Reflection on on Micah 6 Part 4

[Intro Music] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home for you. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] I'll move on to the focus for today. From our last week's lesson, for those of us who are here physically, in case there is something you want to share with us, in case there's an important thing you took home and you want to call our attention to, if there is anything like that, we will appreciate if you share with us before we move on today on the matter of walking humbly before the Lord. Anybody having anything to say? Okay. So let's pray and then do a little overview of last week and then go into make that a background and then move on into that of today. Our Father, we are grateful unto You. We thank You for Your love. We thank You for Your mercies. We thank You for Your grace. We thank You for all You are and all that You are to us. We thank You for our brethren that are here physically, our brethren who are joining us online on Mixlr, our brethren who are joining us online on Telegram. Lord, we bring ourselves before You. Lord, we are praying this evening that as we fellowship together with one another, as we fellowship with scriptures, Lord, we pray, let Your Spirit work within us, among us, in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, it is written, Paul plants, Apollos waters, but it is God that gives increase. Lord, give increase to our meeting this evening in the name of Jesus Christ. Our eyes are on You, O Lord. Let nothing prevail against Your purposes for our lives in the name of Jesus. Thank You, Eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we were looking at Micah 6:8. We have looked at the verse says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" And last week, we began this matter of how do we walk humbly with our God? Two translations, two versions of the Bible, became very useful for us last week. I think the first one was the Amplified and then the second one, the Message, for that scripture. We were trying to look at what it means to walk humbly before the Lord. That of the Message rendered it as, "And don't take yourself too seriously; take God seriously." That is not making yourself the center of whatever God is doing in your life. The person at the center of what is happening in your life is God. So to walk humbly before the Lord is not to take yourself too seriously, it is to take the Lord seriously, to see God as the center of everything. And then another one that we saw last week, which was the Amplified translation or the NIV, I can't know which of the translations that gave us another picture of that reading. We saw that in walking humbly before the Lord, the matters we have been able to raise last week is that, one, it is important for us to know that there is a measure in which God have dealt with every man, the measure of faith. So walking humbly before the Lord is not represented by not knowing who you are. No, it is by knowing who you are before the Lord. It is knowing who you are before the Lord. We saw something again last week that walking humbly before the Lord is realizing that you are a part of a body. It says each of us are members of the body of Christ. You are part of a whole. You alone cannot make the whole. You are part of the whole. And so we told ourselves that you need to realize that if you detach yourself from the body, you will die. It is recognizing that you are part of the whole. You alone does not make the whole. So you are just a small part of God, no matter who you are. You are just a small part of God. It's very important for us to see that. And then we also saw that because we form different parts of the body, we said no matter how good the eye can function, it can only function as the eye. It cannot function as the nose. So the eye will still need the nose. There's a level of dependence and that every aspect of the body is important. We also noticed something last week. We said that it is very important for you to know that you know in part and we understand in part. Humility before the Lord is that you understand that you know in part and that you understand in part. It is very important. And then we saw again that humility before the Lord, we saw in the book of John, looking at John the Baptist. When the people came to him to ask him, "Who are you? Are you the Messiah? Are you that prophet?" and he was clear about who he was. He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." He quoted from Isaiah. And we said humility before the Lord requires that you must know what is written concerning you in scriptures. You must know who God has made you. You must be able to say, "This is who God has made me." Not knowing who God has made you will not allow you to know how to walk before the Lord, will not allow you how to stay within your purpose and your mandate. Everybody, you have a purpose, you have a mandate. Incidentally, myself and somebody were talking yesterday in the church, and I said as anointed as Samson was, the purpose of his anointing was clear. The anointing was that he should begin to give Israel victory over the Philistines. The anointing on Samson was not meant for the Moabites or the Amorites. It's meant for the Philistines. And you see him, he was able to focus on that, work on that. So everybody have a direction. Everybody should be able to say, "This is what God said concerning me in the scroll." And I said that as a believer, if you have not discovered what is written concerning you in the scroll, then you have not started your work with God. You must be able to say, "This is what is written concerning me." That is very important for you as a believer. It helps you to walk. And then we gave the example again of the young prophet that was given a mandate. The mandate was that he should enter into Judah, he should give a prophecy, and he should not return back by that same way he came. He should just keep on going. The young prophet got to the place, he did the prophecy quite well. Having prophesied, he fulfilled that mandate. But as he was going, an older prophet came to him and then was making him to see that an angel appeared to me and the angel have revealed to me that you should go back, come and eat. And then the young prophet obeyed the old prophet. And obeying the old prophet, he went back to go and eat. And while he was eating, the same old prophet prophesied to him again that, "See, because you have disobeyed the Lord, lion will eat you. You will not be buried well." It was the same person who told him to come back that God used again to speak to him about his destruction. So we said that humility before the Lord is not "yes-sir-ism" to everything. Humility is not when you say yes, yes to everything. You must know what you are standing for or else you will fall for anything. That is why it is important to know who you are. It's important to know your purpose in God. It's important to know where God have called you into, so that you can walk in that respect, within the mandate that God has given. "Every man should walk according to how God have dealt with him, the measure of faith." So it's an unfortunate thing for a Christian if you cannot say, "This is what is written concerning me," or "This is my mandate." As a believer, if you want to walk humbly before the Lord, it is important to know who you are and also respect the fact that you are part of a whole, you don't form the whole. It's important for you to know that you know in part, you understand in part, therefore you don't despise other people. Don't despise any grace. And I remember that last week I mentioned something, that as great as the sunlight is, the sunlight cannot light a stove. You will need a match's light. So even those people that looks as if they are not relevant, they are relevant. Every light is useful. Everybody should just stay where he stays. We need one another. And I said we should be careful not to despise the grace of God in other people because of what you think you are. You know in part, you understand in part, and you are part of a whole. And then we concluded with looking at the apostle Peter and John when they healed the man at the Beautiful Gate. When they healed the man at the Beautiful Gate, what happened? People rushed down to them and they were looking at them. And then Peter spoke. Peter said, "Why do you look at us as if by our righteousness or by our power this man is standing before you? But that today God has glorified the Lord Jesus Christ, the person whom you killed, even though Pilate was willing to let him go, but you demanded that they should release a criminal and they should kill Jesus." And Peter used that opportunity when men was trying to look at them as the source of what was going on. We said they did something; they pointed men to God. That humility is to be careful not to go into self-promotion. You must be careful to promote God and not self. Humility is about promoting the Lord, walking humbly before the Lord is promoting the Lord. You don't promote yourself. It's promoting Jesus. It's making people to see that Jesus is the center of it all. It's making people to see that it is by the righteousness and the power of Jesus. It's making people to see that it's all about Jesus and not about you. It's raising disciples not for yourself but for Jesus. It's making men to see that the matter, the person that matters in this thing is Jesus Christ and not you. And I said humility is to be careful for us not to promote ourselves. Humility is promoting Jesus. Humility is avoiding ostentation, avoiding showmanship. You run away from showmanship. You are not trying to show yourself; you are showing the Lord Jesus. And that was how we concluded last week. I've just given a background. And from there, we want to move on today. We are still considering this matter of walking humbly before the Lord. And I want to point some things further for us today. And then we will still come back to the statement of Peter. Let's look at that statement of Peter as we try to look at what we want to do today. Although I will come back to that statement much more later, I want us to look at some things in the Old Testament. We have been in the New, considering a lot of things, but I want us to look at some things in the Old Testament today to see how God looked at this matter of humility before the Lord. Now when you look at that Peter, that is Acts chapter 3, the statement of Peter in Acts chapter 3. [Speaker 2] So when Peter saw it, what did he see? What he saw was that the people, verse 11, "Now as the lame man who was healed held onto Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed." They were surprised. So when Peter saw their great amazement, he responded to the people, "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness..." I want you to note those two things that Peter said, because as we come back from the Old Testament where we'll be joining today, we'll be making reference to these two words. [Speaker 1] The matter of humility, please note something. It said, "What does God require of you? To walk humbly before him." What does he require? Now this statement of Peter brought out the two directions in understanding the matter of humility. He said, "As though by our own power..." the matter of power. "Or godliness..." the matter of godliness. Now if you look at that statement in other translations, if you look at it in NLT, it used the word "godliness and power." If you look at NIV, "godliness and power." If you look at KJV, it says "power or holiness." If you look at the Amplified, the Amplified said, "Why do you keep staring at us as though by our own individual power or active piety we had made this man able to walk?" Now the matter of humility before the Lord actually takes two directions. When we are coming from, he said not taking yourself seriously but taking God seriously. That is not putting yourself at the center, putting God at the center. Whatever is happening in your life, see God as the center of it all. Now what Peter is helping us to see by this statement is that this matter of taking God seriously, this matter of saying, "Ah, it is God," is about one, the matter of the power, the expression of the power of God, and two, the matter of godliness, the matter of righteousness, the matter of holiness. That is why I don't know which translation we read last week that said not saying something about your righteousness or your power. I don't know which translation was that. Somebody read that translation last week for us. Now the matter of this walking humbly before the Lord takes the direction of understanding that actually, power belongs to God. Then two, understanding that actually, please hear me well, there is nothing that God allow to happen through us or by us as a matter of some supposed righteousness of our own. Those are the two directions. But let's go to the Old Testament. We will come back to this much more the more. Let's look at some scriptures in the Old Testament, this matter of understanding humility before the Lord. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 10. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 10, not Isaiah chapter 3. Isaiah 10 from verse 5. It says, "Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of my wrath. I will give him charge, of course, he will take spoil, take the prey, and tread down like the mire of the street." Verse 7, "Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations. For he says, 'Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?' Therefore, it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that he will say, 'I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.'" I want to tell you something, brethren. I want you to know something. Pride, pride. Don't forget that it was pride that make Satan to get out of his inheritance, his position in God. He fell out of that because of pride. I just want to sound something to you. There is nothing you will gain from pride than destruction. Be careful about arrogance, be careful about haughtiness. Be careful about it. Be careful about it because it is something when you look through scripture in different areas, we'll come to that later anyway. God pointed scriptures about pride, about not being humble, about some things that shows it. You see where the Bible is saying that these six things the Lord hate, and seven are abomination to him, and one of them he said a proud look. It's abomination to God, just a proud look. When people just feel one sense of yourself, it's abomination to God. We'll soon come to all of those pointed scriptures later. But I want us to look at this scripture very closely, just about five verses of the scripture. Now the Bible in Isaiah chapter 10 verse 5, it says, "Woe to Assyria." If you read it in NLT, is anybody carrying NLT there? What does it say? "What sorrow awaits Assyria." I want to tell you something. Everybody that walks with pride, let me announce to you, I'm not a prophet of doom, but I can assure you that sorrow awaits you. Sorrow is what will eventually come upon people who have this sense, a sense of importance that is not in God. A sense of importance that does not have its root in God. Walking humbly before the Lord because one thing that God require from man is to walk humbly before God. And we're trying to look at what it is in looking at how God have related to some people. Now God was speaking about the King of Assyria. He says, "What sorrow awaits him." And I want you to know that everybody that have this sense of arrogance, this sense of pride, this sense of importance that does not place God at the center, everybody that have that thing in their life, they are coming to meet their Waterloo. What awaits them is sorrow. He says, "Woe to the Assyrian." Now why is woe to him? Why is the woe coming to him? He says, "Woe to Assyria." Why? He says, "The whip of my anger." New KJV says, "The rod of my anger." Do you get that? That is God want to express his anger. God was angry. He wanted to express that anger. In expressing that anger, Assyria is what? Is the rod of that anger. Do you get what God is trying to say? God is angry. God want to express his anger. The expression of that anger, God is coming to deal with some people. That thing that God want to do, the manifestation of it is the King of Assyria. Are you understanding it? Now, I will show you in another way. When God was speaking to Moses, Moses will be the one that is going to meet Pharaoh to tell them to come out. What did God tell Moses? God said, "I have heard the cry of my people, and I have come down." But who will you be seeing? You'll be seeing Moses. But who actually came down? I'm talking of not taking yourself seriously but taking God seriously. If God did not come down, Moses is nothing as far as that mission is concerned. It was because God came down that Moses became something. If God did not come down, immediately Moses step before Pharaoh, the fact that he was a murderer, he would have been thrown into the prison. But the matter that is giving the life of Moses another direction is because God came down. That's what is happening here. Jerusalem sinned against God. God wanted to punish Jerusalem for their sin. And so in coming to punish Jerusalem, how was God coming? God was coming in anger. That anger of God that was coming, was coming as a person. That person was the King of Assyria. So whatever Assyria is going to express, there is nothing about that king. It's just that God is angry, he wanted to do something. If God was not angry and wanted to do something against Jerusalem, there was nothing special, there was nothing particular about the King of Assyria. And can I announce to you? There is nothing particular about your life except that God wanted to do something. There is nothing particular about your ministry except that God wanted to do something. There is nothing particular about you. And I will show you in another way again. Do you know that ever before Joseph was born, God have told Abraham, "Know for certain that your children, they will be in Egypt for 400 years, after that I will come to deliver them." If not that God has a plan, there was no wisdom in Joseph. He had a dream, he was a wise man, he interpreted, he did all of that. There is nothing particular about Joseph except that God in his eternal plan has a plan to bring the people of Israel to Egypt. So it's important for us to understand this about expressions in our life. So God was angry with Israel. God wanted to punish Israel for that sin. And so in coming to punish Israel, how was God coming? God was coming how? In anger. That anger of God that was coming, was coming as a person. That anger was coming as Assyria. So but why is God, please, please, why is God saying woe? Why is tribulation? Why is sorrow awaiting that king? That is where we are going. Why is sorrow awaiting that king? May you not be an object that God is using for sorrow awaits you. It is matter of humility. Because you know this scripture we normally read, "God resists the proud, but give grace to the humble." That is English translation. English was struggling with how to interpret that scripture. And so English just simply said, "God resists the proud." If you have a good study Bible, go and check that word that was translated as "God resists the proud" in English. In the Greek translation, the way it is written in the Greek translation, the picture is that God quickly organizes his army against a proud man. That's why David said in Psalm, "God look at the proud from afar." He look at them from afar. God just hates people like that. Abomination to God. And you will notice that this thing is pointed in scripture. It says for all that is in the world, what are they? The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, what is the last thing? You feel you are something because you have achieved something. You feel you are, you begin to feel that yes, who can be like me? Do you know who I am? What you are talking about because you have 10 billion in your account. You forgot that you can sleep overnight and not wake up with the 10 billion in the account. That your breath is not in the account; your breath is with God. The riches of the rich man is like a fortress to him. And that is why one time you see somebody like in the history of Nigeria, somebody like Abiola will say it in Yoruba, "Where we have reached with money, even if death enters into the place, he will be confused." But when death came, it was him that died in it. You see, we should be careful about, you see when you look at yourself you think that yes, this thing, look, we should understand that everything you have is just a breath. You are just a breath of somebody. Your life is just like, you see these are things that should be clear to us when we look at life. So I'm showing you something about this king. He was the rod of God and it would have been a wonderful thing to be an instrument of God. But when God was introducing this king, God said, "Woe to you this king." Why will God want to use a man and the matter when God was declaring over his life was that anguish and tribulation and sorrow await you? That is what we are looking at. He says, "Woe to the King of Assyria, the rod of my anger." Look at what he said again, "And the staff in whose hand is my indignation." If you look at that in another translation, he says destruction is certain for Assyria, the whip of my anger. Its military power is a club in my hand. That power that he is bringing is something in the hand of God, but he did not see it. Now look at what God said, verse 10, "I will send him against an ungodly nation." He was on a mission for the Lord and yet woe, tribulation and anger awaits him. He was on a mission. Why? "I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of my wrath, people that I'm angry with. I will give him charge." You see, "I will give him charge." He's going to take spoil, he's going to take prey, that is matched down, destroy. He said he will tread down on people, he will kill them anyhow. Look at how powerful this man is going to operate. He's going to do that. But he said, "Yet," please look at the matter. Look at the matter. He said, "Yet he does not mean so." Have you seen where the Lord is calling our attention to? Can we try that in another translation, that verse 7? He says, "Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart think so." Amplified, please. God said, "I'm sending him, he's the rod of my anger," but there is a problem. "However," when you say however, what are you doing? You are contradicting an idea. God has a mindset, this man have a different mindset. We are talking about walking humbly before the Lord. God has a mindset, "I am using you for my purpose." But he has another mindset. Are you getting the point? That's why I'm telling you, the way you think is a serious matter before the Lord. The way you think is a serious matter before the Lord. When you are talking about arrogance, when you are talking about pride, when you are talking about somebody is full of himself, can I announce to you? It is not first a behavior; it's first an attitude of the heart, the way a man thinks. It's not first a behavior. It's first a matter of the way a man thinks. It's first a matter of an attitude. There's this attitude in you. And when the Lord see that attitude, that is why we talk about inverted pride. Some people will be talking humbly, but actually they are talking tall. And that's why you notice that the Bible says the heart is deceitful. While some people are kneeling down to greet you, they are standing tall on their leg as they are greeting. So it's first a heart. Some people can be saying, "Good morning, sir," but in the actual attitude of their heart, "You stupid boy, how are you? Good morning." That is the attitude of the heart. Even though you say, "Good morning, sir," but in the heart, it is this silly individual, let me just tell him that so I can get out of the way from him. "Good morning, sir. Good morning, oh, good morning." But actually it is this idiot, get out, let me do what I want to do. It's something about your thought life. He says, "However, however." Please read on. "However, this is not his intention." Do you see? What God was intending is not his intention. And that is why I said once you don't know what is written concerning you and run within that mandate, you are running for destruction. You must know what God said concerning your life. You must know it. Humility begins with knowing what is written concerning you. You must be able to understand where God places you. You must be able to understand that we are part, you are part of a system. You are just a small part of that system. It said all of us we are members of one body. We know in part, we understand in part. Know that part and stand in that part. He said but however his intention is not like that. He's not having the same intention that God is having. Are you getting the point? Please read on. "He is not aware that he is doing it at my bidding." Do you get it? He's not understanding that this whole thing, God is at the center of it. Anytime you don't see God at the center of it, your life is in trouble. He's not seeing that God is at the center of it. He's not taking God seriously. He's taking himself. He's putting himself at the center of it. He's putting himself at the center of the matter instead of God to be at the center. He's not seeing that he was doing that as biddings of God, that God is telling him to do something. That's what Peter was trying to say. Why do you look at us as if this matter is about us? Why do you look at us as if we brought one power? No, God was having a plan. God want to glorify Jesus. It was God, you can see, they are thinking what God was thinking. Walking humbly before your God. They were thinking what God was thinking. They were putting God at the center of the matter. They were putting God to be the one who holds their life. He said but that was not his intention. So what was he thinking? What was he thinking? What was in his own mind? "I want to be a conqueror. Yeah, I'm going to be a conqueror." That was what he was in his own mind. Now, please look at the matter. The Bible says, "For he says." Do you see now? Intention have translated to what? To words. That is why when people speak proudly, it's not about their tongue, it's about their heart. It's about their heart. You see, the first thing was his intention. The second thing was now what he says. What was he saying? "Are not my princes altogether king?" Do you see now? He's seeing the matter to be that, "Look, what is my going to take over Jerusalem was because I have developed my, even my prince, the princes that I have, they have become so powerful that they are like kings." Are you getting where he's pointing the matter from? He's seeing something about himself. Look at the next thing. He said, "Is not Calno like Carchemish?" You know what he's saying? He's looking at how he has developed the military might of the different cities that he has. Are you getting it? What was he putting his, what was he putting his success in? He was putting his success in the things that he has put in place. "My princes alone can finish everybody. The battalion I have put in place, ordinary only Calno can destroy the whole, everybody. In fact, the amount of atomic bomb that I have kept in stock will finish all this one. The navy alone is enough to destroy them." Are you seeing what he's trying to say? I'm using contemporary things to explain it. I may not even need to use the air force. I will just use only the commando. The land soldiers alone, they will finish Jerusalem. Are you getting the point he's making? He was looking at the matter as a matter that does not have its origin in God. Are you seeing it now? He has cut off the originator, the power behind that thing, he has taken it from God, he has given it to himself. He's saying that is not Samaria like Damascus. Look at what he said. "As my hand has found the kingdom of the idols, whose carved images excel those of Jerusalem and Samaria." Are you seeing it? He's saying that, "Look, the city that I've destroyed, their idols, their gods, they are stronger than any God that is in Jerusalem. So when I go against Jerusalem, the amount of idols, the ones that I've destroyed, the idol of Jerusalem is not as strong as those ones. So Jerusalem is just a walkover for me." I hope you can get how he was talking. But for God, God was angry, he wanted to punish Jerusalem. For him, the matter was about him being a conqueror. Me, a great fighter. I will finish Jerusalem. You understand? He was looking at himself from that angle. He was not giving the glory to God. He was not giving the honor to God. He was not attributing that thing to God. And that was the matter. Look at it. It says, "As I have done to Samaria and her idols, shall I also do to Jerusalem?" Look at what God now said. "Therefore, it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion." In other words, God will not stop the success from being achieved. He's still going to destroy the Jerusalem because God want to destroy Jerusalem. He's going to do them, he's going to overcome them. He said but after God has finished with everything he wanted to do, what will God now do? "I will now punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria." So I want to ask you, what is arrogance in this place? What is the arrogance that God saw in this man? I hope it's clear to you now. The arrogance is that he saw himself at the center of the matter. So walking humbly before God is putting God where? At the center of the matter. It's understanding that look, if there was no plan, if there was no mercy, if there was nothing that God was trying to do with your life, you could not have become that thing that you are becoming. Do you know that every, before Joseph was born, God have told Abraham, "Know for certain that your children, they will be in Egypt for 400 years, after that I will come to deliver them." If not that God has a plan, there was no wisdom in Joseph. Joseph, where? He had a dream, he was a wise man, he interpreted, he did all of that. There is nothing particular about Joseph except that God in his eternal plan has a plan to bring the people of Israel to Egypt. So it is important for a man to know that there isn't any other definition for God's mercy than it is simply God's mercy. If God had mercy on you to get something through, don't begin to attribute something to your power. Because same, there are 1,001 factors that could have made it impossible. But that God decided that I will just have mercy on you. It was the mercy of God that makes those things possible and those things came to pass. There was a mercy that showed up somewhere. There was a mercy that stood for you and said, "Okay, we want to do this with his life, let this one go on." And so the Bible is saying to walk humbly before the Lord is to bring God to the center of our lives. It's to bring God to the center. It's to understand that look, if there was no plan, if there was no mercy, if there was nothing that God was trying to do with your life, you could not have become that thing that you are becoming. Is that the way you think? You know that if you think that way, there is a way it will now affect the way you relate to people. It will affect the way you talk to people. That is the truth about it. He says, "For he said, 'By my wisdom, for I am prudent.'" Ah, that nauseated God. May our life and our utterance, our thought pattern, may they not nauseate God. It was something that got him nauseated. How will you say by your wisdom because you are prudent? When it is me that had a plan to punish people. And then I motivated, I arranged everything, I make it so that you can have good military power, I make it so that you can be able so that I can deal with these people, and you are saying because you are wise. It's a very, very crucial thing. And that is why I want to tell you this. Please note this. God created all things for his pleasure. God created all things for his own pleasure, his own pleasure. And the first thing that should be your first sense of value in life is that my life may be a pleasure to God. God created all things for his own pleasure. You are not created for your purpose. You are not created to begin to make yourself to shine as in yourself. You are created for somebody's pleasure. You are created for somebody's purpose. You are not created for yourself. You did not make yourself. You are created, your coming to life, whatever is about you was designed because somebody wanted pleasure. So the first thing for you to recognize about your life is not how to give yourself pleasure. It's how to do what? To understand that actually my coming here, I didn't come here by myself. Somebody puts me here because he has a pleasure. I'm created for a pleasure, to serve a pleasure. Because until you begin to understand that, may I tell you something? You'll be living meaningless life even though you may be achieving things. But your life is meaningless. That's what Solomon meant when he said, "Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity." No matter how we achieve, no matter how we attain, until there is an alignment between how we think, what we say, how we behave, and the pleasure of God, you are a meaningless life. You may be achieving, you may be rich, you may have this, you may have that, you may have all of those things accumulated to you. And that is why you will notice, like I said in one of our meetings some times back, you see the man was rich, Jesus described as a rich man that fared sumptuously every day. He was like the Big Gates, he is like the billionaire of that time, that rich man of them. Jesus said he fared sumptuously. He was among the world billionaires of that time. But despite everything he was, when he died, there was nothing valuable in him to carry. The Bible said he died and he was buried. God saw nothing that angels can carry. Yet one Lazarus died. Bible says he was carried. There was valuable. What give us value before God is not something material. It is not something material. What makes our life valuable has nothing to do with riches, money, it has nothing to do with it. It's about an alignment. An alignment with the pleasure of God. When our life is aligned with his pleasure, then our life has value. But whatever we think we might have achieved and we are not in the alignment, in that alignment, can I announce to you? Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity. Meaninglessness. You can see this man, this mighty achiever. And that is how you may be also in ministry. You can be discipling people, give me, oh ah, the best this, this, that, you are the one that discipled that person, you are the one that did that, you did all of that, and we say oh thank God you did this, you did that. There may be all those achievements around your life. Thank God for those achievements. But your life may be meaningless. Because in your thought life, in the things you say, in the way you behave, you are not aligning with his pleasure. You are bringing yourself to the center. And that is why he said, "These three things he has shown you, O man, what the Lord requires from you," very, very simple. He says what the Lord require is very simple, very clear, that you should live justly, you should love mercy, and that you should walk humbly before him. He has shown what he wants. He said this is what God wants from you. And when you don't do that, that's why you begin to see when we are talking about the issue of justice too, the issue of mercy. People begin to do all kinds of sacrifices, they're in Bible study, they're in choir, they are preachers, they do all of that. Yet, they can keep malice. They can be telling lies. They can be fornicating. Yes, they are doing so many works for God. And he said, "Look, to obey is better than sacrifice." It's not about all this work you are doing for me, first obey me. First obey me. The same thing that we are talking about here. It's not about all the big things around your life. It's about can you align your life, the way you think. Can you align, can you bring God to the center? Do you understand that you are nothing except by his mercies? That that force, that power behind your life, that thing that made you what you are is all but God. Is that the way you think? You know that if you think that way, there is a way it will now affect the way you relate to people. It will affect the way you talk to people. That is the truth about it. He says, "For he said, 'By my wisdom, for I am prudent.'" Also, "I have removed the boundaries of the people, I have robbed their treasures, so I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man." I'm a valiant man. Wherever we are, everybody clear. When we are talking, who are those talking? You know who I am? You know my type? He said, "I'm a valiant man. My hand has found the nest of the riches of the people, and as one gather egg that are left, I have gathered all the earth." You see how he was talking? "And there was no one who could move his wings because he was a conqueror. He was defeating and defeating and you know, and so he feels so much about himself. Nor open his mouth with even a peep. Nobody could confront me. When I say, 'Hey!' when I roar, nobody." You see how you where some of these things in different areas, in ministry, with success, with some things that God is doing with our life, with some little little things that you think. That's why I said, this thing is about your thought life. You will see a man that God has helped to get okada. I'm talking of not even a car. This thing is about a thought life. And you will see him on that okada, he will bend his back like this, he'll do like this and then he'll, and then he'll do like this. And say, what if God give this one Mercedes, will he not burst? You know I experienced one like that. He was like that on his okada, he'll do like that. So I just thought maybe the man was just sitting there and I said, "Okada." He look at me and he hissed. He was so full. That's why I'm saying that if God give that one just ordinary one Toyota Corolla, would that person not die out of arrogance? Will anybody matter to him again on the street? Look at how God concluded over this life. That's what will stop today. We'll pick the matter on next week. That's why I said that we are not rushing this discussion. I want to point some things to you in scripture, for us to understand humility of walking humbly before the Lord. Because it's something God required from us as his people. Look at how God concluded the matter over this life. What did God say? Verse 15, "Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it?" Shall the axe, you know, I hope you understand what he's saying. Let me take a simpler translation. Can the axe boast greater power than the person who uses it? Please, who has power? Is it the axe or the person using the axe? And I want to ask you, the blade of the axe who normally sharpen it? Is it the axe or the person using the axe? So when just axe now says, "Fear me, oh, when I cut like this," where does the axe coming from? He says, "Can the axe boast greater power than the person that is using it? Is the saw greater than the sawyer?" Please, who is greater? Are you seeing the point? He says, "Can a whip strike unless a hand is moving?" Look at how God is describing us. Can a whip, can it strike except a hand is used? Look at how God concluded it. "Can a cane walk by itself?" He said, "As if the axe could lift the person who wields it or as if the staff could lift up as if it were not a wood." Have you ever seen a staff just guiding the sheep without the shepherd? Please. You just see the staff just stand like this, just go around. Have you ever seen one like that? If there is no shepherd, can there be a staff? You can see the matter God raised with this king. We close here today. We'll talk to the Lord. We are looking at these three things the Lord require of you. What he requires from you. These things they are clear. You know, there's something I keep saying, truth is not complex. When too much grammar begin to go around truth, all of these things they are just exaggeration. Truth is clear. Except you want to start, you start put it this way, you want to start, truth is clear. These things the Lord require from you. And the Lord used different examples to make us so that we can understand it. Make us understand these things. And that's why we are looking at this example. Whatever things are written down, they were written down for our learning. Whatever things were written down, it is for our learning so that we can learn. So that we don't have vain imagination. So that our thought can be correct. "Whatever things are true, whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think of these things," so that our thinking can be right. Because as a man thinketh, so he is. So that we can be thinking scriptures. We can be speaking scriptures. We can be preaching scriptures. We can be living scriptures. Faith come by hearing and hearing the word of God. This is the reality of our life. I want you to talk to the Lord. It is by aligning ourselves. Don't make too much, it says don't take yourself too seriously. It's not about you. It's about God. Bring him to the center. Begin to say, "How will my life align with the purpose of God? What is God doing with my life?" When you know it and you begin, "Oh God, this is what God intend to do with my life." So there is no arrogance about your life. This thing is happening because God intend to use me for this thing. And so your life begin to align with the thought of God. No, thank You for Your mercies. If not that You brought me to Yourself, I could not have been this. You see your life, your thoughts begin to align itself with God. They begin to bring God to the center. They begin to say it's not by my power, it's not by might but by the Spirit of God. They begin to bring God to the center. John put it in this way, "A man cannot receive anything except it be given to him from above." A man cannot receive anything except it be given to him from above. We are created for his pleasure. Let me ask my wife to close the meeting. [Speaker 3], please come and close this meeting. [Speaker 3] I want you to sing that song. It's a prayer song. Lord, deliver me from a vain life. Lord, deliver me from an empty life. Lord, deliver me from a vain life. This is my prayer, O Lord. Father, that's our prayer again tonight. We have come, O Lord, to ask again, to beg of You, that You will cause our lives, our way of life, to align with Your pleasure in the name of Jesus Christ. Help our lives, O Lord. Help us, O Lord, to put everything, in everything we do, to bring You to the center of our lives in the name of Jesus. O Lord, we pray that You will give unto us a humble heart, a contrite heart, a broken heart. A heart that sees himself in the light of God. A light that knows that he is nothing outside God. Please help us to know we are nothing. We are nothing. It is only You, God, that is all about our life. And help us, O Lord Jehovah God, to align our thoughts, to align our lives, our way of life, everything about our life, to this truth in the name of Jesus. Cause us to walk everything according to Your good pleasure. Thank You for Your son that You have used. We pray, O Lord, let keep flowing from him, O Lord, from within him, rivers of living water. Establish him and every one of us in this truth in the name of Jesus. We receive the healing, we receive the deliverance, salvation. We receive the opening of eyes. We receive, O Lord, that You have sent through Your word tonight for us in the name of Jesus. Let every veil be removed in the name of Jesus. We see every shackles of darkness, every hold that is satanic, demonic, that is tagging us, O Lord, against the will of God. They are broken in the name of Jesus. In our thoughts, in our imagination, in our attitude, in our way of life. O Lord, our life shall align with Your purpose. It shall align with Your pleasure. It shall bring You pleasure. Because You have created all things for Your pleasure. Thank You, Faithful God. In Jesus' unfailing name we pray. Amen. The grace in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us evermore. Amen. Surely God's goodness and mercies shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! [Outro Music] 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 aid. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5 PM; Adolescent and Singles' club, every first Saturday of every month at 10 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10 AM; Family Life seminars, regular school outreaches and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ileri community, opposite Very Joy filling station, along Ijede 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: 0803-386-1136, 0703-361-3848. God bless you all.