In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that Christianity is not just about being poor or rich, but about walking in victory, holiness, righteousness, and love. He highlights the importance of laying our lives on the foundation of the new covenant, which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The preacher encourages the church to focus on preaching about Jesus Christ and His crucifixion, as this brings us into communion and fellowship with Him. He shares his personal testimony of how he once struggled in his marriage and as a preacher, but when he realized that his life belonged to God and he needed to lay it down as a living sacrifice, his life began to change.

We welcome you and we want to continue on the same subject. We've been talking about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Amen? We're talking about the glory of the New Covenant. We aren't going to get into that, but this morning we will be preaching about the foundation of the New Covenant. And as I said each time, it's good to see what's happening in the New Covenant, our life under this covenant. But it's always wonderful to compare it to the Old Covenant, which is a shadow of what we are living today. So sometimes it's good to go back to the Old Covenant and to understand what God has been doing under the Old Covenant, so that we can discover how the New Covenant is so much better, with better promises. Amen? And it brings freedom to our hearts and lives. So let us open our Bibles this morning. It's wonderful to look at where God met with his people under the Old Covenant. In the book of Psalms chapter 11, we understand through the covenant that God made with his people, that holiness and righteousness were the foundation of their faith. God manifested himself as a God of holiness and a God of righteousness. When we look at the Ten Commandments, what do we see? What was the purpose of the Ten Commandments? It showed us, it showed the people of Israel, how holy was their God and how righteous he was. That was the foundation of their faith and everything they would do and everything they would be asked to do was because God was a holy God. He was their God, he was holy and he was righteous. He was righteous and the people of God could trust him that God would never break his covenant. He would never break his covenant. He was a righteous God and he would keep them and he would protect them and he would provide for them and whatever God would say, he would do. That was how God manifested himself even to this great man of God, Moses. And when Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, what did it show? A holy God. He wanted all their worship and he wanted them to live a holy and righteous life. It has not changed. Even in the new covenant, it's the same. God wants us to live a holy and righteous life. Now open your Bibles with me in the book of Psalms chapter 11. It's very interesting and here we see David expressing the foundation of his faith. He believed that God was holy. He believed that God was righteous and he said, in the Lord I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? In other words, go and escape, go and run away. How can you tell me go and run away and try to find everything else apart from God? Go and flee in the mountain. For look, the wicked bend their bow. The enemy is behind you. Run away, go and flee. Go and try to find your protection somewhere. Go and hide yourself from the enemy. And David says, how can you tell me, how can you tell me to go and run away and hide in the mountains when the wicked and the enemy comes and my God is a holy God and righteous God? How can you tell me that? For look, the wicked bend their bow. They make ready the arrow on the string that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. Now David was a righteous man. He had favor with God. Am I right? And those who fear God, those who did not have a relationship with God, he heard, he must have heard about what they felt, what they thought, what was their counsel when the wicked will come and attack, when the enemy will come with their bows and arrows. But David knew his God. He knew him and he said, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? In other words, he was saying, if I cannot trust God, who is holy and righteous, what else can I do? Where would I go? What would be my vision? I will fall apart. In other words, if the foundation is not strong, solid, everything falls apart. Everything, it falls apart. And that was the foundation of the faith of David. God was holy. My God is holy. My God is righteous. My God will intervene. My God will look after me. My God will do what he said he would do. My God will not break covenant with me. My God is holy. My God is righteous. If you say, if my faith is not in the holiness of God and his righteousness, where would me, as a righteous man, who has received the righteousness of God, where would I go? Where would we go, brothers and sisters? What would be our life? And he goes on and he says, if the foundations are wrong, destroyed, where can the righteous go? He's lost. He's lost. He doesn't know where the north, where the south, where the east, where the west. He would be at the mercy of the enemy, at the mercy of the wicked ones. In other words, what I'm saying here, what am I saying here? If the foundation is not strong, we will perish. We will go everywhere the wind blows. Our lives would be in a mess. You see, we will come to the foundation of the new covenant, but I want to touch base with the foundation of the old covenant. In the old covenant, God dwelled in the temple. He dwelled in the tabernacle built by Moses, correct? That was his place among the people, among his people. The ark of the covenant, the ark of God was placed in the tabernacle of God. And even in the