God’s Wisdom In Correction

There's something I've been thinking about recently -

we have to check our hearts

because in a world that's
ever increasingly divisive,

polemic, do we find our
hearts slowly slipping

into being judgemental?

Divisive? finding it difficult to forgive?

finding it difficult to be compassionate?

judging people?

And I think that's one of the greatest

temptations that we face,

to put ourselves in the position of judge

whereas that's not a
position that God gives us

as children of God.

Whilst we're on this earth,

it's not our place to judge

because God is the judge.

And I think so many of us,

maybe consciously or subconsciously
find ourselves slipping

into that judgemental position.

What can you say about this?

What is judgement?

Well, when we judge someone's motives

or think that we know the reason
why someone does something

and say whether it's good or bad.

Thank you for saying motive.

We need to understand
when it comes to judgement,

Jesus' standard of judgement is different

from man's judgement.

That the Lord does not judge what we say,

what we do on face value.

The Lord always looks at our heart

to judge the motivation of
why we are doing this.

And that's the purpose
that brings God's approval

or the reproof of God in our actions

and decisions every day.

As you said today,

God is all about relationship.

We should not forget that the heart

of the matter of this Bible is to restore

the relationship between God and man.

And that's the love relationship.

Absolutely.

Not only between God and man,

to other fellow human beings.

I say mankind.

Today relationships are
under repair, everywhere.

Not only towards God,

but towards our neighbour,

towards our brothers, towards our sisters,

towards our friends and towards those
who are not our friends.

Why we are saying this.

Jesus said, ‘you should
love the Lord your God,

with all your heart,

with all your mind, with
all your strength and?

Love your neighbour as yourself’.

Good - as yourself.

That love starts first
with the love of God.

And that's the love of God in us,

as the Bible says ‘it’s poured

by the Holy Spirit in our heart’.

Romans 5:5, that overflows.

If I have a cup of water,

you cannot quench my
thirst with a cup of water.

You share it with me, that's why Jesus said.

If you know who is speaking to you

and what is the gift of God in John 4,

you would've asked me and I will give you?

Living water.

Living waters.

And the water I give you will?

Well up within you.

Will well up, overflow
to everlasting life.

Oh my God!

God has set a table before us

and He wants us to be blessed abundantly

so we can have something
to share with others.

It means our request, when we come before God

should not be self-centred.

If we ask for God's sake,

the blessing will overflow.

If you ask for God's sake,

God knows you are not
asking just for you,

but for your neighbour.

That means one of the major obstacles

is actually selfishness.

Absolutely.

And that makes us also
want to judge people.

That is a problem we have.

That's why James says,

when we come into God's presence,

we ask and we don't
receive because we ask-

Wrongly.

Wrongly, why?

We ask for selfish,
classic, and material reasons.

The motivation God approves

is when the reason behind the
action is for God's sake.

And it is only God that
can see that motive.

We can't see people’s motives.

God can only see it

and that's what is important

because we are not asking man,

we are asking God.

You want God to hear you.

We want God to answer our prayers.

So remember, when we come
to Him with our lips,

He listens to our heart.

Can we go to Matthew 15:8

that will lay down the
principle of this message.

Matthew 15:8.

Let's listen to what Jesus Christ,

the righteous judge said.

But don't forget the Bible calls Jesus,

the judge of the living and of the dead.

Let's listen to the judgement of Christ.

"These people draw near
to me with their mouth

and honour me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me."

"And in vain they worship me,

teaching as doctrines,
the commandments of men."

In vain we pray,

in vain we ask when we
come with our mouth alone,

but our hearts are far from God.

How sad that is,

that people think they're worshiping

but actually it's in vain.

Yes, because our heart is far from God.

Means when we come to God,

we should bring our heart
first before our mouth.

We should not be too quick to speak.

When you bring your heart,

when you engage your heart before God,

the scriptures say we
don't know what to ask.

We don't know what to pray for.

Romans 8:26-27.

That's why the Holy Spirit intercedes.

Absolutely.

In words we cannot...

Yes, go ahead.

Those we cannot.

We cannot comprehend.

Thank you.

