Understanding Fundamentals of Intimacy with God (Part 2)

[Singing] Glory be to God in the highest, Amen. Hallelujah, Glory be to God in the highest, Amen. Hallelujah, for his mercies endureth forever, Amen. We appreciate him for his mercies. We thank him for his love. We thank him for all who he is. We thank him for all that he is. He alone be glorified in the name of Jesus Christ. We want to welcome all our brethren that are linking up with us today, either on Misla or Telegram. We want to say you are welcome. And as we commence again today, we trust in the Lord that the Lord will meet with us in the name of Jesus Christ. Let's take this song together as we begin today. [Singing] Glory be to God in the highest, Amen. Hallelujah, Glory be to God in the highest, Amen. Hallelujah, for his mercies endureth forever, Amen. Lord, we thank you that your mercies endure forever. Lord, we thank you as we gather again to you this evening. Lord, we pray that as we all connect together—our brethren on Misla, our brethren on Telegram, we who are here physically—Lord our God, we pray your spirit will work within us in the name of Jesus. Your spirit will work among us in the name of Jesus. Your name alone will be glorified in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we continue looking into your word, trying to understand this basis of intimacy, fundamentals of intimacy with you, particularly as we bear in mind that you are the one who teaches us to profit. As we look intently at your instruction that we should become more intimate with you so that we can profit in 2024 and not make losses. Lord our God, we pray, breathe upon us the breath of life. Help us, Lord. Grant us, Lord, that your life will be in us in the name of Jesus Christ. Cause that we will hear what God, your voice from behind us, speaking to us, "This is the way, walk in it," in the name of Jesus Christ. And as you speak to us, Oh God, grant us strength to agree with you, to cooperate with you, to follow intently after you in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we declare over our lives and over the year, over January, we say thy kingdom come. Lord, your will be done. Lord, your kingdom come. Lord, your will be done. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. So, we are looking at fundamentals of intimacy with God. And our text last Monday was 1 John 4:12, particularly: "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us." And we did something last week. We tried to begin, even though this scripture is telling us that if we love one another, God abides with us. And we are seeing that the ultimate of God's purpose for our lives is connected with our interconnection with fellow man. We began last week to see the matter, beginning with our Lord himself. We saw that the ultimate of everything that God did, that the Father did with the Son, would have been a complete waste if there was nobody to continue with that work. Everything he did would have ended with him and nothing would have continued. But because there was a relationship with people, that relationship was that he got some fishermen—very unstable, in fact, unlearned men, the way they described them in Acts of Apostles. They said when they looked at these people, they did not know anything, but they took cognizance that they had been with Jesus. So, he just took some tax collectors, some fishermen, just gathered them, gathered them, gathered them, and began to have relationship with them. And we saw that everything about him would have ended with him but for that relationship that he built. And we began to look at, we began to multiply the whole thing. We then went to, we saw everything that even though you are talking about Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Jesus was to come, we saw that we traced that same Joseph to Abraham. So, we saw that everything that God was planning about Jesus, how did it begin? How did it begin? God just called one man, one idol worshipper, "You follow me to a land that I will show you." And the whole thing started. And God said through your seed, all nations of the earth will be blessed. God began to relate with some people, very scattered, even that man too was very unstable. At some point, the man would suddenly swerve off God. God had to tell him that walk before me and be thou blameless. But eventually, God packaged that like, eventually all the ultimate thing that God wanted to do through Jesus Christ was traced back to Abraham through thy seed. So, you find that the almightiness of God, the eternal things of God, all the things that you are calling God the eternal purpose, eternal plan, hidden mysteries of salvation that was hidden in Christ—angels desired to look into it—everything was just about interconnection of relationship. Somebody gave birth to this, that one gave birth to that, this one gave birth to—it was just relationship with people. And because I, before I move on this evening on Fundamentals of Intimacy with God 2, recently I've been studying Chronicles. And I've been seeing that I don't know whether you notice that every time they talk about Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, they don't mention their father's name. They only mention whose, which name? The mother's name. They don't mention their father's name. They will say Joab the son of Zeruiah. They don't mention their father's name. And recently, I began to study, I began to read that thing. I discovered recently that actually Asahel, Joab, Abishai—they are brothers. They