old, before the first temple was built, the temple of Solomon, before the first temple was built, that little tent, that little tabernacle was called the temple of God. Yeah? The Bible says in 1 Samuel that Eli laid down at the door of the temple. There was no temple, there was a tabernacle. But it showed that God dwelt in the temple among his people. Samuel laid down in the temple when God spoke to him. And when Solomon was told to build the temple, God gave him very strict prescriptions, how to build this temple. Yeah? And I want to tell you that when God ordered Solomon to build the temple, he asked him to build a very wide and big foundation, huge one, a huge foundation for the temple of God. Strong, solid, am I right? The temple of Solomon was built about 950 years before Christ. Now open our Bibles in 1 Kings chapter 5, 1 Kings chapter 5. My point this morning is if the foundation is not strong, everything will fall apart. That's my point. We read verse 17, and the king commanded them, and the king commanded them to quarry large stones, costly stones, and huge stones to lay the foundation of the temple. That was the order from the king. Now you go in the quarry there, you take the stones, you cut them, but when you bring them to build in the temple, you don't touch them. You don't put the hammer, you don't put the sizzle on these stones where you are going to build it. Now we'll come to that later, but this is also a shadow of what would come in the new covenant. That's what God says. Go in the quarry, pick up stones, cut them to shape, the way I order you to do it, then bring them to build the temple, but you won't cut these stones on there on the site. You won't touch them, you won't put your hand into that. And in 2 Chronicles chapter 3, we read that 2 Chronicles chapter 3 verse 1. Now Solomon began to build the house the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where the Lord had appeared to his father David at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Oman, the Jebusite. And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign. This is the foundation which Solomon laid for building the house of God. The length was 60 cubits by cubits according to the former measure and the width 20 cubits. In other words about 35 meters. The width of that foundation would be about 35 meters, longer than this building here. Longer, greater than the size of this building. That was the size of the foundation that God spoke to Solomon and Solomon ordered to build the temple on. The foundation had to be strong. The foundation had to be solid. The foundation had to be big. Now remember the new covenant is a shadow of the old covenant or the old covenant the shadow of what was to come of the new covenant. Remember that all the time we are going to share with you. Remember that we're talking about the foundation. We're talking about something absolutely important for our lives today. God would be in the temple. God would meet with his people in the temple and you know that that temple was destroyed at the time of the deportation of the people of God. That temple was destroyed completely in about 70 years after that. God spoke to a pagan and told him to tell his people to go and build the temple again. Again and when he ordered to build the temple it was amazing. What happened? Now put your bibles with me in the book of Ezra. Chapter 3. Chapter 3 verse 10. You read with me. When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Azaph with cymbals to praise the Lord according to the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang responsibly praising and giving thanks to the Lord. Then all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Now because the foundation of the new house was being laid, the people of God shouted with joy. They rejoiced and praised the Lord because when they saw that the foundation was being laid, they knew that the temple was going to be rebuilt again and God would come in the midst of his people again. And they rejoiced but many of the priests and Levites and heads of the father's houses, old men who had seen the first temple. Now remember they must have been old. It's 70 years after that the temple of Solomon is being rebuilt. When they saw the first, who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Many shouted aloud for joy. Amen. It's amazing how the foundation has a great importance on the lives of people. Here we see that the foundation had a great importance in the life of the people of the old cabinet. It would hold the temple of God. The foundation would hold the temple of God where God would come and dwell among his people and meet with them and talk to them. The foundation built that was that that where the temple was going to be built would be solid, would be strong, would be big. It had to be. It had to be. So we are looking at the foundation which is absolutely important in our lives. They rejoiced. It's amazing how these old men, these old priests, these old Levites, old men who had lost hope. They had lost hope completely. There was no more temple. There was no nothing. It was completely destroyed. And when they saw that the foundation was being built, being laid down under the earth so that the temple would stand on it, they rejoiced. Now let's see what's happening in the new covenant. The foundation of our faith. The foundation of the new covenant. There's a new building being built. There's a new temple being built. The church, his body, his people. We are his temple, the bible says. And I believe that if the foundation of this temple is not strong and solid, what would happen to the righteous? What would happen to us? We would go astray. We won't be able to walk a holy life. We won't be able to please God. We won't be able to live a righteous life. If the foundation is not right, if the