When the Holy Spirit comes,

He will take you to God's presence first

and then He will help you

how to pray and what to pray for.

We often hear that prayer changes things.

That's not entirely true.

Yes.

Prayer changes us.

Prayer changes us and?

And faith changes things.

Faith causes things to happen.

Let's break that one down.

Prayer changes me.

Because it takes our focus off ourselves.

We all enter God's presence
because we have trouble.

Because nobody comes to
Jesus in comfort, am I right?

Very often we come because of our burden.

But the Bible says don't be too quick

to ask for solution.

Try to find out what God
is saying in the matter.

That's why we bring all
burdens before Jesus to God

and ask Him to know God's
opinion on the matter.

This is God's opinion on the matter

that will reveal His will on the matter.

Jesus walking towards the
cross was not for Himself,

it was for you and I, for humankind

because He said, "Nobody takes my life,

I lay it down myself.

I have the power to give my
life and to take it back.

That's the command of my father."

So it is the motivation that is important.

When Peter heard what Jesus said,

"I'm going to Jerusalem,

they will arrest me,

they will spit on me
and they will kill me.

On the third day I will rise."

Peter said, "What? God forbid.

It will never happen to you."

Why? selfishness.

Peter was focusing on
himself, on the natural side

with emotion, with love for Jesus.

But Jesus was thinking
the thoughts of God,

not the thoughts of man.

So when we judge situations

and others from a human point of view,

it's actually a selfish
attitude, is that right?

Absolutely, because very often

we judge people because we have a mindset,

a negative mindset,

pre-judgement against others

and that is not good.

Remember in John 8:11,

when they brought the
adulterous woman before Jesus.

The Pharisees, the Sadducees,
the teachers of the law

who brought that woman
to Jesus for judgement.

That's why they brought her for judgement.

Because the law of Moses said,

anybody who committed sin
must be stoned to death.

So their decision was made already.

They had a prejudgement
on that woman already.

They judged her in their hearts already.

They just wanted confirmation.

And when they brought her to Jesus, they said,

"Master, the law of Moses said,

if we catch any person in
the act of doing adultery,

that such a person should
be stoned to death."

That's what the law of Moses said.

They were trying to trick Him.

You, what do you say?

So when we take the
situation on literal senses,

on the letter, you are going to stone the woman.

That's what the letter says.

That's why even a judge,

when you go to any court today,

no judge will go by the face value.

They do investigation to find out

what was the motivation of the person.

You will never condemn any person

if you learn the person
has a psychiatric problem.

The first thing is if the person has his own mind.

Has he done this act wilfully,

consciously with all of his mind?

That's when guilt can come.

Because if the person is out of his mind,

because he has a psychiatric problem,

you cannot say he expresses will.

He doesn't know what he's doing.

So rather than judge
him, and take him to prison,

they would take him to
hospital for treatment

and that was the right judgement, right?

But in the case we're talking about,

when they brought the woman to Jesus,

Jesus looked at them and said,

"If any of you has never committed sin,

be the first to throw the stone."

I just love that word that Jesus spoke

because it just shows

that Jesus is the father of every heart,

every heart from now
till the end of the ages.

And everyone has to answer to Him,

whether we understand it or not,

or we realize it or not.

We do have to answer to Him

and that is why He knew

what had happened in each person's heart

because He knew the motive.

And that's why only He was in the position

to say that judgement.

Rightful judgement is to get
into the heart of the matter.

And you can't do that
without the Holy Spirit.

No, because the Holy Spirit

always gets into the heart of the matter.

He never judges a situation
by face value, over hearsay,

or by what a situation looks like.

He looks beyond, to the heart

to find out the motivation of the person

behind that action.

And we should not be quick to judge.

Not be too quick to judge.

If the rightful judge who sees the heart

does not rush into judgement,

why should we rush into judgement?

That's why many relationships
have been so strained

because we judge people on today

and we don't know what tomorrow brings.

Husband and wife.

Today we have many.

If I ask, if we are honest,

we have so many marriages, relationships,

marital relationships that are strained today

because of this mindset.

Marriage is a unity of
heart and purpose, and mind.

The heart agrees, right?

If our heart agrees,

we should not have any
division in our hearts.

And that's why God said
in the Book of Malachi 2,

"I am the witness of your wedding."

That's what God said.

"Be careful that in your
heart you will not betray

your wife or your husband."

The heart, that's why Jesus say,

‘if a man looks at a woman

in his heart without saying any word,

but desires to have
relationship with a woman,

he has committed adultery in his heart’.

Jesus always gets into
the heart of the matter,

the heart, and He said,

"If any of you has not committed any sin,

be the first to throw."

He just demonstrated
with just that sentence

that He's the father of every heart.

Absolutely, by saying this,

the motivation, what brought
that woman to that act

however sinful it is,

the same temptation
everybody's faced with today.

The hierarchy of sin can
only be determined by Jesus.

Sin is sin.

Lying is sin, killing is sin.

The sin of Adam, just disobeying.

The sin of Adam that
disobedience of eating a fruit,

I say, How can this bring death to him?

Not only to him, but to the whole world.

What matters is not the action,

but the motivation behind the action.

We'll have time to talk about it in depth.

But if you see..

Yeah, because he wilfully disobeyed God

and he had chance to repent and he didn't.

Good.

If I see you doing something

which does not seem right to me,

which does not seem,

instead of me praying over it or asking you,

I come to a conclusion

because I expect you
to do the right thing.

So I say, "Ah, what she did
it seems strange to me."

Instead of enquiring
from God or finding out,

you come to a quick mindset and judgement.

That's why mindset is a problem.

Negative mindset.

Negative mindset,

bad feeling towards others.

Prejudgement which is fed by pure ignorance

can come to a judgement, wrong judgement.

That's why I was thinking of,

well, I said at the beginning
that we as believers,

we are supposed to be with a difference.

We're in this world but not part of it.

So we should refrain
from allowing our hearts

to be drawn to division, to judgement,

to anger, to bitterness

when we see or hear things
that are happening around us.

And rather we should do what is good

to change the bad we see,

be a force for love.

Judgement is a double-edged sword.

You can judge what is not right,

but you must have a sense of
judgement to do what is right,

and that is what I want to say.

If I have judgement, it’s not just to say

"This is bad, this is bad."

But rightful judgement says, "This is good,

This is what we should do."

Yes, it is double sided.

What I mean.

Okay, when I enter into a
relationship with a person,

what is the motivation to say

this is the person, this is this.

Before you go, the Bible
says, ‘Enquire from God’.

When you enquire from God,

you have the rightful
judgement of anything you do.

You will know the right place to go,

the right type of people to meet,

the right type of job to have.

That's rightful judgement

we need to have the positive side of it.

If we have rightful judgement

and that cannot happen without
enquiring from the Holy Spirit,

then we should guard
against judging people.

Because no one is righteous, not even one.

Without the Holy Ghost we cannot get

into the heart of the matter.

If you ask anyone who
is honest and sincere,

what type of person they want to marry,

they want to live with,

they will mention criteria

that are all based on the outside.

Beautiful eyes, beautiful nose,

beautiful body, tall, whatever.

Everybody has his own,

How do you call it? Preferences.

But,

The most important is the inside.

Who will talk about the heart?

A man or woman that fears God.

That's the heart.

Our heart does things before our mouth.

That's the motivation.

That's why the Bible says,

‘When you think negatively,

you are bound to speak
negatively and act negatively’.

That's why the Lord warns
everybody in that Matthew 15:8,

‘That what defiles us is
what comes from our mouth.

All our motivation, anger,

resentment, divorce, separation, attack

always comes from the heart of a person.

That's why, remember when Peter said

to Ananias in Act 5,

that's a clear example of judgement.

Let's take the example.

At the early church in the beginning,

the disciples were selling
all their properties

and bringing them in common to the Treasury.

So, anybody who was in need
received help, right?

Yeah.

We have Ananias and Sapphira,

they came to the apostle,
they sold their property.

It was their own property.

They had the right to do
whatever they wanted to do with it.

They sold their property.

Let's say the house was 1 million.

They said, "Let's tell them (disciples)that
the house was half, 500,000."

They came and said, "Okay,
our house was sold for 500,000.

This is the 500,000."

And the rest, they kept it.

That's what they did.

It was their property.

They could have said, "Okay, I give you 500."

If they said to Peter,
the house is 1 million,

I get 500 and I give.

Nothing would've happened I really believe

because you're free.

It's your free will
offering from your heart.

But they were trying to, they lied.

They kept that entirely from Jesus and said that

the house is sold at this price.

Peter was a man led by the Holy Ghost

with rightful judgement.

He enquired from the Holy Spirit,

And the Holy Spirit revealed him the truth,

that the price of the
house is not what they said.

This is the real price.

When Peter heard this, what did he say?

He said, ‘You have sinned
against the Holy Spirit’.

Why did you allow satan to fill your heart

so that you can lie to the Holy Spirit.

You have not lied to man but to God.

That was the judgement.

And when we read the Bible they got scared

by the judgement that came.

And immediately what happened to them?

they fell dead.

Anytime I read that passage,

I get extremely scared.

I say, thank God, we don't have this.

But there was a sense of
judgement, rightful judgement,

which was extremely clear
on the motivation of actions.

And also knowing that the
Holy Spirit is there

in every single decision that you make,

every single thought in your heart,

the Holy Spirit is witness to that.

Thank you for saying this.

Now, if you have awareness,
if I have awareness that

the Holy Ghost is inside of me,

I should be extremely
careful of my thoughts

first before I talk about my words,

because everything starts in the thoughts.

That's why as a Christian, a believer

should be careful of what he looks at,

what he sees, what he touches

that can influence his thoughts.

Bad feelings, negative
thoughts start from here.

You don't need to express it,

but God hears it

and it matters to the Holy Spirit.

That's why when we have the sensitivity

of God's presence in our
heart through the Holy Ghost,

anytime our mind begins to drift

towards something that's not right,

your conscious will judge you immediately

because of who?

Because the Holy Ghost
will prompt your heart

before you step into action.

That's why we need
to always be sensitive

to the voice of our conscience,

because that's how the
Holy Spirit speaks to us.

Absolutely, that's why James said,

‘Nobody can tempt God, God cannot be tempted’.

But sin is when we are
attracted by our own desires,

by our own will that we are enticed

to fall into the temptation
of pre-judging others.

The question is, the person
you are judging today,

no matter how bad the person may seem

or look to you on human judgement,

ask yourself, what does Jesus
think about that person?

Because we're not God.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that.

God's standard of judgement
is different from our own.

God tests our heart to reward us

because His focus is the
motive behind what we do.

Exactly.

Saul, you know Saul?

Who was Saul?

Well, Saul was the one

who was persecuting all the Christians.

Yes, terribly in a very harsh way.

Forcing them to blaspheme,
persecuting them.

Yet God said he was His chosen vessel.

Yes, though when he was
going to persecute the people

in Damascus having
letters of recommendation

from the teachers of
the law with full force.

Even Stephen, he stood
there as Stephen was killed

and stoned to death.

Yes, that was his zeal.

But he had a zeal for the law of Moses,

but zeal marked with
ignorance of spiritual things.

He judged the situation on the letter.

He judged the situation on the letter.

For the Word of God, when we
approach it in the letter,

we have the wrong judgement.

There's the letter of the Word,
There’s the spirit of the Word.

Wait, say that again.

There's the letter of the Word

and we have the spirit of the Word.

The divine meaning of the Word.

So you can be very committed,

zealous towards the letter of the Word

and yet completely missing the point.

If it's not in spirit, it's not in truth

and so it's all nothing.

That's what Jesus said to them.

If you know that I delight in mercy,

you'll never condemn innocent people.

That's what Jesus said.

Jesus met Ananias, one of the disciples

who knew who Saul was in the dream.

And when Jesus mentioned the name of Saul,

he said, "Hey Lord, this man is a wolf.

He's a terrible person."

No, I mean just think
about it in today's society,

if someone who's publicly
persecuting people

that believe in Jesus,

and then suddenly God reveals to you

that, ‘Oh, this is actually
the one I want to use

as my chosen vessel’. Wow!

And that's what happened.

And I mean, yeah.

The motivation behind the action
of Saul was pure ignorance.

He had a zeal without knowledge.

And he even said it in
that Book of Timothy 1.

But now, what was the
answer of Jesus to him?

He's my chosen vessel.

God does not consider our now,

our past to determine our future.

We need to understand that.

Because Jesus is a tomorrow thinker,

He has vision.

Thank you.

Jesus is looking at your tomorrow.

Thank you.

Even your 10 years from now.

Thank you.

Your 20 years from now.

This is what matters to Jesus.

But we are so concentrated
on now, now, now

and even not now but yesterday.

The pain of the past,

the betrayal of the past,

the disappointment of the past,

the scars of the past we're
so full of all these scars

that we find it difficult
to even live today,

let alone trust our tomorrow
in the hands of Jesus.

And yet Jesus knows what
we can become tomorrow

if we fully submit to Him

and that's what he's looking at.

I always remember Prophet TB Joshua

was such a man of vision.

He looked at us, a situation where

when we came so many years ago,

there was no way,

all of this was in our mind.

No, we just wanted to not miss salvation.

Yet God knew, God knew
because God knew the plan

He had for every single person.

Jesus never, never,
never considers your past

to determine your future.

Jesus came to change our lives,

to change our focus.

We humans, we keep record
of the offenses of the past.

We keep a record of
every wrong done to us.

That's why we find it
so difficult to forgive.

‘Ah, you have done it again, again’.

We keep record of the past.

But the Bible says,

‘Loves keeps no record of wrong.

When Jesus looked at you and I,

as He did for the Samaritan woman,

His purpose is to give
you a new focus of the future.

Satan the devil we all know,

always speaks about our
past, our unworthy past.

No one was born righteous, no one.

But Jesus has come to remove that past

and give you a new future that can change.

And He can do it for you,

He can do it for someone else as well

that you are currently looking
at with the eyes of judgement.

If Jesus can remove our past

and point us to the future,

then he can do it for everyone.

That is why we shouldn't judge
anyone on account of today

because tomorrow is a mystery.

So, when the Pharisees brought that lady,

they were considering her past.

But you say rightfully,

tomorrow is a mystery that only God knows.

When Jesus is correcting
you and me, all of us,

it's because of the future.

When God says, "Don't do this."

You may not do it today,

but you may do it tomorrow.

Correction, judgement,
everything God has spoken

through the mouth of
the prophet as a warning

is for the future.

When God said to the prophet Jeremiah,

‘Tell them that if they
continue to do this,

I will send the enemy.

Nebuchadnezzar will come,
He will burn the city.

He will kill everybody’.

But God was saying this to
trigger a sense of repentance.

So they can say, “Hey God, sorry, we come back,

we stop doing evil, we come back to you."

That's true, because it's how we respond

to that correction or that judgement

that is actually what Jesus
is looking at as well.

That will determine your future.

Your response to correction
determines your future.

And when we talk about correction here,

we mean correction in the
power of the Holy Spirit.

Absolutely.

You know, when you read your Bible

and something comes to your heart,

that can be God correcting you

because the Word of God has power.

Power, for converting
power, purifying power.

It's a double-edged sword.

So, you mentioned correction.

How do you do correction?

Correction is not judgement.

There's a difference between
correction and judgement.

Judgement is a mindset,

a preset judgement in your mind already.

You have decided to
judge the person already.

But correction

is to help someone.

Is to help the person to change.

How do you correct a person?

Don't say, "Hey, this is bad.

You are this, you are this."

That's condemnation.

Do what is good in the sight of the person

to change the bad you see,

That's why the Bible
tells us in Galatians 6

that we should be gentle

in our correction.

That is be a leader by example.

Example means let your character show.

Let the person see in the way you speak,

act, a reason to come to
you to say, "I'm sorry."

Do what is good in the sight of God

to change the bad you see.

If the person is an angry person, be gentle.

Let him see your gentleness.

So, he can say, I'm sorry.

If the person has pride,

we don't respond by pride.

Let him see humility.

Let your humility convince him to say,

"I'm sorry."

Two wrongs cannot make what?

A right.

So, what do you do?

The weapons of righteousness.

The Bible says, when we see a situation,

don't be too quick to judge.

You should find out from God's perspective

what is the mind of God about
that situation we judge.

Today we arrogate the position
of God to judge people.

Correction is our duty,

but judgement is God's duty.

Correction in love.

In love of course.

And with the right motivation.

Correction, not to see someone fall down,

but to help someone.

In fact, I really really
appreciate all those

throughout my journey

who took time to correct
me for God's sake.

I really see the product of that,

the consequence of that,
the result of that.

And that's why the Bible
says in the Book of Proverbs,

if you are wise, you should
not despise correction.

You should appreciate correction

in the power of the Holy Spirit.

When you say the
power of Holy Spirit, it means

judgement leads to punishment, right?

But correction leads to amendment,

repentance and reconciliation.

There are two ways of
approaching this Holy Bible.

Jesus, His attitude was
constant correction,

showing God's standard of doing things.

showing God's standard of doing things.

When the Pharisees were opposing Him,

asking Him questions,

Jesus responded with the wisdom of God.

He spoke what is right
in the sight of God.

When you think right,
speak right and act right

in the sight of God,

you are correcting everybody.

People are reading you.

We talk about Prophet
TB Joshua, well you are right.

His lifestyle was a constant
correction to everyone of us.

Why correction?

You will see the way he
attended to the simple people,

to the poor, to even those offending him.

His reaction towards them.

You would never see him fighting people,

answering back, never.

His attitude, humility,
doing what is right

in the sight of God to
change the bad you see.

So now the weapons of righteousness

are the fruit of the spirit.

So, exercise the fruit of the spirit

in the face of the fruit of the flesh

and that's the change we're talking about.

Let your character reflect Christ’s character.

If people insult you, don't insult back.

If you insult back what's the difference?

Jesus said, "If you love
only those who you love,

even those you say are unjust,
they love the children.

Anybody can do it, but love your enemy.

Pray for those who persecute you.

Bless, do not curse.

That's the weapons of
righteousness we're talking about.

And that will actually disarm those

who have a bad judgement of you.

This does not mean
correction will not take place.

Correction is our duty.

If we see something wrong, correct in love

by telling the truth,
by showing the truth.

Leadership by example.

That's what brings change.

You know that person will now

listen to the voice of the
Holy Spirit in their heart,

prompting their conscience to know that

what they're doing is wrong.

Christian means?

Christ likeness.

Okay, the question.

Anytime you face a
situation of opposition,

ask yourself, how would Jesus
react in such a situation?

Somebody embarrasses you, insult you.

Remember, Jesus was embarrassed,

constantly insulted,
constantly opposed, constantly.

They even said he cast out demons by Beelzebub.

They even said He was demon
possessed, He was demonized.

There's nothing they did
not say against Jesus.

But how did He respond?

He responded with forgiveness.

And when the truth was
ignored, He was silent

Because He knew the people were ignorant of the truth.

Truth is hidden.

Truth is not intellectual; it needs
to be perceived spiritually.

So, your integrity,

no matter how good you are on the inside,

can never be perceived intellectually.

It has to be discerned.

Integrity cannot be understood,

perceived intellectually but spiritually.

Meaning you cannot know the heart of man

if you're not helped by the Holy Ghost.

Ask God to help you to get into the heart

of the matter of a situation
before coming to judgement.

Ask Him to show you the heart,

the motivation of the heart of the person

so you can have rightful judgement.

This being said, we have the avenue,

the weapons of righteousness

that can heal your
relationship with everyone.

Service your relationship.

Absolutely, service it.

We will talk about that,

do you service your relationship?

You have to take care
of each relationship.

You should not take it
for granted because-

Because what gives us joy,

wealth, health in life

is all about relationship.

How do you
service your relationship?

How do we service it?

It's true, but how do we service it?

You know your vehicle,
you drive your vehicle

and you have a computer to
tell you in 100 miles,

you have to take it to the garage.

A computer will help you
to take it for service,

to change the oil, to clean this,

to keep it, to maintain it.

Relationship needs to be maintained.

You don't wait till
situations emerge to act.

Love never waits for a situation
to come, it anticipates.

That's why we need to service.

Don't wait for the person to
ask you to do this, to do that.

Do it spontaneously for God's sake.

Don't wait for someone to ask for help.

Do it spontaneously from your heart.

Ask God, what can I do to help somebody?

Everybody wants to change somebody,

they don't know how to go about it.

But did you yield your
heart to be a servant?

For the Holy Ghost to use you to bless others?

Remember what makes us
human is what, is not?

Our ability to think,
but our ability to love.

Which kind of love, everybody
has somebody to love,

but everybody has somebody to say,

"I don't love this person."

“I don't like this.”

When you look at a person on the outside,

it will not take long to see
something you don't like.

Nobody's perfect.

But it takes a lifetime to see

the beauty in the heart of the person

beyond what you can see.

You say, "Don't reject
anybody because of today,

tomorrow is mystery."

Okay, when Ananias was
saying Paul was a bad person,

but Jesus saw the future,
the future apostle.

He said, "He's my chosen vessel."

God is not looking at our
kindness, our obedience now,

but obedience in 20
years, in 50 years to come.

Somebody can be good today,

but tomorrow (it’s a mystery), can be bad.

You can pretend for a long time,

but eventually the real-

Somebody cane be bad today
and be wonderful tomorrow.

The real character will come out.

That's why we should
not rush into decision

to judge too quickly.

People judged Jesus on the outside.

In John 7:12, some said he's a good person.

Some said He's a bad person,
He deceives people.

Even those who said He's good

and welcomed Him on Palm
Sunday, saying hosanna, hosanna -

the same people said -

Crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify Him.

So, we shouldn't,

Yeah, that's another thing.

We shouldn't be so concerned about

people's opinion about us,

even people that we don't know.

What should matter to us
is God's opinion about us.

And God tests our heart to reward us.

The purpose of the
gospel of Jesus Christ,

The purpose of salvation,

the purpose of the Holy Bible,

can be summed up in one
word, righteousness.

What is righteousness?

Right standing before God,

not right standing before man.

Right standing means rightful
judgement for God's sake.

God said to Abraham, "Walk
before me blamelessly

by doing what is right."

Thinking right, speaking
right, acting right

according to the mind of God

every single day of our lives.

We are made to be like Jesus.

We have to behave like
Him and the task is huge.

That's what Jesus said, "Carry
your cross and follow me."

What is your cross?

Your cross is not the wood,

your cross is your body.

The cross is myself.

Self-will, self-will.
My will, my self-will.

That's always wanting to go
opposite to what God wants.

Absolutely, if my flesh is crucified

and I carry the cross,

asking Jesus to help me.

I will walk in the footsteps
of Christ in righteousness

every single day of life.

If you do so,

you will have capacity to
bless people around you.

You will never destroy any
relationship beyond repair

for tomorrow is mystery.

There will always be room for forgiveness

and your marriage, your
relationship, your friends,

you will never lose a friend.

You will never destroy any
relationship beyond repair.

People may leave you,

but you'll never leave anybody.

But Jesus will service that relationship.

Thank you.
Amen.

So thank you so much for joining us

and how to service our relationship,

how not to judge on a human level,

but correct in God's love.

We can't do any of this without
the help of the Holy Spirit.

So, let's continue to ask the Holy Spirit

to give us more of Him
and take more of us,

in Jesus’ name.

Thank you, that's the right prayer.

Take more of me and give me
more of you, Holy Spirit.

Take more of my lies and
give me more of your truth.

Holy Spirit of truth forgive my lies,

help me to be truthful.

Holy Spirit of humility forgive my pride

and give me your humility.

Lead me to humility.

These are the things we should pray for,

to put on Christ as our
righteousness every single day.

And by doing that,

you're servicing your heart

and if you service your heart,

then definitely your
relationships are serviced

because you relate with
others through your heart.

By doing so,

you are asking the Holy Ghost to fill you.

And when He fills you,

He will fill you and that
love will overflow to others.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen.