One Flesh 131220

The transcript of the audio, utilizing "Clean Verbatim" standards and enhanced annotation, is as follows: [Speaker 2] 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 Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Living Father, we thank you for the privilege of being here today, especially in respect of our sister, your dear daughter, your servant. We lift you up, O God, because you have provided for us this forum to come together and that our lives may further be affected in a memorable way by reason of this 50th year anniversary, 50 years of impactful lifestyles that had brought many sons unto glory. May your name be glorified in the name of Jesus. Speak with us today. Open our eyes of understanding that we may discern all you want us to capture in this meeting. Thank you for answering our prayers. In Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. I regard it an immense privilege to be the one that will actually speak for about 30 minutes in the occasion of Family Tent Seminar and our sister’s 50th year anniversary. And I pray that you will live very long to make heavier impact upon this generation of yours in the name of Jesus. I pray your lives will not just be ordinary in the mighty name of Jesus. The topic I will be opening, because I would not be able to actually make a treatise of this particular topic today, One Flesh. That is what we will be examining together. Like I said, I can only make a preamble, then after preamble there will be introduction, after introduction there will be the One Flesh theory. And I am not sure I'll be able to go all this far today. However, the Holy Spirit will not leave us without a hook that will keep drawing us to this topic. I am believing that next meeting will be a continuation of this one. So, One Flesh is actually the purpose of God so that together as couple we will be able to accomplish his divine purpose. So by way of preamble, like I said, we will be reading together Genesis 2, and I will read for you since I can see some of us busy munching. I will read verse 15, then I will continue to 22 or probably even to the end. Genesis 2:15-23: "And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.' And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man.'" Please permit me to stop there and I would also like to read Matthew 19. Matthew 19, I will read from verse 3 and stop at verse 6. Matthew 19:3-6: "The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, 'Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?' And he answered and said unto them, 'Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh"? Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'" Hallelujah. I would like to enter from Jesus’s response to the Pharisees' leg-pulling questions. They asked from Jesus, they challenged Jesus. I want us to please give attention. They said, "Master, women are troublesome. Women. I don't know if you know them so much as we do. Is anything wrong? Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" And when Jesus was answering them, I am more concerned with Jesus’s answer than the question because that is where we will begin to thresh the topic. He says, "Have ye not read?" That language of Jesus, "Have ye not read?" is like saying, "Are you so naive? Are you so daft? Don't you read? I thought you were vast in the law and commandment of God. You were supposed to be Pharisees who know better when it comes to the law. So, are you telling me now that you have not yet seen it in the law of God that he which made them at the beginning actually fashioned them a pair? The male and the female." Please, I want you to give me little attention. That word that God made them male and female is not actually implying that he made them male sex and female sex. It simply implied, this is where Jesus is actually drawing his conclusion with which he answered them, that he who made them actually fashioned them a pair. The male counterpart and the female counterpart. It is saying, "Each of these my children now, as we are looking at them, God created this species in pair. God made her a pair. This is the female counterpart of that pair. The male counterpart, I don't know where he is." However, she is here to be made. While she is still with you, she is being made morally, academically, spiritually, emotionally. When God is assigned the responsibility to partner with God in making, because God told that man in Genesis 2:18 that "I will make for him an help meet for him." Are you following me, please? And in the making, just like God’s eyes was looking to and fro, it is a very great privilege to be given the responsibility just like the daughter of Pharaoh told the mother of Moses in the book of Exodus, she says, "Take him and nurse him for me. Whatever be thy wages, I will pay." I hear God telling every parent according to Malachi 2:15. He says, "Why has he made them one? After all, he has the remaining of the spirit." The Bible says that he has chosen to make them one that they might raise for him godly seed, sons, boys and girls. In actual sense, Jesus was telling them that when you have made something male and female... Maybe let me give you this analogy. Those who manufacture sandals or shoes, they make it left and right. Is it not so? So, one is not valid without the other. Whatever condemns the left leg of the shoe renders the right one unusable. So, if I now say my wife is bad, please get out of my life, well, she is my pair. It implies that I have rendered myself invalid. That is what Jesus was teaching them, that he who made them in the beginning actually fashioned them male and female. In animal science there is something they call animal behavior. I know that there is this bird they call dove or pigeon. We have one presently incubating on just two eggs. They don't lay more than two eggs in their lifetime. If you keep pigeon or you have witnessed dove, do you know dove? All these common one flying around. Every brooding season they lay only two eggs. There is never a circumstance that can make them to have more than two eggs in their nest. They are unlike [unclear: adiye] and turkey that keeps laying and laying, tens and twenties. And if they realize that anything has gone wrong with one of the eggs, they will not continue their incubation. But if they are sure that the two are okay, then they begin to brood over the two eggs. And when the two eggs are hatched, they are hatched automatically male and female. There is never an accident that can make it to be two females or two males. And this pair are actually going to be life partners. So their parents will raise them and when they are matured enough, they go to start their own life. They leave their parents, and in fact, their parents leave them. Then after, should anything happens to one of them, if one dies, it renders the other one invalid. It remains sterile. You will never see a dove pursuing the female or the male of another, just like you see the cock and the turkey just climbing on any other one. It is not like that with doves. It is not like that with pigeon. If you want to verify, go and buy pigeon and then experiment. So, God said, "I made them male and female." That is the implication of that word. "Male and female created he them." Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So when Jesus was saying, "Have ye not read?" he expected them to understand this much, that he who made them made them male and female. And said, "For this cause." For which cause? That they may be able to live their one flesh life. Everywhere you see this text, whether in this place, in Genesis 2, in Ephesians 5, it always begins with either a wherefore or a therefore or for this cause. It there must be something. "Shall a man now leave father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife." It is this one fleshness, this one flesh theory that will make a man to now detach from father and mother so that he can be properly attached, so that he can be one with his wife. And the Bible says, Jesus now added here that for your understanding, they are no longer twain. They are actually one, just like a pair of shoe, a pair of socks, a pair of goggle, a pair of trousers, a pair of whatever exist in pairs. It will be a deformity. Imagine me wearing the glass with this lens out. I will just look like a comedian. Is it not so? That is just it. Or you see me, "This one, I don't like it. He has misbehaved. He always disgraces me everywhere." Then I just choose to throw it off. [Yoruba: Koni da fun ewo, oti everywhere lo ti ma n doju ti ara e]. I now refuse. I now go out. I now begin to look for other beautiful ladies. Begin to look for other beautiful ladies. Let me see this one. Please lend me. Wow. Thank you. Wow, what a beautiful, fitting car. Amen. Wow, how do I look? Fantastic. This and this. This is exactly what happens to a life who chooses to discard his life partner and now thinks he has found another beautiful one and got hooked. He sees himself as, "Wow, something." But the world is looking at him as a crazy person. [Yoruba: O fẹ sọkun i dẹ o ku dẹ. Ṣe ko understand?]. This is just the picture of a life, of a man. So, like I said, all we can just discuss today is just the preamble. We will not be able to dig very deep. But from this text that we have just read, Jesus was proving a point to them that they are no longer twain but one flesh. Just as no one will say, if I ask from you this afternoon, [Yoruba: Bata melo le wọ wa sibi bayii?]. You will say, [Yoruba: Meji ni]. After all, a pair now. [Yoruba: Ṣe eeyan ma n wọ bata meji lẹẹkan?]. You are here in a pair of shoes. And so, wherefore they are no more twain for your understanding, but one flesh. I noticed that everywhere this scripture is quoted, the Bible did not say one spirit. He did not say one soul but one flesh. And when we are talking about flesh, we are talking about the things you call carnal: money, property, land, etc. One flesh. It is the flesh that is joined together because in heaven there is no marriage. We are all like angels. Everywhere will live for himself. I will be judged, my wife will also. But as far as this place is concerned, that is why God chooses to make it a one flesh matter. So, what therefore. The Bible did not say who therefore. It is what that was joined together and not who. I don't know whether you are catching something out of here. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." We will not be able to talk about the man that put asunder. But Jesus was teaching them that it is never in the capacity of any legal luminary or any judge to pronounce any couple or relationship dissolved just because of irreconcilable differences. Is there a difference that is irreconcilable in this world? It is just because of the hardness of human heart. And so Jesus was now telling them this truth. Wherefore they are no more twain. You see, in the yesteryears when our parents were just doing arithmetic and mathematics and modern math, they have not yet started further mathematics in those days. All they can just do is one plus one equals one. They say the mathematics of God is one plus one equals one. But I always tell people it is logically, mathematically, and whatever, wrong. If God is the author of knowledge, it can never be one plus one. It is not even logical. Then how is it? The mathematical formula now should be one into one equals one. You can prove that mathematically. In actual sense, this woman you are looking at was not a different entity. When God actually wanted to fashion her, I am giving us the fundamental of one fleshness. What God simply did was to sedate me. And when God sedated me, he took one of my rib. She was actually out of me. Are you following me? And with that one rib, God now fashioned this beautiful, dark complexion woman. I don't know why God did not involve me. If he had involved me, maybe I would have preferred a fair-complexioned woman. If God had involved me, maybe I would have preferred a [Yoruba: lẹpa] woman. If God had involved me, maybe I would have preferred the specifications I want in a woman. But he did not. Neither did he involve Adam. Adam passed out for a while and God started the operation. And when God did it, that Genesis chapter 2 we read said after God had finished, he brought her unto, unto the man. If you check your Bible, it did not say, "Okay, you can now go and meet her." God pulled her hand. Maybe that is the reason when they want to do wedding in the church they will say, "Who gave this woman away in marriage?" [Yoruba: Tani o fi ọmọbirin yii f’ọkọ?]. Then you will now see one man in Agbada and he will come and say, "It is me." They will say, "Say it louder." "It is me." Hehe. So, it was God that brought the woman. If you read that Genesis 2, and gave her unto the man. Hallelujah. And when God has given her unto the man, it was not just, "Give me rice, give me food, give me yam, wash clothes for me," because in the garden of Eden when God created marriage, Adam had no problem fixing food because "of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." [Yoruba: Abi bẹẹ kọ?]. So he had no problem fixing food. So your wife is actually not there as a food-fixer, food-fixing entity. Though she does that, but that is not the primary purpose. In the garden of Eden, they were not wearing clothes. They were both naked. Is it not so? So she was actually not a laundry woman. God did not see laundry or feeding as a problem for which reason he fixed that woman into that man’s life. It implies that the purpose of this oneness is far beyond cooking for me, for which some of us are quarrelling and you almost, you almost ruined your marriage. Doing laundry or washing for me. No, it is far beyond all that. You just need to discover. Don't forget, the man first of all found purpose before God now for the purpose of that purpose felt that this man needs an assistant. So, couple are actually pairs. So when God brought her unto me, she was to be relocated. I mean, to find her former position in me. Are you listening to me? Am I talking? Is it reasonable? So she is actually being restored to where she was originally hewn out. So when I said one, if I say one plus one, so it will imply I am a whole number and an entity on my own. She is a whole number, an entity on her own. Then we will now begin to have personality clash. Are you following me? So it is not a one plus one affair. It is actually a one into one affair. It is then we can be equal one. So it is not as if a woman have a life to live, I have my own calling, I have my ministry, I know what I am living for, I am this and this. [Yoruba: O mọ l’ajẹra wa na]. It is beyond that. So this one theory thing is a thing that will take us a lot of time to do the treatise of. But because my 30 minutes is taking the last seconds into the 30 minutes now, it is a matter which several people has failed to understand. The ignorance of this had actually been one of the problems of marital demagogues. You see people trying to, the man wants to impose himself. The woman wants to prove after all before I married you I was educated, I am well employed, I am not a nitwit, I know what I am, I know who I am. You can't just come into my life and disorient me and then redirect me. [Yoruba: Mọ ohun ti mo n ṣe o, mo mọ ohun ti mo n ṣe o. Pe mo dakẹ tori pe Bibeli ni ka submit ni. Ti n ba dẹ ri pe...]. If this submission is going to cost me my vision, my this, I think it is better I withdraw my submission. And then, some women will say, "Okay, [Yoruba: a dẹ jọ tẹṣẹ sibayi ni]. Let's see who will suffer." Personality clash, and until a woman comes to this understanding. Genesis 5:1-2: "This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them and blessed them." God did not bless him, even when you go to Genesis 1:26 to verse 28, you will not read "And God blessed him." God did not release his blessing until it was them. Are you listening to me? And I believe you understand. Verse 2 now says, "And called their name what? Adam. In the day when they were created." What was the name of the man in the day when they were created? Adam. What was the name of the woman in the day when they were created? Adam. So God did not give the woman a different identity. So why seeking different identity? Even the creator created them Mr. and Mrs. Adam. It was Adam in his own wisdom that chooses to now tag his wife a name because he has named every other thing. He had named them all. But for this woman, if God is calling her Mrs. Adam, is it me that will also be saying Mrs. Olukpọno? He now says, "No, I will call her Woman." If you check your Bible, Woman began with capital W, which implies it was a proper noun. When any word beginning with capital letter in the middle of a sentence, it must be a proper noun. That is my... do I have English here? hehe. And so, in the history of names or of English, the word woman actually meant my bone, my flesh, my blood, mine, out of me, my entity, my other part, sweetheart, darling. All those things people think is [unclear: oyinbo] culture, it is not [unclear: oyinbo]. It was right from the scripture. The name that Adam first of all called his wife was a name that identified her as a component of him. So every woman is a component and not an opponent of this particular man. You are to complete him and not to compete with him. You were actually hewn out of him and you are not a different entity who was added to him. You were actually being reintegrated into where you were hewn. Hallelujah. I have a problem and the problem had been time. If two of us are preaching, the time will be complete for the other partner. But when it is me, it will shorten itself. Hehe, it happens to you too. Time is always partial. I think I have to stop at this point and I am trusting that the little we have shared, the Holy Spirit must have used it to in one way or the other address certain fundamentals in our relationships. And I pray that yours will be a glowing marriage in the name of Jesus. At this point I just want us to pray. I want the women to pray that, "Lord, help me to be properly reintegrated into this man." [Yoruba: Bo ṣe wu k’ibẹ yẹn ma ṣai haga gaga tabi difficult to. Mo fẹ reintegrate sibẹ, ṣugbọn man yẹn o fẹ fun mi l’aye]. He made the place unbearable for me. Daddies, can you pray that, "Lord, please enlarge my heart for this woman to have a place. A place to stay in this heart. Please create in me a room, roomy enough for her to have her being and walk. Let me not be too limited or too straitened for her in the name of Jesus." This is my only request this moment. Me, Oluwa, create inside my heart more space for this woman to have a place. Liberty, freedom, expression, grace inside of my life. And woman pray for wisdom, strategy, divine help to be able to get reintegrated into this man. Maybe you have stormed out of his life. Please, you need to carry out some redresses. So that you will think it is just an earthly affair, it might affect your eternity. Why don't you just pray now and ask for grace? Father, we thank you for this very brief moment in your presence and we thank you for those things that the Holy Spirit has granted us as utterances. And I'm believing Holy Spirit you will follow them up and keep pushing them onto fruition in the lives of every listener this afternoon in the mighty name of Jesus. Let it mark the beginning of greater harmony, unity, oneness, love, joy in our lives and marriages in the name of Jesus. And especially for your children who have been serving your purposes in this land, in the Family Tent, the Olusoyas, I'm asking O God that your word will further find expression in their lives to be able to affect their generations to an extent that not just their preaching, but soon, will be messages to their generation. Thank you Lord for answering our prayers. In Jesus' holy name we have prayed. Amen. Hallelujah. [Yoruba: Ṣalẹntẹ o gbọ Yoruba?] Are there people who don't understand Yoruba here? [Yoruba: O wa nibẹ abi? Ma ṣ’apẹẹrẹ kan, ma tun wa translate ẹ. Ṣẹri b’oṣe n sọrọ lọ yẹn, awọn nkan nkan wọn n ji ninu mi. Mo dẹ fẹ f’iṣapẹẹrẹ. Nigba t’ọni awọn babalawo wa, wọn ni okan ati okan o di okan, pe ko correct. Ṣẹri nkan to sọ ninu mi ni wipe, mo wa mo o o tun jẹ ki oye nkan ko tun ye mi dada si. Ṣẹ mọ pe t’eyan ba wọle igbọnsẹ lati gbọnsẹ, to ba wọ bẹ to fẹ gbọnsẹ, ṣ’ẹni t’o kọkọ gbọnsẹ ko t’ẹni k’ẹni ko to wọle. Ṣẹ pe t’eyan ba o fọ oju ati ibe ati igbọnsẹ yẹn, awọn t’oyinbo t’ọ n pe ni water closet. Ṣẹ pe t’eyan ba ṣ’ẹni yẹn lati lo, k’ilaṣẹ? A d’ariwo mọ mọ mọ mọ mọ. Igbami gan a bẹṣẹpe fun ẹni t’o lo l’akọkọ, abi mo parọ ni? A wa mu kini yẹn d’ẹni? A fọ, a fọ, a fọ. Abi bẹẹ kọ? A dẹ wa joko lati gbọnsẹ. Abi bẹẹ kọ? To ba wa n gbọnsẹ yẹn, k’ilaṣẹlẹ? Ohun nkan to ba ja l’ajade l’ara ẹ na o. Otọ abi rọ? Otọ abi rọ? Otọ. Ṣugbọn mo fẹ beere, o ṣ’e t’ẹni yẹn o ṣe ma ba kini yẹn ja mọ? A dẹ wa ninu a ma gba call. Eh mummy lagbaja mo n bọ o, mo n bọ o. O wa n’igbọnsẹ yẹn o, mo n bọ. Oorun yẹn a ma run o, ṣugbọn koni b’oorun yẹn ja. Ṣebi oorun kọ lo ba ja nṣe abi mo parọ ni? Ko ṣe b’oorun eleyi ja, toripe kini? Ara ẹ lo ti jade. Ibi t’ẹ ba ti ri t’iyawo o le n’ipamọra fun ọkọ, abi t’ọkọ o n’ipamọra fun iyawo, ifoju ti de ba wọn, eeyan o kin ba’rẹ ja.] What I simply said is that when he was speaking, this understanding just came again and again and again. It penetrated like the flash of a light. And I just think I should just chip it in before I call my chaplain. You know I've told you we don't run a church. So I'm under somebody. I attend a church. I am under a chaplain. And my chaplain is here to pray for the celebrant. But I just want to chip in this thing. That when you want to use the toilet, if the immediate user did not wash while you are entering, your reaction is that of, "Oh, what is this? This last user, why didn't this person clean up this place?" Then you take a lot of water, you clean up the mess and whatever, and you feel so bad. You are not happy about it. But immediately you enter into that toilet, the same thing that you are just fighting is what will be coming out of you. Is that not true? But this time around, you will be comfortable inside. "Hello, okay, okay. Oh no, I will not come for the Bible study. Ah, okay, oh no." And the smell will be there. You will be inside comfortably. So the problem at the first time was not the problem of the smell. It was a problem of that smell belong to somebody else. That when you cannot tolerate your partner, the problem is not the smell coming from her. The problem is that you could not see that your partner is yourself. So it is blindness when you fight the smell, the limitation, the challenges that come from your partner. I pray more and more again that revelation will continue. It is one, one inside one, and then it equals to what? One. Pastor Stephen Olukpọno, thank you so much sir. Pastor Olukpọno is the president of Manset Ministry, somebody I respect so much, and somebody that we are also in a fellowship together. Together with his wife, they run that ministry and they have been a great blessing to me as a person. And thank you so much sir and ma for being here. [Speaker 2] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and every day counselling. For further counselling you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joyful filling station, along Ijerre road, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you all.