are all sons of David's sister. So, the reason why they are not making reference to their father particularly is because they are just the sons of David's sister and David, they connected. Look at how one single family became the deliverer of a whole nation. And God was busy working. And I was just asking myself, what do you do with your siblings? How do you treat your brothers? How do you treat your sisters? You talk about great plan, and God was just planning among siblings. I'm just talking about we need to rethink a lot of things about how we live. Honestly, everything will sum up back. I was thinking my reflection through the week before I move on to where we left the matter last week. Everything will come back to relationship. Look at how the matter ended in Matthew 25. You remember that story? You are familiar with that story. Then it will say to the sheep, "Come into eternal life prepared for you, for I was hungry, you gave me to eat." Relationship. "I was in prison, you visited me. I was naked, you gave me clothes." He didn't say, "You were a powerful evangelist, you preached one message, ten people got born again." It was not going in that direction. He was looking at people's relationship. Things you don't think will matter, things you just think that you cannot comprehend eternity—it's just simple, simple ordinary things of life. They said, "But Master, we are sorry, when? We didn't see you." You don't understand, all this your "Oluwa-key-in-Jeremiah-Moro-fomi-mote-bafi" because you don't know me. I normally eat efo and eba. I eat it in the brethren. When you did it to the least of the brethren, it was done to me. Then he said the one on the left, "You depart into everlasting fire." "Ah, Master!" "I was hungry, you didn't give me food. That student that put up with you, you know you, I don't like that. Look, change your behavior, everybody with his own shoe." "I'm sorry, you don't know that you have just neglected Jesus." I mean simple, simple, simple, simple things. Simple. I'm taking my reflection through the week, thing I was just reflecting over through the week following that discussion last week. The word of God is like a sword. As it cuts out, it also cuts back. My prayer has always been that, Lord, make me the first partaker of my labor. The husbandman that labored must be the first partaker of the fruit. So when I minister, let me be the first partaker of the blessing. Let it first minister to me, let it first change me before it changes people. So honestly, think a lot of things. If you really begin to know God, you will know. It will be getting clearer, clearer. The more of God you really encounter, the closer you get to this God, you will discover that the center of God's plan is about human beings. The way you look at human beings, the way you treat human beings, you will think human beings, the way you treat fellow men, the way you think fellow men, the way you act to fellow men begins to take a dimension that is divine. You will no more see people as trees. You will begin to see people in the image and in the likeness of God that God has made them. I conclude with this, my reflection during the week. Something in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 8. Just my reflection in the course of the week since it became so much a blessing to me and honestly. Proverbs chapter 8, are you there? I want to read something so that you can appreciate it. I will read it from verse 22. "The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old." So at the beginning of his way, the Lord possessed me, that is he took possession of me, he entered into me and we were to do something together. "I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever what?" What do you see there? "Before earth existed." That is before time. So this thing is talking about eternity. I hope you're following it. "When there was no depth," sea had not been created. I was brought forth. "When there was no fountain abounding with water." So that begins when you saw God said "the deep," this and that. It's not the beginning of God. It's the beginning for the earth. I hope you understand me. There was a beginning, there was eternity that sprang before that time. "Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world." I hope you're following when this person is talking about now—time eternity. Is that not true? Now. "When he prepared the heavens, I was there." So he now began with "I was before he started anything." Now when he wants to start things, "I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep," he was there. "When he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep"—so all those water, all those things, one above, one below—he was there. "When he assigned the sea its limit," the boundaries, "to this point you will get, don't go further," so that the water would not transgress his command. "When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him as a master craftsman and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in his inhabited world, and my delight was with who?" "My delight was with the sons of men." What do you notice? Of everything that came, where was the delight? In the sons of men. I want you to think all of these things. His delight was in the sons of men. In other words, everything about him—his plan, his mission, his concern, his burden, his thinking, everything about him—is about the sons of men. It is good for us to note that as we pick it on today. Fundamentals of intimacy with God. We have looked at it from the angle of God. And brethren, I want to begin this whole matter of fundamental of intimacy with God, I want to show you this thing at three different levels. And I'm going to begin from the primary level. The primary level, and then gradually I will move to the secondary level. This fundamental of intimacy with God. We are going to look at it in scriptures, you will see how these things connect. We are saying that the more a man become intimate with God, which is the basis of profiting with God—because if you are not intimate with God, you will not profit—how do you measure this intimacy? How do you know? How do you get these things clearer and clearer? No man have seen God, but we know that if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. If a man says "I love God" but hate his brother, he's a liar. The truth is not in him. If he does not love his brother whom he can see, it is not possible to love the unseen. It means connection with that unseen becomes visible in that which is seen. And I want to begin this connection from the very, very primary level, at the level of the family. At the level of the family. You will see how God divine plan for people, you will see how intimate plans of God for people is tied to a thing as ordinary as the family. You will see how it begin from that primary level. All of us here, we are all born into different families. Today, you are either the daughter of somebody, the brother of somebody, the sister of somebody, or you, you are the father of somebody. If you're a grandpa, if you're married and you've given birth, you're the father of somebody or you're the grandpa. Your son again have given birth to somebody. You are always one of the things that—like somebody said—family is king. It's king. Now look at the simple thing that the scripture says in Ephesians. Let's look at the book of Ephesians. Look at the simple thing that the scripture says. And you will see how we connect all of these things together. You will see how I will tie everything together looking at how people profited. You will see how people profited and how people made losses just by how they handled relationship within the family. You will see great profit. And I'm telling you that you're talking of profit and loss this year, it is going to be tied—everything is tied around connections of relationship. What you may enter to this year, you may lose it by the way you behave to somebody. What God wants to open for you this year, you may get it by what you did to somebody. There's a connection. Everything ties together. It's a year of profit, it's a year of intimacy, it's a year of understanding the fundamental of this intimacy. That's the point that we are making. When Paul was speaking in Ephesians 6:1-3, simple, simple scriptures, not complex scriptures. It says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and that you may live long on earth." Verse 4, "And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." Now I'm beginning from here. Do you know that the journey of everything that God want to do with your life begins with the family into which you are born? Everything, that ultimate thing that God want to do with you. That is why I showed you that nobody else could have given birth to Jesus except somebody from the tribe of Judah and that person must be connected to Abraham because the whole plan started then. One of my daughters in the Lord sent something to me two weeks ago. She said, "Sir, I don't understand this verse of the scripture, Genesis." She said, "Why is it that God told Abraham that he should know for surely that his descendant will be slave in a particular country for 400 years? After that, God will now come to punish that country and then he will release them." She said, "If God knows that, why didn't God advise that? Must they go and know what they suffered in that place? You know how many people died in that thing? If not for providence, Moses too would have died." So the point, why didn't God stop all of that? And I said, "Look, everything about Abraham did not begin with Abraham. Everything about Abraham is in God." You get the point I'm making? Everything about Abraham is not about Abraham, it's about God. It is God who wants the plan. And I said the simple reason why they must go there and God must call them out, we understood it in the New Testament. He said, "Israel is my son, and I will call out my son." When we now come to New Testament, we saw that Jesus went to Egypt. And from there, Jesus was brought forth. It says, "Out of Egypt I will call out my son." So God was working an eternal plan, and Abraham, all of those, they are just part of all of those things that God is doing. So the reality of it is that the same way this present earth that we are in is being conformed to another one that is to come. So there are some things we'll not even understand why it is happening here because they are being conformed again to the one that is to come. And that's the reality of it, because the plans of God are eternal. But what I'm trying to draw out of that eternal plan is that that plan is about who gave birth to who, who is the father of who. Ishmael was born, God said, "No, not this one that you gave birth to, it's this one that you give birth to." Are you understanding me at all? It looks mere family thing, but they are great eternal plans. So what I'm trying to make you understand is that do you have a realization that your being born into a family is not accidental? Do you have an understanding that your