foundation on which our lives are built upon is not strong and solid and big, we will fall apart. And that's what's happening in the body of Christ today. Thousands and thousands of Christians are not living a holy life. They are walking in sin. They are being defeated in their Christian walk. And yet, Jesus has accomplished everything so that we could walk a holy and righteous life. So that we could accomplish the requirements of the law. In other words, walk a righteous life. But unfortunately, if the foundation is not right, we cannot walk a victorious life. We cannot have victory upon our flesh. We cannot have victory over sin. We will walk a defeated life. That's why our foundation needs to be strong and solid. It's a spiritual temple now. It's not a physical temple. Even in the old covenant, the foundation of this physical temple had to be strong. We understand that the foundation of this holy spiritual temple, church, body of Christ needs to be strong. It's spiritual now. It's no more physical. It's spiritual. And it's got to be a spiritual foundation. Not physical. We can gather here in this house and we can have a very strong foundation holding out this building. But that's not the point under the new covenant. Under the new covenant, it's a spiritual foundation that our lives need to be built upon. A strong foundation that will hold our lives together. That will allow us to walk a righteous life. And we need to understand the foundation. The spiritual foundation that was laid by the early apostles and prophets in the church. We need to understand that. We need to see that. And so that we can know on which road to walk upon. It's not enough to believe in Christ. It's not enough. If you want a victorious life, believing in Christ is not enough. How many of you know that? Even my own life is a testimony. I believed in Christ from the age of 27 years old. I got born again. I've never denied Christ as my Savior and Lord. Never. Like you. You got born again and you still believe in Christ. Thousands and millions of Christians in the world, they got born again and they still believe in Christ. And yet the church is going through a hard time because millions of Christians have left the church discouraged. Why? Because their lives could not be a victorious life. They were discouraged. Why? Because the foundation was not right. It was not right. Even the apostle Peter, when God gave him the revelation that Jesus was the Son of God, the Son of the Living God, his life was still in a mess after he denied Christ. His life was a carnal life. Everything that he felt, he did. You see, he didn't walk with his heart. He walked with according to circumstances of life because the foundation was not strong in his life. There are things that he did not understand. There are things that was not yet revealed to his heart. There are things that he didn't know how to handle because he was still blind spiritually to many things. He was blind. He thought that because he declared that Jesus, you are the Son, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, that everything would be okay. No. That's why a foundation has got to be laid in the church, a strong one, a solid one that would hold that spiritual temple, hold our lives. For many years as a Christian, I believed in Christ but my life was in a mess. In a mess. And so has been your lives. Yeah. In a mess. I was preaching the gospel and my life was still in a mess until my eyes was opened and I understood what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10. And he said, by the grace of God, by the grace of God, I laid the foundation as a wise architect. I laid the foundation, he said, as an apostle. I laid the foundation as a wise architect. Now let's open your Bibles in just and read these verses. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Now we need to understand, my brothers and sisters, we are spiritual people. We are a spiritual people. Amen. Our lives are spiritual. The church is spiritual. That's why we need a spiritual foundation. Amen. We must stop and trying to understand things in our mind. Our hearts need to grasp in the spirit what is the plan of God for every Christian. It's not enough to believe in Christ. That's the first phase. We enter in the kingdom. But now there's a life that has been designed by God. That's why the apostle Paul brought a message to all churches where every Christian would know what God was asked of his life. Can you understand that? You come to church and you need to know what God is asking of your life. If you come to church and you bless God and you only seek for material things and you don't know what God is asking from you. We're not talking about material things. We're not talking about things that you can touch or see with your physical eyes. We're talking about things that happen deep down in your heart. We're talking about a foundation. It's got to be laid. We've got to see. We've got to know. We've got to grasp. Our eyes must see in the spirit. We cannot continue to come to church and don't know what God is asking of my life. And just blessing him and just asking him of things. Many things. And keeping my eyes on material blessings. Keeping my eyes on things that I can touch and see. No, there are greater things in the spirit that we are called to live. To live. To experience with God. And I want to to share with you this morning about that foundation that the apostles laid in all the churches. Paul said I sent you Timothy. He will tell you how I preach in all churches. He will tell you what I preach in all churches. That's how he speaks of Timothy. Timothy was his son in the gospel. He caught. Timothy caught what Paul has received from Christ. The revelation that Christ gave to him to lay the foundation in all the churches. And Timothy who walked with him. Who heard him. That revelation was transmitted to him. He caught it. He was prepared to live it. He received the challenge. And that's why the apostle Paul was ready to send this man everywhere. So that the church would continue to be encouraged that their lives would be on that strong solid foundation and that they will not depart from it. They won't depart from that foundation. The church had to be reminded all the time. The church has always lived among false teachings, false prophets, false doctors. Hello. Even in the time of Paul. Even in the time of the church. The early church. Even now we are living in a time where everyone comes with his own doctrine. He invents something. You know as we are talking about a holy God. You know that in the old covenant when Moses was ordered to build that tabernacle. God told him you set Aaron and his sons apart. They were going to be the priest. Yeah. They were the ones who are going to do the service in the tabernacle. And you know what God did? You know what he did? He told the guys to prepare an anointing oil. Prepared with specific spices. And God would call that oil an anointing oil. Special oil that he would anoint Aaron and the priests. A holy oil. That's what he would do. That how serious God saw the ministers that would do the service in the tabernacle. You see come again to the fact that the old covenant is a shadow of what would come. You see? And Aaron and all his sons anointing oil was poured upon them. They had to be consecrated. Set apart their clothes. Everything had to be anointed because it represented the holiness of God. The righteous God that they would serve. Hmm? And you remember when David understood that the ark of the covenant had to come back to Jerusalem? You know what happened when they loaded the ark on the covenant on a chariot? And they were walking next to it. And you can see that this chariot was moving like that. And as they were walking the ark of the covenant was nearly going to fall. And a man called Uzzah put his hand on the ark of the covenant and he fell dead. He wasn't anointed to do that. He didn't have the right to touch that. Hey? And it's only about seven months after. David couldn't understand what had happened. And he didn't want to carry on and bring the ark of the covenant right up to the city called the city of David. He said, okay, let's take the ark of the covenant in the city of Obed-Adam. And while the ark of the covenant was there, God blessed the people of Obed-Adam. And then some light came to David and he said, now I understand why. Now I understand why Uzzah died. And he said, okay guys, we are going to carry on. Take the ark of the covenant from Obed-Adam and bring it in Jerusalem in the city of David. He says, now the Levites have got to handle that situation because they are anointed to do that. And they did. And when the ark of the covenant entered the city of David, you know the rejoicement and you know the joy and you know how they, I mean, they danced before the Lord and they shouted and they praised him and they sang hymns and they played music and everything was happening. The glory of God, the presence of God was back in the city of David. And you know what's happening today? Today, now you see the old covenant is a shadow of the things to come. Can you understand that when the thing comes, you stop dealing with the old. When you look around today and you see people trying to buy holy oil, special anointed oil. Where did they get that from? Where did they get that from? Where'd you get that from? Holy oil. They dig it. They dig it from the old covenant because you don't understand that when Christ came, when Christ came and gave his life on that cross and died and rose again from the dead, a new covenant started. A new era, a new time, a new life, a new reformation started. And if we don't understand that in Christ we have everything, we will start digging in the old again. Can you understand? When we do not see that Christ is the beginning and the end of everything, that we have all in him, that we do not need to dig in the old covenant principles. As long as our life is built on a strong foundation. Understand that when we are, you know, pushed here, pushed on the right, pushed backwards, pushed forward, and our lives is not a stable Christian life, walking in victory, we will start digging. We'll start digging again. Now we'll go, now we are like Aaron and the priest. Now we have to go and hold and anoint oil. Where is that found in the new covenant? Where is that found in the new covenant? It's become a business, a business in the Christian world. We dig. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 10. You see we can have good intentions but that's not enough. Good intentions are not enough. God killed Uzzah right there and then. He had a good intention. He wanted to protect the ark of the covenant from falling. It's as if God can't do it himself. And that's what's happening in the church today. Many people are acting like Uzzah. They believe that God cannot do it himself and now they want to introduce types, shadows. They want to replica, imitate. You see it's not enough. It's not good enough to have good intentions. That's why truth remains truth. And good intentions might not be truth. We need to have a strong foundation so that we can stay in pure doctrine. So that we can remain in a holy doctrine. Pure. The doctrine of Christ. Okay 3. According to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise architect, a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another built on it. I have laid the foundation and another built on it. Now can you understand that there is a clear responsibility between laying a foundation and building on it. Correct or not? He says I have laid the foundation and somebody else comes and builds on it. So