In this live mid‑week service at Celebration Church International, Apostle Femi Lazarus opens with a high‑energy worship introduction, honoring the church’s leadership and inviting the congregation to stand. After a brief prayer for insight, he projects his teaching topic and turns to Genesis 2 as the scriptural foundation for a discussion on relationships, courtship, and marriage. He reads verses 7‑19, emphasizing that God created man alone, declared it not good for him to be solitary, and fashioned a help‑mate from his rib, establishing the biblical model of partnership. Lazarus argues that the Adam‑Eve narrative does not exemplify modern courtship, noting that they never courted, and warns that prolonged singleness can lead to confusion, pressure to settle, and unhealthy relational patterns he labels “toxic love.” He calls for prayer, fasting, and spiritual preparation to guide single men toward godly relationships, urging the audience to recognize the need for intentional, biblically‑grounded partnership rather than cultural shortcuts.
Chapters
Media team, whatever experiment you are doing, wrap it up now.
A signal when we're set.
I'll wait for a signal when we're set. Well, praise the Lord! You have to understand, the spiritual voltage is a lot, so the speakers had to speak out. What's, what's, what's going on? Hallelujah! So you're ready, right? Hallelujah! Um, so please stand to your feet for the first time in Celebration Church. Help me celebrate this incredible gift that God has raised for the body of Christ. His impact is around the world, and, um, at Celebration Church, we want you to know that we truly honor, cherish, and celebrate you. Praise the Lord! Ladies and gentlemen, Apostle Femi Lazarus! Please give him a Jesus welcome! And celebrate him.
Thank you, Lord. All right. Amen, amen, amen. Good evening, everyone. Good to see you. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Will you help me honor Apostle? So let me, let me just say this. You know, God has blessed me with a beautiful wife, so It takes someone with the might of Apostle Irene to drag me out on a Valentine evening. Ah, eh, eh, pa mi ndi. Please help me honor Apostle. Wow! Amen. Um, I have said this behind him and I'm saying it again. When God gives the body a gift like this, we owe our generation the responsibility to protect him through— in the place of prayer— and to publicly defend him.
True or not true?
Let's please honor God in his life, please. Thank you, sir. And I will say this, I love him not just for the result but for the heart. It's uncommon, it's uncommon. Every time I'm wowed. And good to be here.
This is—
I've seen this place on YouTube videos. I made it, finally I'm here.
Amen.
All right, please be seated. God bless you. Praise God. Who is ready for Jesus today? Okay, so I asked my media team to help design my topic that I'll be teaching on today, so I believe they've done that. And it will be projected on the screen. Amen. Can we bow our heads just for a moment and say, Father, thank you. Please let's open our heart and spirit to receive insight from the throne of grace, that we are open, Lord, to receive insight, to receive light, revelation, corrections, um, in every aspect of our lives. Will you please pray that prayer in few seconds? I receive insight of the Spirit that someone seated here today and watching online will get it right because God called for this meeting. Oh yes. It is possible to get it right. You have 45 more seconds to pray that prayer. I receive insight, revelation, knowledge. Specifically ask God to help you see yourself where you are. That he will open your eyes of understanding to know what he is doing in your life. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' mighty name we have prayed. Say that amen loud and clear. Now let's have a quick one, um, Can you please project my topic? Um, if it's ready— is it ready yet? Ah, all right, it's there. Okay, I'm checking. All right, I'm not— you have seen behind the scene of movies before, huh? Talk to me now. You've seen behind the scene of certain movies, right? And usually it doesn't seem to make sense like the movie.
True or not true? Aha.
So let's deal with the aspect that doesn't seem to make much sense, but that's where everything is fabricated from. Is that okay? Turn your Bibles with me to the book of Genesis chapter number 2. So we need to lay doctrinal foundation. Let's have— I know this is a house of the word, so I know I will not struggle.
Amen.
There are places you go and you struggle because you have to build a foundation, which is not the job of a guest minister. Okay, so I'm excited. Amen. Igbo should relax. I know you're expecting bus bus. Relax, relax. Okay, relax. Tell your neighbor, relax. Let's enjoy this ride. No stress, okay? So that by the time the thing is coming, you not— it will not— it will meet you unaware. Not like you put up your shield. No, relax. Look at your neighbor and say, you look amazing. Okay, usually they used to beg me to wear this kind of shoes. I'm coming to CCI. They must collect. Amen. All right, now look at this. Genesis 2, let's start the reading from verse 7. Genesis 2 from verse 7, look at what the Bible says. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, where he had put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted into four heads. Please permit me to jump a bit. Let's go to verse 15. I want to major on that man. And the Lord took the man. Somebody say the man. Come on, say it again. The man. Now the word 'the' there, all right, makes that man definite. That's a definite article there, a specific man, not just man, the man. And put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And the Lord said, it is not good that who should be alone, huh? It is not good that we should be alone. The man should be alone. I will make him an helpmate. So it means that it is not age that determines a change of status. What did I say? You are not ready for marriage simply because you are getting close to 30. You can be a fool at 30 and even beyond. I've told people, like Elihu said, that he thought that multitude of years should accumulate to wisdom. Unfortunately, fools also grow old. True or not true? Talk to me now. So there is a kind of man that should not be alone. If that kind of man is alone for too long, it will cause confusion. We need to help him. Ask your neighbor, are you the man? We need to help you. Stop confusing us. Are you the man? Amen. When that kind of man is alone for so long, it's problem. Imagine Pastor Iren, Apostle Iren here, single. And searching how. Problem. We'll have to help him with fasting and prayer. Settle him, Lord. But there's a kind— listen to this— there is a kind of man that it is in God's interest that he gets settled on time. Is that okay? Very important. Just follow me. Let's jump a bit. Let's go to verse 19 now. And out of the ground God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to all the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which— sorry, the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made he a woman and brought her to him. And Adam said, this is now the bone of my bones, and the flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken from man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they both shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, man and his wife, and were not what?
Ashamed.
Now, I've always thought that the union of Adam and Eve is not the perfect model, particularly for this generation of Christians. And I'll tell you why, for many reasons. Adam and Eve never courted. True or not true? Talk to me now. I said they never courted.
True.
And Eve had no ex. Talk to me. Adam also had no ex. Nobody has broken their heart before, true or not true? An average person here is taking breakfast on a steady. So the idea— please pay attention— of their union looks so perfect. It looks as though, according to that description, the day she was formed Almost immediately, a man is seen and say, wow, you shall be called woman. The man had seen many creatures before, say, you chimpanzee, you gorilla, hey, you cat, you dove. Some had married what they should name. I'm in love. I just like the guy. He's speaking to the guy in the language. I know you are going somewhere future. Pressure will make you marry what you should name, and that's what it does. It never leads anyone right. We're going somewhere, just follow me. Now if you look at— I love the later part of the description of their union. The Bible said they were both naked. And not what? Ashamed. So that's the idea of God of, um, how marriage should be— complete vulnerability. Unfortunately, the voice of the Bible is not the loudest voice today in the life of an average Christian. We listen to the voice of pain, the voice of dysfunctionality, the voice of failure. Those who have failed are making doctrines out of their failures, and they are teaching another generation how to fail like them. You can listen to people talk to you about the subject of marriage, and the moment you finish listening to them, your own will be in trouble, because they now have a perspective that will give you guide in certain areas that you need not to worry, and your fear will create what you're afraid of. So it is not everyone who has been married for so long is licensed to counsel those who are newly married. A marriage can be dysfunctional and yet long. In fact, and I say this, please get what I'm saying in context, a man can say that myself and my wife have never argued because the home is actually abusive. If the home is proper, you will argue at least once in a while. True or not true? Very important. So people oftentimes— please pay attention— look at the idea of marriage as an end in itself. The coming together of a male and a female is not an end in itself, it's a means to an end. The same way, look at my illustration, someone can say I'm going through depression, and the next thing I want to do now, I just want to kill myself. I can't cope anymore. Because the fellow actually thinks that death is an end. And what people fail to realize is that as long as you're existing, you cannot cease to exist. The worst that can happen is that you begin to exist now without God in hell. So you see someone who has not accepted Jesus as the Lord and Savior say, I'm tired of this life, and take sniper and die because of frustration, only to enter into bigger one in hell. So the idea that the moment two people have successfully married and pictures have been taken, they have succeeded, it's a lie. From the night before, because he saw him cheating, the day they married they also rejoice. True or not true? Talk to me now. The man who sleep with his own daughter for years, the day he married his wife, they also rejoice. But sometimes we are gathered to rejoice about what should not work. And people assume— people are looking at the dysfunctionality here. This is outright defect. And they keep telling themselves, let's just push it. As long as we can get to the point where we both say I do, it is settled. Meanwhile, they forget that the problem has just started. Let me share a story with you. Maybe I should not, um, properly go into the story. Okay, let me share the story. Years back, I had a boy I was discipling. One day I went to greet him in his house. And as I entered this living room, I saw a big pack of condom. Ah, I said, my friend, what are you doing with this? Me, I will ask. No, no, I will ask. What are you doing with this? He said, eh, well, actually, Pastor, you know, it was my birthday last week, so So my, my girlfriend gave me as a birthday— the kind of girl that will give you a carton of condom as a birthday gift wants to be