being born into a family is not accidental? Why? Why am I saying it's not accidental? This scripture is telling us some things here. It says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise." Do you know what is being emphasized here? Are you following me at all? How many commandments were given? Ten commandments, abi? That ten, that moral law. The commandments are divided into three: the ordinances, the moral law, and then the judgment. If you add all of them together, the laws are countless. The ordinances are the law that regulate worship. If a man say "let him bring five turtle doves," all those law, ordinance had to do with how they worship. When the high priest come, he should do this, he should—those are ordinances. The judgment are those ones that regulate relationship between people. If a man see the sheep of his neighbor going astray, he should bring it back to him. If you borrow something to your neighbor, you will give him back. You get the point I'm making? When you're harvesting your garden, don't pluck everything, leave some so that the poor can eat. If you harvest everything, he said if you—if you do like that, then the Lord will bless you. But if you see with your eye, becomes selfish, and you want to harvest everything, then the Lord will be angry with you. I'm just looking at the wisdom of God and the selfishness of man. Your harvesting, eventually leave some that the poor people will come and eat. Social security. That's why we have so many agbero's killing us today. They come as criminals into our house because we don't provide security for people. The rich is concerned about himself and his family. If we provide security so that the poor—I'm talking about the wisdom of God. Those are the judgment. Then the moral law, those command is what he's referring to here, ten. Now when you look at those command, those command you can divide them into how many? Set God and be the Lord your God this and that. And then the next thing is honor father and mother, that it may be well with you and that you may—and then society. Thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill, thou shall not—thou shall not take your neighbor's wife, thou shall not, thou shall not. Now what am I trying to bring out? All those laws that God gave, the Bible is telling us that the first command with a promise is the one to parents. Honor father and mother, which is the first command with promise. They added a promise to it. And what is the promise? That it may be well with you, that you may live long on earth. Now let's look at it. It means some things about your wellness is tied to that man. Then that you may live long on the earth. The earth into which you are born, there is something about the earth and the family to which you are born. There is something about the earth and the kind of attitude you pick up towards who? That person who happens to be what? Father, mother. Because if you look at how the game plays, nobody make a choice of it. If I ask some of us to make a choice today, some of us maybe we will not choose our father. Am I correct? Apostle Victor, if they ask you that if you want to take a father, a mother, maybe you don't pick your mother like this. You say "Ah, I prefer who should be my mother oh." What's the name of American President? Maybe the wife—why is the Queen of England not my mother? Maybe my father should have been—I'm talking of when you look at how parenting gives some people opportunities in life. You know that by the virtue of parents, some people in their life they will not struggle. Things will just, "okay, give birth to them in London," they are coming back, they already citizens of UK. We are struggling to go to state hospital. Just by being, by parenting. I inherited this, I'm the first son. Oxbridge—Oxford University Staff Primary School, after that Oxford University. I like the Masters to be in Washington DC. And the boy is just flying. By the time he's come back, he's National Director of—just parenting. If we are to begin to choose, there will be what we call "canvassing for—" but just because of very strange situation, you find some people—the Yoruba's would say "one who has a head has no cap, the one who has a cap has no head." You see some people, all the money is there, the boy refuse to go to school. You will now see one, the brain is there, he's brilliant, the parents cannot sponsor. He'll now be begging from here to here to pay the school fees, I'm backing admission. Are you understanding me at all? What I'm trying to bring out, I'm showing you something that looks like a maze. But who is behind all the maze? God. Have you not seen people are busy praying for children and there's no child? And somebody is throwing away a twin, "I don't want the baby." And somebody is picking the twin in the gutter to legalize to become the parent of that—are you understanding me at all? Somebody's on the mountain praying, what God freely gives to some, the grace is withheld from some. The one praying, the grace is withheld. The one not wanting it, he freely gives. What I'm trying to make you see in all of this maze is something very, very crucial. That parenting is not something we choose. But the person who in the midst of the maze, simply said "Honor father and mother. It will be well with you upon the earth and you will live long on that earth." And if we are to display this thing, then he said, "You fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." Let us demonstrate these things in scripture by looking at patterns in the Bible. Let's look at it brethren. Saul was to be king of Israel. Is that not true? How did he get to that throne? How did it happen? He was looking for, is it donkey or asses? Donkey, sir. Anyway, that's true. He was looking for them. Who owns those things? His father. The name of the father is what? Kish. The asses or the donkey were missing. Somebody went looking for those things. What happened intermittently? Let's look at it. Please let's look at what happened intermittently. 1 Samuel chapter 8. I will read some aspect of verse 8—I mean some aspect of some aspect in chapter 8, a little again in chapter 9, then a little in chapter 10. In chapter 8, from verse 1: "Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of the firstborn was Joel, the name of the second son, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, 'Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.' But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, 'Give us a king to judge us.' So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day, with which they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice.'" That is go and listen to them. "However, you should warn them about the behavior of the king." What happened? Samuel came back to the people. He said, "the behavior of the king." What was their response? The people responded in verse 19: "Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, 'No, we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.' And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. So the Lord said to Samuel, 'Heed their voice and make them a king.' And Samuel said to the men of Israel, 'Every man go to his city.'" So what I want to do now, what did God say? "Heed their voice," is that not true? So God was to begin the work. In chapter 9, look at the way that work—in 1 Samuel 9:1, what did we see? "There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among children of Israel. From his shoulder upward, he was taller than any of the people. Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, they were missing." So Saul was to go and look for those things. Let's quickly journey down that chapter 9. Move to around verse 14 when they went to look for the missing animals. "So they went up to the city. As they were coming into the city, there was Samuel coming towards them on his way up to the high place. Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, 'Tomorrow about this time, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin and you shall anoint him commander over my people Israel, that he may save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon my people because their cry has come to them.' So when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, 'There he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over my people.' Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate and said, 'Please tell me where is the seer's house?'" They don't know Samuel. Samuel answered Saul, "I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place for you shall eat with me today and tomorrow I will let you go and tell you all that is in your heart. But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about them for they have been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you and on your father's house?" How did Saul get to this place? He was born to a father who was rich enough to have animals, donkey, asses. Am I correct? And one day, some of them were missing. So those things that were missing, were they missing ordinarily? From all of this story now, those donkeys, not finding them—they were lost—was it an ordinary thing? It was not ordinary. Who was busy at work? God. God had told Samuel, "By this time tomorrow, I'm going to send somebody." That's the person you should anoint as king. How was the person sent? Donkey were missing far away somewhere. And the father called the son, "Go and look for them." The son said, "Okay, I'm going to look for them." I don't know which of the angel went to hide those of those animals. They just blew one wind and then the thing just walked to one side and go and hide and they were busy looking for them so that Kish would tell Saul to go and look for them. And Saul went looking for them, looking for them, looking for them, and then when he met Samuel, "That's the man I said I will bring." What am I trying to bring out from you? Why is the eternal destiny of Saul connected to running mere errand for the father? Why are they connected? Mere errand. Just run this errand, go and help me look for this. God was busy with an eternal plan, and yet the plan was connected to what? Ordinary. Please how serious is "My son, help me fetch water"? It's not a serious thing that—it doesn't look like anything that eternal plan can be inside. It doesn't look like that. Just the same way, "I was hungry, you gave me to eat" doesn't look like anything eternal plan is inside. What I'm trying to make you see is that the great eternal plans of God, they are connected to ordinary things of life. And I'm showing you something fundamentally from even the household. Ordinary parent errand can be connected to an eternal plan. So I now want to talk about parents' instructions, parents' admonition, parents' command, parents' appeal, parents' plea, parents' prayer. Ordinary things like these, God can work eternal plans around them. That is why don't take a lot of things for granted. I've been there away. God has been that way. But I want you to see, in the midst of the maze, simply said "Honor father and mother. It will be well with you upon the earth and you will live long on that earth." And if we are to display this thing, then he said, "You fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." Let us demonstrate these things in scripture by looking at patterns in the Bible. Let's look at it brethren. Israel rebelled, and so God just want to give them anybody that God will later reject. Maybe that is why it worked that way. Why God was to reject Saul, who was God, who was to take the office of Saul? David. Is it not David? David. Let's look at David. Please brethren, let's look at something in David. Let's go to the same 1 Samuel, in chapter 15, Saul was rejected. In chapter 16, Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse. I want you to see similar pattern oh. In 16 from verse 1, we saw the Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn Saul, seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, go. I'm sending you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons." Hope you know that's God that brought David. Where we are not sure of that of Saul, we are sure of that of David, is that not true? Because the throne of Jesus will be the throne of David. You get the point I'm making? That's why they call him the son of Abraham, the son of David. Because the throne of Jesus is the throne of David, when God saw he give you everlasting an everlasting kingdom. He was talking about Jesus. Why is the son of Abraham? Because it is through the seed of Abraham. So as a seed, he's Abraham's son. As a king, he's David's son—the throne of David. Now look at what happened. Samuel got there, you know the story, God does not look as the heart looks, as man look, all of that. Eventually, they did any other son, they went until they brought David. Then I'm at verse 11: "And Samuel said to Jesse, 'Are all the young men here?' Then he said, 'There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.'" Where was he? He was keeping the sheep. "And Samuel said to Jesse, 'Send, bring him, for we will not sit till he comes.'" I want to show you something. David was to shepherd what? Was to shepherd what? Israel. What assignment was he doing in his father's house? He was a shepherd. He was already shepherding. What looks like not connected to some divine thing, what looks like ordinary, "okay, so be the firstborn will not be made to sit down and be reading his book. It is the small, small, you know when you've started growing up, the younger ones are taking—" maybe because the younger ones are just taking jobs. But he was already shepherding. He was already shepherding. I'm going to connect, you will see all this connection with when we got to Goliath oh. "When I keep my father's sheep, lions come to me, bears come to me, the God who delivered me from this—" I'm showing what is going to become an eternal thing, beginning from a father's house. He was serving the father, but I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere. Now eventually they brought David. Look at what happened. Verse 12: "So he sent and brought him. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes and good looking. And the Lord said, 'Arise, anoint him, for this is the one.' Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. Samuel arose and went to Ramah." So what the Bible wanted us to see, that from that day, the thing began to move that boy. Began to work inside this boy. So that thing that he was doing in those field, because the spirit was working in him. But look at something that amazed me brethren. Look at what amazed me. It's in chapter 17. Please let's open to 17. 17 was the battle between David and Goliath. Look at what happened. 17:12—let me take it from verse 10: "And the Philistine said, 'I defy the army of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.' When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid." Now the solution to that thing was to be David, isn't it? But look at how he was introduced again. "Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years in the days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The name of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. David was the youngest, and the three oldest followed Saul. But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem." I hope you know why? Saul had called for him to be playing music. You know somebody saw him play harp and then he goes to do that with Saul. So he come back again to do his father assignment. You think he was not relieved from this assignment by the father? "Now the Philistine drew near and presented himself 40 days, morning and evening." Verse 17, look at what happened: "Then Jesse said to his son David, 'Take now for your brothers an ephah of dried grain and these ten loaves and run to your brothers at the camp. And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand and see how your brothers fare and bring back news of them.' Now Saul and all they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. So David rose early in the morning, left his sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as what? As what? As Jesse, the father, had commanded." Please don't forget. Saul went and met Samuel as who commanded? Kish. David rose to go and give it to his brothers as who commanded again? Have you seen similar pattern? Now when he went as commanded, he came to the camp as the army were going to fight and shouting for the battle. For Israel and the Philistine had drawn up the battle array, army against army. And David left his supply in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army and came and greeted his brothers. Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistine, and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them. What brought David to hear Goliath? He took an errand, went as his father said, "Go in the morning," not go in the afternoon. It was going that morning that he met exactly the time that the champion was coming to speak. He was able to hear and I want to ask you: from this point forward, was David introduced to Israel? Was David introduced to Israel? What I'm trying to make you see, that grace of God—that grace—he was born to a family of eight, he happens to be the youngest. He was opportune to have brothers that will be in that battlefield. Are you following me at all? God bringing him as the youngest and now making it such that his three brothers will have brothers old enough to be at the war field. God want to introduce him to Israel. The father now said, "Go and give your brothers these things." It is yielding to that father to go and give to that his brothers that brought David from obscurity to light. What I'm trying to make you see, some of us may die in obscurity. Not because God have not anointed us. But because the program of God to bring you to limelight, you suddenly despise father. You despise mother. You just set them aside. I'm showing you this matter from a level of childhood. I'm showing you just things as simple as simple as this at the level of ordinary parents when we are younger comes with what? Obeying them. "Do this, do that." That is how it comes. And in doing that, what did we see? God connects a young man. God brought him from obscurity to light. God made the life of that young man to profit. He made that man not to be in obscurity. David, it's time to profit. God was saying that in heaven. How did God achieve it on earth? David, it is time for the anointing on your head to be proclaimed to Israel. It is time for me to introduce you to my people. It is time to bring you to limelight. That is what heaven was busy saying and I'm telling you, heaven may be saying several things over your life this year. But the connection will just be some simple, simple things: love your neighbor, forgive your brother, do good to your friend, be true to somebody. You get the point I'm making? I'm talking about simple, simple, simple things to which great and mighty things are connected. Somebody may die in obscurity. Somebody may lose the introduction, the connection from one place to another that God want to do this year because he just handled the parents somewhere. And if you multiply this issue of honoring parents, beginning to tie it together, join them side by side. I will show you now somebody who was older and how he entered into God's eternal purpose. But because of time, I'll just paraphrase it but I wanted us to trace that. Now when you look at Moses—we have made mention of Moses earlier—Moses was born at a time when sons were being killed. The mother took time. He was hidden for months. At a point, there was nothing they could do. They took step. The step was to put the boy somewhere. The sister Miriam was to watch. If anything is to happen, come and give report. Miriam was busy watching. While Miriam was watching, God was planning the deliverance of his people. At the birth of Moses, God was already organizing a deliverance. Now look at everybody in that plan. Miriam was to be the "watch girl." Don't forget, it's going to be that Miriam and that Aaron that's going to lead Israel. Don't forget, but I'm showing you something. Miriam while he was there, Pharaoh's daughter came. And when Pharaoh's daughter came, he saw the boy and as he was picking the thing and he saw the son, there was a sister who was intelligent enough to tell the Pharaoh's daughter, "Can I go get a nurse to nurse this person?" Providence was working on behalf of a baby who was yet to be able to speak. The providence was within the family. Now that providence worked in a way, Moses was brought back to the mother, isn't it? The mother took time, train up Moses, train up Moses, train up Moses. Moses got to know who he is, or who he was through the period he spent with the mother. When Moses became a man and he understood all of those things the mother told him, those things were clear to him. What you notice about Moses? Moses honored his parents. He had been made to realize you are not Pharaoh's child, you are not the child. We will hand you over but this is the story around your life. Because he did not know his story. Somebody told him that story. That was the parent. And he deferred to the parent. And when Moses deferred to the parent, what did he enter into? The eternal plan of God for his own life. By deferring to those parents, choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God. "You belong to this people, you don't belong to that people." And on and on like that, Moses entered into that plan. By deferring to those parents, he could have thrown away everything the parents said. It is not possible. I close this series with Samson. Samson was born in a similar way. The mother took this same boy and told the boy all the story. This is how you were born. This is it concerning you. You must not do this, you must not do that. You must do it like this. When Samson grew up, the teachings and the tenets of the parents to him—"Don't eat something from dead animal"—what you notice about Samson? Samson went. He took something from a dead