you've got to have people. You've got to have men. You've got to have anointed men who are called of God to lay the foundation. You see it's a question of anointing. It's not a question of trying to imitate someone and preach what he preached. It's not a question of words. That's why the five the fivefold ministry it's not just a different objective. It's not just a different responsibility. It's a different anointing. And we've got to understand that. And the church needs to understand that. You can't pick up what this prophet has said. You can't pick up what this brother has said and register it in here and go and try to do it here. You can't do that. Because if you don't carry the same anointing, the words that you say are not going to bear the same fruit. And there is strong chances that you destroy instead of building. Because it's the anointing that builds. It's the anointing that creates. Now the apostle Paul says here, I have laid the foundation. I have brought something. Now how many of you know that the apostle Paul is an apostle? Can you understand? That's it. Paul was an apostle. Now no one can deny that in the body of Christ. He's an apostle. And the revelation that this man carried and had received from Christ was special. How many of you know that? Special. He didn't only preach Christ. He preached Christ and him crucified. He laid the foundation. And when the apostle Paul walked out of the church, every single Christian knew that his life was not his anymore. That's very clear for me. And I hope for you too. When this man walked out of the church and had preached and had laid the foundation, every Christian knew that his life was lost. Finished. That his life was not belonging to him anymore. Anymore. It's amazing, huh? It's amazing. And if a Christian doesn't catch hold of that very truth, he'll mess up his life. Because he will hold on to his life. He will keep his life. And when you keep your life, what do you do with it? You lose it. That's what Jesus says. If you keep your life, you lose it. But if you give your life, you'll gain it. Correct or not? Is that scripture? So it's more than Christ being the son of God. It's Christ crucified and our identification with him. Our identification with his sufferings and with his death so that we can partake to resurrection life. And if Christians do not understand what they need to do with their lives and pastors continue to preach about winning material things and drawing the hearts of people to material things, they will never know what they need to do with their lives in the spirit. Never. They don't understand the foundation of Christianity, the foundation of their faith. We're talking about the same thing. We're talking about holiness and righteousness. If you don't know what you need to do with your life in the spirit, you will not walk a holy life and a righteous life. You won't. Because you are keeping your life for yourself. And when you keep your life for yourself, you know what takes over? The flesh. But when you give it, God deals with it. When you give your life, God deals with that thing that is called flesh. That's why when you give your life, when you know that your life rests on a solid foundation, you as a Christian cannot get divorced. No, no, no. We're talking. No, no, no. What is he saying, this guy? Yeah. I won't tell you my experience because it's not nice. My experience is not nice before my eyes were opened to what God called me as a husband. I'm telling you the truth. My wife and I were talking divorce. Now, many of you don't know that. Many of you know, because my life was not on the right foundation. I didn't know I was called to lose my life. All I knew is that I was a preacher. That's all I knew. Praise God, I was a preacher. Yeah, I was a preacher. That's what I knew. I knew the Bible. I could quote verses like I can't quote now. I'm telling you the truth. I was in a mess. There was a time in my life as a preacher, I was communicating with my wife by letters. Would you believe that? Would you believe that? I'm talking about long ago, long, long ago, as a preacher, born again for eight years. Eight years, born again, a preacher, a pastor, eight years. Come on now. Eight years as a preacher, I was a mess. I was a dictator as a husband. I wanted my life to be what I wanted her to be. I was like Uzzah trying to put order where only God can. Yeah. But anyway, that's a long story. Very, very, very long. I had good intentions, but that were not good enough. Because my life was not laid on the right foundation. I didn't know what I needed to do with my life. Can you understand? I didn't know that my life did not belong to me anymore. I didn't know that I was not supposed to be in control anymore. I didn't know. I didn't know that my life was supposed to be lost. I didn't know that I had nothing to claim. I didn't know. Like millions of Christians today are still claiming, claiming something because they are Christians. It's totally contrary to this gospel. Totally. Contrary to the foundation that needs to be laid in our lives. It's got to be strong. It's got to be solid. I've laid the foundation, the apostle Paul says, and others come and build on it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the apostle Paul says, I come to you and I don't know anything else. But I need to come to preach to you that Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus Christ and him crucified. Don't you know that when you got born again that Jesus was crucified? Of course you know it. Come on now. For 10 years of my life as a Christian, I knew it. I knew it that Jesus was crucified. That's not enough. Jesus Christ and him crucified. How can I dissociate my life from what Christ did? How can I from far only believe in it but not introduce my life and come into fellowship with the sufferings of Christ? Paul says, I know him. I want to know him, Christ, in the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his sufferings. How can you separate your life with the cross? The cross means death. The cross means suffering. The cross means everything that Jesus went through. How can you? How can Christianity departs itself? How? From the sufferings of Christ. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20. Verse 19. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners. No longer but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. How? How? Having been built, our lives having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone. Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Bible talks about a son, a son of Paul called Timothy. He had many sons, the apostle Paul. He had many sons who carried the same revelation of the gospel, who are ready to give their lives and lose their lives, who are ready to identify their lives to the sufferings of Christ and the death of Christ. They were spiritual men. They had become spiritual men, not from what they believed, but from what, from how they identified their lives with him. You can be a Christian who believes, but you can be a carnal Christian who believes and live in sin. But you can be a Christian who walks a holy life. You might fall, yes, but you will experience true repentance and God will take you by the hand and say, my son, because you repented, my blood washes you clean and you start again. We're talking about the revelation of the gospel. We're talking about the foundation in our lives under the new covenant. We're talking about the foundation that the apostle Paul laid in every church. Now look in the book of Acts, look in the book of Hebrews, how it is being mentioned, how these Christians who were enlightened, they were enlightened. What does that mean? What do you mean when you are enlightened? You know, you know, you know what you got to do. Am I right? You are enlightened. You know where you got to walk. You know, on what path and what road you need to walk. They were enlightened. And because they were enlightened, they were ready to identify themselves to those that were suffering for Christ. They were not looking from far. They were not like the disciples before the cross. They were all there, but they were all far. No one would identify with Christ in the garden, in the courtyard, no one. They challenged Peter and Peter said, no, I don't know him. And yet Peter got the revelation that Jesus Christ was the son of the living God. And yet at that very time, he was in the flesh. He was not ready to give his life. He was not ready. You can be a Christian, but your life not laid on the right foundation. You can be, you can be a millionaire Christian and yet your life not on the right foundation. You can be a poor Christian and yet your life not laid on the right foundation. It's not a question of being poor or rich. It's a question of walking in victory. That's what it's all about. Christianity is all about walking in holiness. Christianity is all about walking in righteousness. Christianity is all about walking with love. Christianity is not a talk. I believe, many believe, many believe, and we know where they are today. And we know at 10 o'clock in the evening, at 11 o'clock at midnight, at two o'clock in the morning, they still believe, but we know where they are. Why? Their lives are not laid on the foundation of the new covenant. The foundation of their faith. Christ Jesus and him crucified. When you catch the revelation, you're ready to lay down your life. Yeah. Paul says, offer your life as a living sacrifice. Correct or not? Am I right? Now open your Bibles in 1 Peter chapter 2. I show you something. The Lord help us. May the Lord help the church. 1 Peter chapter 2, we read from verse 4. Quickly. Okay. All right, coming to him, coming to him, coming to him, Jesus Christ, as to a living stone. Stone, stone. Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also as living stones, stones are being built up a spiritual house. Spiritual house. A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Oh, Lord. Hey, can you see here what's happening? And what the apostle Peter is saying now is being conformed in scripture. Verse 6, he says, it is also contained in the scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion. I lay in Zion, the city of David, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. Are you seeing the foundation here? Are you seeing the foundation here? I've laid God, the father in Zion, the old covenant place where the city, where the temple of Solomon was built in Zion on the Mount Zion, where all the sacrifices were being held. That's in Zion right there. In the place where the ark of the covenant was placed in the temple. Now the Bible says that in Zion, God lays a precious stone. Precious, elect, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe is precious, but to those who are disobedient, like Israel, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. You see, if you do not see, if you do not see that Jesus Christ has replaced everything, everything. And now we've got to hold on, lay hold of that revelation and accept it, not reject it, accept it as truth that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. He's replaced everything. The sacrifices, the temple, the ark of the covenant, everything has been replaced by Christ. Everything. And that we are supposed now to identify our lives with him, not with everything else, not with anything else, but with Christ. He's everything. Now Zion has been replaced. The temple has been replaced. The ark of covenant has been replaced. The priest has been replaced. There's one, one high priest, Jesus Christ. And the foundation of the new covenant, it's our faith. Faith, not only in Jesus Christ as our savior, but faith to identify our lives with him and to be ready to lose our lives. If you don't want the second part, you only have half of the deal. It's the second part that secures your life. The first part gets you in the kingdom. The second part secures your life. The second part brings you to the place where you now are capable by the Holy Spirit to walk a holy life and a righteous life. That's why only those, now it's difficult to accept, but please, please, please hear me. Only those who have their lives laid on the foundation of Christ and him crucified. In other words, they don't only believe in him, but they are ready to suffer with him. They are ready to identify their life with his death. Those, those will walk a victorious life. The rest will be Christians. Yes, born again. Yes, but their lives will not be secured to live a life pleasing unto God. They walk in the flesh. It's the second part that secures you. It's the second part that brings you to finish the race. The first part does not guarantee you to finish the race, but the second part secures you to end up the race. There are too many Christians today that are destroying their lives and no one can deny that. The only reason is it's simple. Their lives are not laid on the right foundation of Christ and him crucified. And this is what the Apostle Paul went to preach in all the churches. Your life is not yours anymore. You cannot do what you want with it. Very simple. You've got to lose it. Yeah. You've got to be ready to crucify that flesh. And when you've decided to do it, and when you've got, when you've decided to take up that road and take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ and deny yourself and drink the cup when you need to drink it. There are too many Christians who don't want to drink the cup. It's too sour. Not for me, they say. Not for me, they say. I am blessed. Bless your darling heart. You are blessed. Yeah. The cup is too sour. They don't want to remain on that road. They don't want to swallow that cup. They don't want to swallow what is bitter. They don't want to swallow what will take them from a carnal Christian to a spiritual man or woman. You can't reach that place of becoming a spiritual person if you deny to take up that cross. If you deny to swallow that cup, you will know the Bible may be. That's okay. Bless you for that. But we're talking about a holy life. We're talking about a righteous life. If the foundation is destroyed, where would the righteous go? If you have no foundation in your life and you don't know exactly where you're going and what God is expecting of you, you can be a righteous person, but where would you go? It's only when you decide to take up that cross and follow Jesus and swallow what you need to swallow and then walk in victory because God gives you the victory when you swallow. Each time you swallow, you know one thing is sure. The victory comes. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's time you drink a bit. You know what's ahead of you. Victory. Victory. That's the victory. No, the victory is not fleeing. No, no, no, no, no. It's not running away. The victory is not just putting your cross there and doing what you want with your life because you can walk and run, run, run, run until you destroy your life. Run. Yeah. I don't want it. I run away. I don't want it. I run away. I don't want it. I run away. There's one thing that's for you. One thing that's waiting for you is destruction. It's sin. I'm talking about a life of sin. You understand? I'm not talking about a failure. I'm not talking about falling one time. I'm talking about a life of sin. It becomes a part of your life. The world is falling apart. I don't need to tell you that, you know. Sin and iniquity is taking over. Am I right? Where are we among this whole destruction that is going on around us? Where is our life? How is our family life? How is our relationship with our husband and wife? How is that going on? I've been struggling with that for many years in my life. Many, many years. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know how to drink the cup sour, bitter. I didn't know. And I didn't know. And there was one thing that was common. Clash. The flesh. Arguments. Abusive words. Hurting words. How many of you know that? Come on now. No, you don't know it. You don't know it. No, you are very holy people. No. I didn't know. But praise God. One day, he opened my eyes. I saw that a foundation had to be laid in my life. I saw that there was a time now that my life was not mine anymore. I could not hold my life and claim what I wanted to. I tell you, my brothers and sisters, the foundation of our faith, the foundation of the new covenant is nothing but simply Jesus Christ and him crucified. The church needs to preach everything about Jesus Christ and him crucified. That touches our lives. That brings us into that communion. Brings us into that fellowship with him. I pray every day. Okay. Good. Continue. I'm talking about fellowshipping in his sufferings. I'm talking about laying down our lives. I'm talking about offering our lives as a sacrifice. I'm talking about losing it. That's the foundation. That's the two plus two equals four of Christianity. But unfortunately, the church has taken it and put it in the drawer. And now we are hearing one thing, material, physical. All this is good. But please, but please, there's one thing that is greater, that has more value, is when you are changing from glory to glory, is when your life starts to be like Jesus more and more. Amen? Amen. Are you okay? That's the foundation of the new covenant and all Christians need to hear and know it. God bless you all. God bless you all. And I believe that all of us, we have a challenge. We have a challenge. Let's take it. Let's stand up.