni ijanu." Do you understand? You are following this matter that we are going—the tongue. The tongue. That's our concern. Now in our concern about the tongue, the Bible is making us to see something very, very clear. And that is why some times back on my Facebook and on the ministry group page, I noted something there. I noted something on the group page. I wanted also, I tried to put it together in such a way that we could all—maybe I should read what I wrote as we continue this morning. Just one minute. Let me open something that I wrote. I want us to just look at that together. I wrote something a few days ago and I want us to look at it together. Just one minute. I'll be there. Could not easily get that now. Maybe later I will read to our hearing. I just wrote something for the benefit of us, for us all, as I studied this aspect of the scripture some days ago, and my mind was called to some issue about it. Okay, I could not easily get that now. Let's just continue. Now the Bible is saying in this place that indeed, indeed, we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. In many things. In many things we offend all. And I like the way the Bible put it. He said we offend all. You know what the Bible is trying to say? While you are trying to think that you can judge the other person and you can just talk anyhow to that other person, the Bible wants you to know that several times you too have offended that person. In many things we offend all. Do you understand? While you may be thinking that you have the right to talk anyhow to somebody, that thing you want to talk to somebody anyhow about, you too might have offended somebody about that same thing. You would have offended somebody somewhere. For in many things we offend all. In many things, don't let anybody think that he can stand as a judge over others. The judge in this sense is that he can stand as somebody who have not in any way wronged others. So that in your handling, in your handling of discussion with people, in your handling of issues with people, you need to bear in mind that we all often do what? We all often offend. We all often make mistake. We all often offend people. Let me give you a good example sometime. Sometimes somebody talk to you, you just got angry. "Ah, no! I was just trying to look look look. I'm not in a good mood the way it met me. I just didn't like it and that's what—that's how I just feel about it." You know that that same thing, several times you too have said something to somebody and the person "Look look! What are you trying to say?" Do you understand me? In many things the Bible say we offend all. So if any man does not offend in word in your handling people, in your talking to people, then that person is a perfect person. And what I'm trying to say therefore is that it becomes so crucial in any relationship, it becomes so evident in any relationship that one thing, one thing that the husband and the wife must understand, one thing we must understand in every relationship, is that we must avoid this magisterial spirit. This rebuking people with extreme rigor, with extremely talking sharply, sharp remarks. The Bible says it breach it does what? Is like the cutting of the sword. It breaches the spirit. It quenches, it breaks spirit. What you want to achieve, you may not necessarily achieve it because you'll be causing other problem. You'll be causing other problem. This is very, very important. And the Bible says that one way, one way to know that we are really becoming spiritual and matured is how much we can remove a cutting tongue from our life. How do you know you are maturing in your relationship with your spouse? How do I know I'm maturing? I think it was in this meeting one day I talked about the news I heard on the radio. It was over who charge his phone first, his or her phone first. They brought light. There had not been light, NEPA brought light. I heard it on the radio. I think they said it happened in Katsina state. They brought light. There was just one charger. The husband wanted to charge first. The wife said no, I should charge first. The husband wanted to charge first. No, you charge first, I will charge first. The long and short, the wife stabbed the husband to death. In during interrogation, police of course, it has become a murder case, so police—the wife said no, they brought light and he said, she said, he said. Where are the things coming from? That great storm that took the family began with what? The use of words. That storm that swept the family away. The wife now is a widow on who will charge first. The children have become fatherless on who will charge first. I guess I said I will charge first. Ah, somebody said no, I don't know, I'm not there. Ah, I bought this thing. It's with my money. Say and so what? Am I not your wife? You married me to come and enjoy your things with you. I don't know how the thing went and it went and it went and it went. The wife said it was husband that first took the knife to kill her. Because he was angry when he was arguing with him. So when he ran in to bring the knife, because he was angry because they were both arguing, then the she took the knife from the husband in to defend himself, he mistakenly killed the hus—she mistakenly killed the husband. That was what she said. What am I trying to bring out is this: the tongue. The tongue. How are you using it? How am I using it? How are we using our tongue in our home? Is your tongue crushing the spirit of the other person? So you can see that your tongue, your life, your marriage, they are tied together. But in many things we offend all. We'll meet next on this matter. We'll be looking into that verse two more and more. In many things we offend all. How do we relate to this matter? Both in the use of the tongue and how we behave in our marriage. Our actions and our tongue. In many things we offend all. How do you—what is the implication of this our life and for our marriage? We'll relate it now to our life and our marriage. And I pray your life and your marriage will experience the peace that Jesus brings, will experience the rest that Jesus brings in the name of Jesus Christ. Let us have a word of prayer. Let us have a word of prayer. Let us have a word of prayer. I want us to say something to God. Let us pray. Let us ask the Lord to help us. Let us ask the Lord to help us. The Lord has spoken to me. The Lord has spoken to us all. Let us ask the Lord to help us as we make up our mind to make our tongue speak forth life and not death. Oh Lord, help us. There is no other, there is no alternative than this, that our tongue speak life. And all that it requires, all that we need to be this, Lord, you will work it in us and through us to the glory of your name, the blessing of our life, of humanity, of our marriage, everywhere we are. So that by the word of our mouth, the fruit we bring out, men will see that we are your disciples indeed. Help us, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Heavenly Father, we are grateful unto you for your word that is spoken to us again. Unto your hand, oh Lord, we commit ourselves. Bible say you send your word, it heals and delivers us from all affliction. There is no greater affliction than the affliction of sin, and Jesus has delivered us from this. And if you can freely give us Jesus, what can't you freely give us with Him? You will freely give us the strength to live, to use our tongue rightly in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, we are yours. Cause the fountain of life, which is life through the word of God, meekness, gentleness, all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, let this virtue, Lord, flow from within us in Jesus' name. Lord, we bring our tongue under your control as we also submit to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ. Father, beyond this point, as you burden our heart yet to pray more and to also meditate more on your word that is spoken to us, we pray, Lord, that we will see you in a new way. That Lord, this word will become flesh in us and will become us, and we will live it out in Jesus' name. We give you all the glory, Lord. Thank you for your son that you've used. We pray Lord God Almighty that the source from which he draws from will not be corrupted in Jesus' name. And we know this fountain of living water never grow dry. Cause her to continually drink from you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Father, we give you all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We also want to use this opportunity to tell our brethren here and those everywhere hearing us that Family Tent Ministry is not a church-based ministry but is an avenue through which God ministers to homes, youth, families, and as many the Lord will touch. And we this—we have our program, different program. We every Monday we have our discipleship class. Every Monday by 5:00 PM, it's also online, we transmit it live. We enjoin you to join us. Every first Saturday of the month, we have our singles and adolescent club, 10:00 AM too. And every second Saturday like this, today is second Saturday of April, every second Saturday of the month, we also have our Marriage Forum, that which we have taken today. We also enjoin you to join us on our website, familytent, www.familytentministry.org. And by the grace of God, as you go through this—go—attend this program or also go through our messages online, the Lord will bless you richly in the name of Jesus Christ. And by this same meeting will be broadcast by 5:00 PM—rebroadcast by 5:00 PM today. So do good to link up with us to the website and the Lord will bless you richly in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord. Amen.