Successful Marriage Price and Prizes 3

[Music playing - Battle Hymn of the Republic] [Singing] Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on. [Speaker 1] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Music continues] [Speaker 1] Part of this meeting, and it is our desire and we know that God will meet with us all in Jesus' name. By the grace of God, this first ministration, we start with a very short playlet. Very short playlet. And from there, I know God will have a message for us. So I want to encourage us to pay attention and be blessed in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. [Music ends] [Speaker 1] Successful marriage. Successful marriage. Lord, prices, prices, price, prices. Lord, I need a clue. I need a clue. I need a clue, Lord. I need a clue. Ah, successful marriage. Successful marriage. Successful marriage. Successful marriage. Successful marriage. [Speaker 2] S’ọmọlẹleyi? Wọ bo ṣe ri. Just look at yourself. So you are beautiful and you are fine like this? You are wearing Nigerian abi? Green, white, green. Hmm, I pity you. You look horrible. Just look at yourself. Ah-ah. Ah-ah, wọ bo ṣe ri. Is this how to—and you say you are going for a wedding ceremony? What kind of person are you? Eh? Ah, emi layé mi. Ah, wọn ni fẹ lẹni mi ṣemi. Ah, ọmọleleyi. Hmm, ṣé o—o, look at yourself. See gele. Is this how to tie gele? See the color riot you are wearing. You mean—ah, wait oh. This buba should have its own wrapper now. Why are you—ah, ori ẹ o pe. Olosi ni ẹ. Look at yourself. Wọrẹ. Ah-ah, wọ bo wọṣọ. Ah, wọ bọte. Nkan to pe ni rice and beans l’ede yi. Ah, ah, ah, ọpọnu ni ẹ. Ọpọnu, eh? If a baby will know that this black will go with another black, eh? Or the gold will go with another gold. You are crazy. In fact, you are mad. I don’t know where I found you. What kind of person are you? Eh? Ah, oh, what will I do about your situation? You are a trouble to me, a problem to me, eh? What will I do about you? You must put yourself together. You correct what you are wearing, eh? If I don’t teach you, you will not teach yourself. I must be telling you everything, eh? This white will go on the white, eh? Ah, wahala leleyi oh, eh? Problem ni ẹ, package of trouble, eh? Check yourself kọ mọ pe white should go on white. Eh-hen. Ah, ṣ’ori ẹ bẹyẹn? See, you have to choose whether it is gold you want to wear or black you want to wear. You make up your mind. O mọ pe igba mi o ma n ṣe bi eyan t’ori ẹ o—ori ẹ ti bajẹ, eh? O ma n ṣe bi oloshi ngba mi gan. Ah, ah, I really don’t know where I found you. Ọpọnu ọdẹ. Oloshi, eh? T’ọ ba kọ ẹ, o ni kọ’ra ẹ. Eh-hen, bo ṣe wọṣọ leleyi, ṣ’o gbọ? This is how to dress up. Now you look like a normal person. Ah, w’oju ẹ. Heh, your mates are doing makeup. I don’t know who send you oh. If you don’t know how to do it, stop doing it now. See how you put lipstick. It’s overgauge of the lips. Clean it first. Eh-hen, overgauge. All your own is over-over. They say modesty, all your own is over. Then ṣ’oju ẹ dada, ṣ’oju ẹ dada, eh? S’oju ẹ, man. What do you mean? Nonsense. Ma jẹ n waste time mi, mo ti n jade lọ bẹyẹn. Take care. W’oju yẹn dada. S’ori gele l’ori ẹ bẹyẹn, bo ṣe ri, wa tun ṣe ni oh. Eh-hen, ṣ’oju ẹ bẹyẹn. So you can be fine like this tẹlẹ? S’o ṣe bi masquerade, eh? Green-gori. Olori buruku oloshi, o ti ẹ gbadun. Mi ti ẹ mọ bit’o ti wa. Nonsense. [Speaker 3] I am wonderful image. I am beautiful image. I belong to God, I resemble him. I am wonderful image. I am beautiful image. I belong to ah—mo ti late kin tete wa ma lọ. Let me check myself out. Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah. You are wonderful image, but you are not looking good. This is not how you are supposed to look. You belong to God, then you must show forth that you belong to God. Ah-ah, ah-ah, why will you put on tie and then put on filler? Ah-ah, ah-ah, you carry the glory of God and you must look like God always. Hmm-mm, you can’t do like this. Look at your shoe. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You are wonderful, you are wonderfully created, and you must always look like your father. Because the glory of the father can only be seen in the son. Then you must look like your father. Then what can I do? I should—no, don’t put on this one. No, no, no. Remove this one first. This one does not befit you. You are a child of God, you must look like God. Yes, this is—this one can go, this one can go. This one can go. Yes. I am wonderful image. I am beautiful image. I belong to—yes! Yes! O ti n jọ, o ti n jọ ọmọ Ọlọrun di ẹ. Eh-hen, eh-hen. Yes. Then you look like this. Don’t you know that you are dressed by the way you dress? I’m getting it. In fact, you are trying. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Then you tuck in. You act yourself. What do people say about you? What lesson can people learn from you? Eh-hen, you are looking good. Yes. Yes! Yes! Yes! Check me out. Connect. Something is wrong. This shoe. Yes. Ah-ah! Heh! You carry the knowledge of God. Yes, you are looking good. Hmm-mm. Heh! Good. I am wonderful image. I am beautiful image. I belong to God, I resemble him. I am wonderful image. I am beautiful image. I belong to God, I resemble him. That is why devil tremble anytime he see me walking. Hallelujah, hosanna. Good. [Speaker 1] Lord. Ah-ah, a woman before a mirror, insulting herself as she was making correction. A man before a mirror, lovingly correcting himself. The woman cursing herself, the man—Lord. Lord. Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. Hmm. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Quickly we thank the Lord for the playlet. Thank God we are into—we have two sides. From the two people that came in, the two of them were dressing badly. But the woman, when she looked into the mirror and saw the way she looked, what was she doing? Cursing herself. The man, having seen the way he dressed, what did he do? Adjusting. Even in the process of adjusting, was he cursing himself? No. The only place Bible even talks about that—when he was talking in Ephesians to men, he said, "No man hates himself, but he nourishes and cherishes it." It is pure madness. The only place we find there could be several other stories about madmen in the Bible, but in the—I think Mark or and Luke, we have the story of the madman of Gadara. Do you remember that place? Bible talked about him that one of the problems he had was that he was inflicting pain upon himself. He would take sharp stones and was inflicting pain upon himself. And that is the only condition under which a man will inflict himself, when the man is out of his mind. When you see young ones, men, women, that are taking even substances, food, drugs, or what you can think about to harm themselves, is because they lack understanding. In fact, psychologically they tell us is there is—there's problem with their mental health. So this—this afternoon we've seen this. And this story is trying to tell us, to remind us again that the Bible made us to know that—is it in 1 Corinthians chapter—Matthew, sorry, Matthew 19 from verse 3. Let me quickly read five and six. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Since they are no longer two but one flesh." So when you are married, you are no longer two but one. So in a situation where you look at your spouse and begin to say negative things, just like what we saw in the playlet, that one was doing what? Cursing herself, all because she want to correct something about herself. But the way she did it was to curse, to be negative, was to say a lot of bad things. And that is a sign that she did not understand what—what—what it means to nourish and to cherish. Your spouse is not somebody external to you. Your spouse is a reflection of you. Are you sitting with your spouse? Tell the person beside you, "You are a reflection of me." I'm—I mean you tell your spouse, if you don’t have your spouse with you, don’t tell it to the other person. Tell your spouse, "You are a reflection of me. You are also an extension of me." Because that is what God says. You are no longer two but one. So what the Lord expect of us, when we see the inadequacies, when we see the weaknesses, when we see things that offends us, and if you look at your spouse and begin to say negative thing, there is a problem somewhere. And God forbid that we have mental challenge. When—when is just like that—those people, the other person that came in and began to curse herself. It’s not normal, it’s a state of abnormality. When even you cut your hand and you discover that, "Ah," in the kitchen, do you drop the knife and begin—look for a cane and begin to flog your hand or finger? No, you look for how to take care of it. You begin to look for how to nurture. You say, "What happened?" You say, "Ah, I—I wounded myself." So it’s the same way. Your spouse is not somebody different from you. It’s not external to you. It’s an extension of you. God has made you one. So when you are looking at the fault, the—the fault, the inadequacy, the weakness, or whatsoever that you see, even our strength, when you begin to look at it and begin to fight it, you begin to speak evil against it, who are you speaking against? Who are you speaking against? Yourself. So that is what that playlet is trying to tell us this morning. God expect us to also remember. One of the prices we are to pay is that we must remember what the Lord have said when you became one. At that place where you joined yourself to your spouse, you are one. So when you don’t remember that, you cannot receive the price that will come with it. You cannot receive the gain. Because by the time you are faced with situations and you forget that if I should fight this woman, I’m fighting myself, and obviously I’m not a madman, how can I fight myself? If I speak evil, if I trample down upon this spouse, my spouse, either man or woman, wife or husband, if I trample them under my feet, I’m doing it to myself. If we have this understanding, we'll begin to see how to do what? Accommodate, nourish. You know the other man, what did he do? "No, this is not who you are." He said, "You are beautifully and wonderfully made." There was something wrong in his—in his dressing, but having looked at himself in the mirror, he was not castigating himself, rather he was trying to do what? Improve upon himself. That is what God has called us to do. You cannot do anything different and expect the same result. But at the end of the day, you would have wounded the other person. And when you wound the other person, you are also wounding who? Yourself, because the Bible made us to realize that you are one. And if that is—when there is wound, you know a lot. Bible talks in that Ephesians we'll see when we separate, that our prayers may not be hindered. And when we don’t also do what? Acknowledge that we are one. What will happen to us? We'll begin to fight one—each other, and in the process we are opening the door for who? For the devil to come in. May the Lord help us to also remember. One of the prices is that we must remember what the Lord have said. What is that thing that you always know as long as it is contrary to what the Lord have said when it comes to union and marriage? Please drop it because they are not going to give you reward. They are going to bring pain, they are going to bring agony, they are going to bring you sorrow. Yesterday we also learned that as far as God is concerned, the family comes before the law and the tabernacle. Because if Adam and Eve had not fallen, there wouldn’t have been need for law, abi? That was what God packaged together to guide the—the maladies of human being, neither there will be need for tabernacle. It would have been a wonderful union, relationship between the Adam and Eve and God, I mean a fellowship. And if you want that to remain with you, the fellowship, the relationship, the oneness, the unity, the—the blessings of God will come, that God will visit your home daily. Then you must remember that you are one. Don’t let the devil separate you. Don’t let the weakness of the other person separate you. The Bible talks when the—the Apostle Paul was talking, he said, "What shall separate me from the love of God?" What is that thing that will separate you from the love that has binded the two of you together? What is that thing that will separate you from what God—it may be weak, we are all vulnerable, there is no perfection in anyone, we are still work in progress. But God has brought us together to do what? So that he will showcase us. By the time we accommodate each other, by the time we submit to one another, by the time we allow the working of God, knowing that this one has been given to me to also nourish. You know what you nourish. Before you see one wonderful, "Oh, these people are beautiful," they must have worked on themselves. So God also expects you to work on your spouse. What is that weakness? Work on it, don’t castigate, don’t pull it down. See that weakness is my problem. "Ah, my—my wife can talk too much." You see it as it's my problem. I—that means I have a weakness, I have something wrong with me, eh? Then you begin to think of if it is—if I’m in her position, how will I handle it? Will you go to the town and go to the radio and begin to blackmail yourself? No, but you will look for how to work on yourself. You begin to learn, you begin to unlearn things that you have that is contrary. So the Lord is beseeching us this day. We must go back to remember what the Lord have said. You are one. And by the time you fight in the—the weaknesses, inadequacies in each other, you are doing what? You are working against the word of God. And when you work against the word of God, definitely you are opening the home, your home, for the enemy to come in. The Lord will help us and make our home a glorious one in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Ah, I just want you to go to the book of James. Look at the book of James chapter 1. Are you there brethren? Are you there? I want you to see what the Bible says in the verse—let me take it from verse 22. Thank you. From verse 22. The Bible says what? "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving who?" L’oruko Jesu mi ni t’ara mi jẹ (In the name of Jesus, I will not deceive myself). "If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like who? A man who is doing what? Observing his natural face where? In a mirror." But what is the foolishness in that man? The Bible says, "For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was." I believe you are getting the message. I believe you are getting the message. You see, when we enter into matrimony, and you don’t daily on a daily basis remind yourself, hold yourself together, hold your temper—one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control. Hold yourself together to keep telling yourself, "Ah, we are no longer two, we are one. Kò ṣ’èyàn méjì l’ò n gbé n’nu ilé, ẹnìkan l’ò n gbé n’nu ilé (It's not two people living in the house, it's one person living in the house)." Were lo dẹ ma n ba’ra ẹ ja (It's a madman that fights with himself). Ẹnìkan l’ò n gbé n’nu ilé (It's one person living in the house). The more you can always remember the word of God, the more you can always remember that this is the mirror, this is the mirror, this is the mirror. Honestly, you will not be a forgetful hearer. And I pray as we close this session, we want to separate men and women. I want—maybe you should pray for yourself. I like people praying for themselves. You see, personally talk to the Lord, "Lord, help me not to be a forgetful hearer. Particularly at critical junctions. Particularly at ṣẹ mọ awọn ikorita kan l’awọn ikorita kan a ma n gbagbe ara wa (at some junctions at some junctions we used to forget ourselves). Talk to God, Lord, at those critical times when it looks as if my spouse is—when it looks as if I should just blow, Lord help me to remember. Ah, help me to remember. I will not be a forgetful hearer. I will not be a forgetful hearer. I will not be a forgetful hearer. Oh, I will not be a forgetful hearer. The word of God is my mirror. The word of God is my mirror. It tells me who really I am. It doesn’t matter how I feel, the word of God tells me who I am. And I and my wife, we are not two. We are one. Lord help me. Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord. Help me, Lord." Lord, our eyes on you this morning. As we move to the part B of this ministration, the women only and the men only. Lord, we pray that Lord, Lord, we are not coming here to meet our brethren as a superman or somebody that have some super ability. Because it is written, Paul plants, Apollos waters. It is only God that can give increase. Lord, as we fellowship together, women in their category, men in their category, oh Lord, oh Lord, meet with us in our categories in those areas of our life where we need you most. That—that point, that junction, Oluwa awọn ikorita ninu aye wa t’a ti ni lo Jesu (Lord those junctions in our lives that we have need of Jesus). Oluwa, awọn ibi gangan gangan gangan o jẹ ni lati fọwọ kan (Lord those specific specific specific places you need to touch). Oluwa, ma jẹ k’a wa bakan na mọ (Lord don't let us remain the same way) in the name of Jesus. Lord touch us. Lord meet with us. Lord attend to our situation in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, blessed father. In the name of Jesus we pray. [Music] [Speaker 1] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission aid. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; 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 out-reaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community opposite Very Joy filling station along Ijele 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 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all. [Music ends]