Take Heed How You Hear

[Speaker 1] Churchy 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 2] In the year 2023, we appreciate Him for His love. We thank Him for how He kept us through 2022 and has brought us into 2023. We are particularly grateful again to God for bringing us into this year and for this opportunity again to gather at His feet to fellowship together with our singles across the globe. Those of us who are here, our singles who are joining us on Mixlr, those that are joining us on Telegram, we thank the Lord again for the opportunity to gather. My prayer is that as the Lord tarries, more and more we will have the privilege of gathering and hearing His word, learning at His feet in the name of Jesus Christ. We want to start this morning with this song unto the Lord, just to appreciate Him for bringing us again into the year 2023. [Speaker 2 singing] When I think of the goodness of Jesus And all He has done for me My very soul shall shout Hallelujah Praise God for saving me, for saving me When I think of the goodness of Jesus And all He has done for me My very soul shall shout Hallelujah Praise God for saving me, for saving me When I think of the goodness of Jesus And all He has done for me My very soul shall shout Hallelujah Praise God for saving me, for saving me I would sing of the mercies of the Lord Forever I would sing Of the mercies of the Lord I would sing I would sing of the mercies of the Lord Forever I would sing Of the mercies of the Lord Oh, with my mouth, with my mouth Will I make known Thy faithfulness Thy faithfulness With my mouth will I make known I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations I would sing of the mercies of the Lord Forever I would sing of the mercies of the Lord With my mouth, with my mouth Will I make known I make known Thy faithfulness Thy faithfulness With my mouth will I make known I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations I would sing of the mercies of the Lord Forever I would sing of the mercies of the Lord [Speaker 2] Our Father, we thank You for this morning. Indeed, we thank You for Your mercies. We thank You for how You have kept us through 2022 and You have brought us into 2023. We thank You for this opportunity again to gather. We appreciate You for Your mercies. We appreciate You for Your love. Lord our God, we pray that as we connect together again this morning, Your Spirit will work within us among us in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we are asking that You will meet with us from wherever we are connecting, whether physically here, whether on Mixlr, whether on Telegram. Lord God Almighty, we pray from wherever we are connecting, Lord our God, there will be a personal encounter with You, particularly for our young men, our young women, oh Lord our God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Eternal Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. This morning, which is the first Singles Club for the year 2023 and for the month of January, we want to consider a very, very decisive topic this morning that has to do with looking into the year 2023, something that the Lord has been burdening our heart with as a ministry. We feel it will be good we make all our singles for us to look at this together. I want us to go to the book of Revelation, Chapter 3. Our topic this morning is "Take Heed How You Hear." Take heed how you hear, take heed to what you hear. Take heed to how you hear. How are you hearing? What are you hearing? What are you giving attention to? What is taking your focus? What is getting your attention? Why is this so important? I’ll just give a background in the book of Exodus, and then we will come to the book of Revelation to look at one or two things, and then we will come to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we look at Exodus 3, I read from Verse 1. [Speaker 2 reading Scripture] Exodus 3:1-5 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” [Speaker 2] And then the Lord continued speaking with Moses. Now what I want to make you see in this place that is very important, we are reading Exodus 3. When you look at this passage of the Scripture, the Bible says the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." What I want to show you in this place that is very important as we journey in 2023 is the power of attention. Attention. Whatever gets your attention will direct your life. Whatsoever gets your attention will be what will direct your life. Anything that gets your attention will determine your direction. Anything that gets your attention will determine your direction in life. So you notice that when God wanted to start something serious with Moses, the first thing God had to do was to do something to get his attention. Are you seeing that in that passage? God caused a fire to be burning. All that God wanted to get was his attention. There was nothing particular about the bush because after he had gone to the bush and he said, "Now I will now turn," look at what happened. Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." The Bible now says, "So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, He called him." You see, after He had gotten his attention, He gave him direction. What I am trying to make you understand, it is the same way that the devil works. It is the same way that the devil works. What he tries to do is first to get your attention. As we start the journey of 2023, young man, young woman listening to me, be careful about what gets your attention this year. Be careful about what gets your attention. Be careful about what gets your attention. Because let me tell you the truth, behind what is getting your attention are forces that want to take your direction. Behind what is getting your attention are forces that want to get your direction, that want to direct your life. God wanted to redirect the life of Moses. God wanted to take Moses from following after sheep. God wanted to direct him to start leading people. He wanted to change the whole course of his life. I am telling you, if the enemy wants to change the course of your life too, what he needs to get is your attention. So the topic, "Take Heed How You Hear," that we are considering this January is just a burden that as we start this year, young man, young woman listening to me, be careful. All that God wants to do with you this year, God will do it by getting your attention. All that the enemy wants to do here to destroy young people, he will do it by getting their attention. So as we march into 2023, my exhortation to you is take heed how you hear. Be careful. What are you hearing? When I mean what are you hearing, what I mean is what are you listening to? What are you choosing to see? What is it that is taking your time? What is it that is becoming your drive? Take heed to that thing. Take heed to it because around that thing that is getting your attention, there are two gates. We talk about the gates of heaven, talking about the powers of heaven. There's also the gates of hell. "I will build My church; the gates of hell will not prevail." Talk about life, the way of life, the way of death. Talk about paths, the narrow path that leads to life, the wide one that leads to destruction. There are always two. Look at it. You remember that Adam and Eve were doing well in that garden until one day that the gate of hell decided to show up. And when they showed up, how did they show up? If you look at the eventual thing, let’s look at that eventual thing in that Genesis 3. Look at the eventual thing there. The serpent said, from Verse 4, "Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die.'" What’s going on here? The woman was not taking heed what she was listening to. She was not taking heed to what she was hearing. "For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good from evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desirable to make one wise... what has the devil succeeded in doing? Calling her attention to what God said don’t give attention to. Is that not what happened in that place? Her attention was called to something that God said, "Don't give attention to. This tree, the day you eat it, you will die." Don't give attention to death. But you see, the enemy began to dance around the death, dance around the death, dance around the death until "Ah, this thing, it can... it will make one wise. It looks like something good for food." Something that God has called their attention away from. But you see, behind what was calling her attention was a force that wanted to ruin her destiny. And he succeeded. Didn’t he succeed? He succeeded. He succeeded. He succeeded. What am I talking about is young man, young woman, take heed how you hear. Take heed to what you are listening to. Take heed to what you are hearing. As we march through this year, why should we take heed how we hear? Why should we take heed to what we hear? Why are we saying that? Because of a burden that the Lord is giving us as a ministry. Revelation Chapter 3. I want to look at the Laodicean church. I want to look at something about the Laodicean church and then something for us to give attention to. Revelation 3, I read from Verse 14. [Speaker 2 reading Scripture] Revelation 3:14 And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness.’ [Speaker 2] What I want to call your attention to is who is speaking here. Who was speaking to John in this place? The Lord Jesus, isn't He? He was revealing Himself to John so that John can take the message to the churches. Now, He introduced Himself by what? "These things says the Amen." We’ll be looking at that much more later. It may not be in the Singles Club; it may be in the discipleship class. "The Faithful." We’ll take that again to the discipleship class. He says, and what? "The True Witness." Who is a witness? Somebody that saw something happen, isn’t it? Now, if somebody is a witness, and then says a true witness, what does that call your attention to? Yeah, there could be false people. So what makes a false witness? How will a witness be false? Number one, he didn’t see anything. He just made witness, a fake witness. He saw nothing. "Ah, *oju mi bayi lo ti sele* (it happened right before my eyes). I saw it happen, in fact, as I came out like this, the boy just slapped his father. I saw it with my two eyes." What made him a false witness? He saw nothing. The other way to be a false witness is that something happened. Two people started a fight. And what happened was that one came and said, "Good morning," and the other said, "I don't need your greeting, go away." And as the other person was going away who greeted, that one just stood up again from the back, used a stick, hit him, and he fell to the ground. And then the other person now went for a reprisal attack, brought three boys, they came to the place with horsewhips, they tied the man down, they whipped him until blood was coming from his body. You saw what happened. And then you were called. "What happened?" "Sir, in fact, this is his shop, this is my own shop. This man greeted my friend. My friend said 'Good morning' too. As he was going away, my friend didn’t say anything. This man just came and said, 'Look, I'm going to show you.' And my friend said, 'Go and do your worst.' That is how he just came with these three boys and they began to beat my friend." You saw what happened. But you didn’t say exactly what it was because you wanted to favor something. So when you bear false witness, it's because you want to favor something. You want to make it appear one way either to gain something or to favor something. But the Lord that we are dealing with does not have favorites. If you think He does, you are making a big mistake. He does not have a favorite. So He's not going to bring His witness because maybe He wants to favor. No, He has no favorite. He’s going to give every man. It’s going to be bam, bam, bam. So His witness cannot be faulted. Number two, He wants to gain something. What makes people false witnesses is they want to gain something. Again, when we look into Peter, we see that there is no reason why He shouldn’t be a true witness. Why should He not be a true witness? Let’s look at 2 Peter Chapter 3. Look at what the Bible says in 2 Peter Chapter 3. I want to call your attention to something about God. Chapter 3 from Verse 10. [Speaker 2 reading Scripture] 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are therein will be burned up. [Speaker 2] Now, so when the Lord is coming, what is going to happen to the earth and everything in it? He's coming to burn up everything. So as far as the Lord is concerned, I want to ask you, is there anything He wants to gain here? What has He subjected all these things to? Be burned. Why am I saying this? Why am I calling your attention to this? You see, the Lord don’t just speak because there is no need to speak. When the Lord speaks, the Lord speaks deliberately. He introductions Himself as the faithful and true witness. That is, if there is anybody to listen to, I am the one to listen to. I don't have a favorite, and there is nothing I stand to gain. Some people because they want to gain something, they want to gain something and they may speak. No, the person that is speaking is the true witness. If there is anybody you need to hear, it is Me. Why am I talking like this? It’s because I want to call our attention to something. He was speaking to this church. He said, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, 'I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing'; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Ordinarily, what makes people think that they are rich when they are wretched? They must have earthly riches. There is nothing wrong with having earthly riches. What is important about riches is that you don't trust in it. He said, "Command those who are rich in this world, not to be high-minded, nor to trust in such an uncertain things as riches. But they should be willing to distribute, ready to communicate, that they may lay up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." God is not committed to making people rich; God is committed to meeting your need. He said, "Give us this day our daily bread." So as far as God is concerned, everybody who is walking with Him, sincerely and faithfully serving God, is not a salary worker. He's a daily laborer. And for every day, He will pay your wage. That’s why He said, "Do not take thought for tomorrow." For today, He will meet your need. When tomorrow comes again, He will meet your need. When next tomorrow comes, so God is not in the spirit of accumulation. "Against years, let me accumulate against 20 years to come." No, that's not the way of God and man. If God decide to make you to have so much, please understand, I keep telling brethren, if you notice you are having so much than you need, please be careful of the pride of life. You begin to define yourself, "We are the VI brethren. We are the Port Harcourt brethren. We don't relate to Ajegunle Mushin brethren. We don't relate to the poor brethren." You begin to class yourself, forming a class. That is madness. That's not the purpose of giving you so much. That's pride of life. When God gives so much, God is saying don't trust in it. Rather, be willing to distribute. He comforts you so that you can comfort others. When God gives you so much than you need, it’s because He's giving you as a ministry. Riches as far as God is concerned is a ministry. It's not to make yourself to have some kind of status. There was nothing wrong with earthly riches. What made these people feel that they are rich, whereas in the actual sense they were naked, in fact, they were even miserable? When miserable men are rejoicing that all is well, this is a serious thing. What do you think could have happened? Were there not pastors? Were there not teachers among them, in this church? Are there not prophets among them? So what could have happened? It’s what we are discussing this morning: who are you listening to? What are you hearing? They must have been told, "All is well. The Lord is good to us. Somebody shout Hallelujah." There's nothing wrong about that. God can be good to us in reality, and we can shout Hallelujah. There's nothing wrong about that. But it's about listening to a false witness. It's about relating with false people. It’s about listening to men who didn’t witness anything and they are talking. It’s about associating with people who managed to see something, but because of what they stand to gain—covetousness, riches or whatever—they twisted the story. What I am trying to say is that look, the Bible told us as there were false prophets among them, there will be false teachers among you who will bring in damnable heresies. Take heed, brother, how you hear. Take heed what you hear. As we march through 2023, don't just believe every spirit. Test every spirit. That’s what the Bible says. Test it. Test what you are hearing by Scripture. Become a Berean Christian. What did they do? After Paul preached to them, what did they do? They went to search the Scripture. After Paul was preaching to them, and Paul was glad that they came to confirm, "Sir, what you said is correct. We saw it in the prophet, we saw it... yes, you are true." And he was glad. Some men if you tell them that I went to search what I preached, they’ll say, "You are searching what I preached? Before your father was born, I have been in ministry." We should be glad when those who listen to us go to search to know whether what we are saying is true. Those are the correct believers. Those are the ones that have heaven that they want to go. Why am I talking about taking heed to what you hear? Is that every single person listening to me, we have said this in our discipleship class and we’ll be building on this throughout this year 2023, the church today is at the stage of the Laodicean church. That’s where we are right now. That’s where we are. It’s a time of false impression, false understanding, false belief, false... it’s a time of that. That is where we are right now. And what you need to do this period is to be careful about what is getting your attention. What got the attention of these people was error. What got their attention was lies. What got their attention was not the truth. And as a church, they believed it. And they were marching on in that, waiting to meet their Lord. May we not be deceived in the name of Jesus. That the Lord had to send by the hand of John, "Go and tell this church, we are not on the same page." What I am saying is that today the church has moved and moved and moved, now we are at the stage of a Laodicean church. We are in a situation today where there is so much deception, so much lie, so much false impression. Some things will look real: "We are rich, we are good, we are okay." But we are not good to go for heaven. We are not good to go for Jesus. We are not good to go for rapture. Not good to go. But what will be seen all around us is "Wow, you are bad, you are great, it's excellent, that's just correct." Everything will just be correct, correct, correct, correct, correct. Everything may not actually be correct. May we take heed how we hear. Why should we take heed to how we hear? Look at what the Lord said in Verse 19, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Please, what is the purpose of knock? To get the attention of those inside. In this year, this year 2023, God is seeking to get the attention of His people. Mark my words. In this 2023, people will be listening to talk about sinners; He was not speaking to sinners here. He’s at the door of your heart, He’s knocking. That is not the focus here. The reality of this Scripture was that the Lord was speaking to His church. He said, "I stand here." This is just figurative. What He's trying to say is that I am doing different things to get the attention of My people. I will be doing different things in 2023 to get your attention. I will be doing different things to get your attention. I will be knocking. The purpose of that knock is to get the attention of those who are inside. It is not about those who are outside. With people who are outside, you don't knock. What you do is you shout, "Hey! Hey! Samson! Hey! Edolaro!" because there’s nothing to knock. But when people are inside and you want to get their attention, what do you do? Knocking is about those who are inside. Are you a believer? Are you a Christian? Are you sure you know the Lord? The Lord is calling attention in 2023 like that. He’s knocking. He’s knocking. He’s knocking. That is, the Lord will be doing different things to get our attention. Why is He doing that? Because He needed your direction. He wants to direct you. He wants to direct you. He wants to direct you. He needed to turn you 360 degrees, just the way He turned Moses. After He got his attention, what was the next thing? He turned his life around from following sheep to go to Egypt to lead people. The Lord want to turn us around. But all of this is about taking heed to how you hear. So this first Singles Club of the year is an instructive Singles Club. An instructive one. One about as we look into 2023, how should we live our life? What should we do? He says, "I stand at the door and knock." Look at the next thing. Look at the Scripture, Revelation 3:20, as we close this morning. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in." Is that consistent? Look at it. Is it consistent? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me. Is there something missing? "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice..." Look at me. Is this voice? It's knocking voice. No. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice." So what does that tell you? You can see what the Lord is doing, getting your attention to hear His voice. He's getting your attention to hear His voice. Getting your attention to hear His voice. That’s why I said our topic is "Take Heed How You Hear." The Lord will be getting the attention of people today to hear His voice. He will be getting your attention to hear His voice, the voice of the word, the voice of truth, the voice of the true witness, the voice of the Scriptures, not the voice of tradition, not the voice of conventions, not the voice of denomination, but the voice of the Lord. And I am also telling you the same way Satan too is also knocking and speaking. Be knocking and speaking. So for those of us who are inside, my word to you today is that as we go to 2023, take heed how you hear. Take heed what you hear. Take heed about what is getting your attention. Life and death depends on it this year. Life and death depends on what we are discussing, this thing that we are talking about depends on it this 2023. There will be rising and there will be falling. May we be like I tell people. They say if God can be on our side. No. It is if we can be on God’s side. God don’t change side. God doesn't change side. He stays where He is. He is holy, He is true, He is godly. He is holy, He is true, He is godly. And as we pray, the scripture for prayer is that Peter that we read. We go back to that Peter, that 1 Peter Chapter 1. 1 Peter 1, that scripture we read, 1 Peter 1. I read from Verse 13, just where we stopped. It says: [Speaker 2 reading Scripture] 1 Peter 1:13-17 Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” [Speaker 2] That is what brought us to "And if you call on a Father, who will judge according to every man's work, without partiality," then you better be careful how you live here. He who called us is holy; He doesn't change side. He's not God company, no, no. He is holy; He's on His side there. You are the one to go to God's side. God doesn't change side. He stays where He is. He's holy. You are the one to come to His side by being holy in all your conduct. You are the one to come to His side. Let us be on His side as we march through this year. Let us take heed to how we hear. He who calls us is holy. We are to be holy in all conduct, in everything, in everything. I want you to go ahead to pray. He said, "Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober." Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. Gird up the loins of your mind and be sober. That your mind, be thoughtful, be careful, be thoughtful. Don't be thoughtless. Don't be careless. Don't be carefree. Be intentional, be deliberate, be focused. Be circumspect. Think carefully about things before you do them. Think carefully. Evaluate it. Be sure you’re on God's side before you do things. Be sure it is the truth. Check it with Scriptures. How correct is it? How is it agreeing with the word of God? Be sober. Be vigilant. Take heed how you hear. Take heed how you hear. Take heed how you hear. Take heed, take heed. Take heed. Our Father, we thank You for this morning. Lord, we just commit ourselves into Your hands. We pray for all our singles across that are listening this morning, those of us who are here physically, those who are on Mixlr listening to us, those who are on Telegram listening to us. Lord God, we pray, together as one people, we shall be on Your side. Lord God Almighty, we will be on the winning side. We will be on the holy side. We will be on the victorious side. We will be on the side of life. We will be on the side of greatness. We will be on the side of progress. We will be on the side of increase in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. Oh Lord, we pray, the Bible says submit therefore to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Oh Lord, help us that at all times we will be submitting to You. We will submit to You. We will submit to You. We will submit to You. And as we submit to You, we will have all it takes to resist the devil in the name of Jesus. Thank You, Eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. As we go into the year, Lord, go with us. Let Your goodness be upon us for good. Let Your eyes watch over us. Lord, bless and keep us. Lord, bless and keep us. Lord, bless and keep us. Where men fall, we will stand. Where they stand, we will stand out. Where they stand out, we will outstand. Our horns shall be exalted as the horn of a unicorn. We will not fall. We will not falter. Rather, our strength will be renewed continually in the name of Jesus Christ. We will not walk in darkness, but in the light of life in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, Father. Blessed be Your holy name. It is well with us in the land. In the year 2023, we shall eat the good of Nigeria in the name of Jesus. In the year 2023, we eat the good of Nigeria in the name of Jesus. Thank You, Blessed Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Let's share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. 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, 5:00 PM; Adolescent 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 everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Light Camp by the first bridge, Ile-Ere community opposite Very Joy filling station along Igbatoro 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.