lion. When he got to the parent, because for you to know that he knew, what did he do? He didn't tell them the source of that thing. So Moses could have also "Ah, that what my mother who go identify with Nigeria that's in US?" Which story my mother tell me? "Mother, that's your own story oh. Me, because Egypt was the world power at that time. They give birth to me in one village, now I'm to become the next Pharaoh oh. I mean forget that story! Let's move on." We're in the US! What story? He stayed there and chose to suffer with the people of God. He became an authority in Israel that for the sake of Moses, they killed Jesus. He became an authority that eventually what was transferred to Jesus was Moses and Elijah appearing to Jesus: "We now hand over to you." He became the authority that handed over everything about the law because Moses was the law giver. The law handed over to you, Elijah for the prophet, all prophecy fulfilled in you. That Moses because he heeded what the parents said. Let us close this series. I'm talking about understanding fundamental of intimacy. You may lose great profit. You may lose out fundamentally, what do you do? How do you look at regardless of your age, regardless of your person, whether it's at young age, at old age. Honor comes in different ways. Some people are so comfortable somewhere now, sitting down somewhere, not thinking of their parents. It is after they die they will now be talking of, they will keep 15 cows. Honor them materially! You be saying "I remember how my father slapped me when I was in primary school, I won't send money to him." Is that the issue we are talking about now? To honor them is also to care for them. What I'm trying to make you see is that fundamentally even beginning from the home, the dynamics of intimacy with God. So many things about our life is just—you can see how life is interwoven. So interwoven, so tied, so—what I'm trying to make you understand is that as you go deeper and deeper in your walk with God this year, the manifestation will be showing in the expression of the love of God towards men in diverse dimension. And I said first beginning from the home. Love and profit will be made this year by the way people handle their sibling, their parents. Love and profit will be made this year. Their sibling, their parents, their brothers, their sisters. Reason why some people will not get some things is the malice they kept against their brother-in-law or their sister-in-law or their dad-in-law. "He did this, and I've made up my mind, in heaven we will settle it." You will not get heaven to settle anything. What is it that you are holding against somebody? Sister-in-law, brother-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law. What is this? Look within your home. There might be things God wants you to release so that heaven can release some things upon you. There might be people you have locked up in your heart. You have locked up your mother-in-law, you have locked up father-in-law, you have locked up that, you have locked up this, you have locked up your younger sister, you have locked up your brother. He did this, he did that, and I'm going to make sure heaven punish them. You may be in your obscurity and you will die in obscurity. Your releasing them will bring you to some limelight that you may never think of. What I'm saying that let us first begin from within. As a husband, how are you handling your wife? As a child, how are you submitting to your parents? As a father, what are you doing to your children? All of these are issue, these dynamics. There is so much about the family tree that is connected with eternal divine plan. Let us pray. Let us pray this evening. Let's talk to the Lord. Let's talk to the Lord this evening. Let's talk to the Lord. I don't know how you are handling this thing, but I'm just showing you fundamentals. The fundamental of intimacy with God. That as you choose to draw near to God, I want to make sure understand is about relationship to men. It's going to find expression. The, oh, that promotion is just somebody that will connect you to that thing. That job is somebody. That thing is going to be human. That favor, that grace—oh, by the time we come together next week and I'm showing you the other level of this thing. We have dealt with the level of the family. We'll come next week to move further on this matter and you begin to see how it connect again beyond the family. Let it be family level. Let's come to the next step. Let's see how this thing holds again. And you will see how men have entered into eternal plan by how they related to their neighbor. You will see how even to strangers. You will see the next level. As we—this dynamics of intimacy. Everything about God is about human beings. It's about human beings. That corner where you are, how are you handling it? Oh Lord, our eyes on you. Oh Lord, our eyes on you. Lord, please help us. You are the one who teaches us to profit. We are profiting this year. There will be no loss. There will be no loss. This year is our year of profit. You will teach us to profit. You will cause us to profit. We will begin to prosper. We will begin to move forward. We will begin to go from obscurity to light. We are moving forward this year. It's a year of moving forward. We are moving forward in the name of Jesus. Thank you, eternal Father. Blessed be your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. 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. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen.