In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing our limitations and continually learning and growing. He uses the analogy of a child progressing through different grades to illustrate this point. The speaker then discusses a historical event where a man asks Jesus to mediate a dispute over inheritance. Instead of addressing the request directly, Jesus warns against the love of money and the need to make decisions in light of eternity. The speaker concludes by highlighting the danger of forgetting that we are risen with Christ and seeking earthly possessions, and encourages listeners to prioritize their relationship with God and serve others in their generation.

One thing for all of us to remember, including myself, is that none of us know everything. We are continually learning and growing. A child who goes to second grade, third grade, fourth grade, learns A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and my granddaughter, little girl, she thinks she knows everything in the world now. And, of course, when they get to high school, they realize 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 100 A, B, C, D is not all. There is a lot more. There are sentences. And then they continue to grow and get into math and complications of that and calculus and all that, find out these are the same alphabets, same letters they use, but it is a continuous growing process. Faith is like that. Church is like that. But what we do, when you look at a river, that is the water is not so clean, and you wish this would be like the bottled water you buy, clean, nice drinking water. I tell you what, you can travel up the river to the original, the place it starts, the origination, the beginning, the foothills of the mountain, you will find the waters are clean. And during the process of it flowing down the stream, it gets polluted. So it's been some of our agony in life to continue learn, unlearn, relearn, by seeking and searching to find out what does the Bible say about faith and practice. How do we know what that needs to be handled? So we look at the church. The church is not 30 years old, not 100 years old, not 200 years old. It's 2,000 years old. Somebody agree with that? Yes or no? You think church was born when you were born? No. No. So we seek to learn the beginnings of the church and what they taught. People think Martin Luther started the church. Did you know? Really, some people think. And I had a professor who was teaching me, not in India, in another country. I mean, I did not know if he was joking or not. He thought John the Baptist was the first Baptist. And all the people are believing like him and so on. He was trying to prove that particular faith is the best faith in the whole world. So it is important that we be responsible to keep our hearts open to learn. Maybe you know everything. For me, I don't. Early, at least 300 years, or up to several hundred years of church, the gathering of whether in the home or elsewhere, always it was cononia. It is people gathering around the Lord. And I talked about it earlier in some other time, so I don't want to go into all that because of time sake. But the focus was not the preacher. The attention, the audience, was not the speaker. It was not the pulpit. It was the table. Saturdays, the believers, in the early days, you read, they went to this temple. Acts 3 you read about, as it was customary, they were going to the temple. And then to the synagogues. What happened was when the Jewish community found out these people are Jewish, they are upper caste, they are pure blood Jewish people. But a problem, they are now talking about another God. Jesus is God. And then the Holy Spirit. Then they talk about the Trinity. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And they found out they are doing a strange thing. That is, taking bread and wine and saying some mantras or words and somebody says this is the body of Christ, this is the blood of Christ, and they just couldn't figure this out. This is not our faith. They left our faith. They are not believing like we do. Now, how do we know this happens? I'm not making this up. You know the story of Saul who became St. Paul? Yes, you talk back to me. We're all learning together. So what was Saul? Saul, he was a brilliant scholar in Bible knowledge. A Pharisee. The Pharisee is very powerful, extremely rich, affluent. And he was very close to the high priest and temple and everything. And he thought his job was to prevent and protect everything. Prevent bad teaching and protect his faith. So he would go about killing Christians who would be doing strange things like Holy Communion. And they were all banished or kicked out of their synagogues and they were persecuted. So then they began gathering in homes. And there were no church buildings as such for 300 years or more. That's the reason in the Bible you have certain places to the church at your house. So, you know, 30-40 people gathering. And, you know, a small place like we have in Nepal and many countries even today. But they gathered around. Not sitting in this kind of manner, but there was always a table there. And on the table was the elements of the Holy Communion. And people sat around. Their focus, their attention was not on anything else. It was what represented there. And there was no one person who was the head of the church, so to say. It was all brothers and sisters in Christ. All kings and priests unto God came together to offer the worship and partake of the Holy Communion. So, somebody who was selected, known at that time as a president, then a presbyter or episkopos would read the scripture. Psalms and other parts and others would read. And one person would explain some things about what it means to follow Christ. Because the letters were written instructing believers about, now we are a new creation in Christ, how to follow the Lord. But the main focus on Sunday morning, Saturday now no more they are going to these synagogues and all that. There's no more welcome there. But now, Sunday morning, they would always gather the first day of the week for the Holy Communion. Now, what does that all to do with the altar we are talking about? Now, time has changed. We try to retain the same meaning. That is, when I am there, when someone is there, we look at the altar, it simply has only one meaning. That is, I am not a representative of the believers. I am not a media at all. And when we turn to the altar, and when we pray, and when you pray, I am part of you. We are the body of Christ. And our focus, the audience, as we pray is Christ. Now, why these symbols are important? If you take your scissors, if you don't have one, and then you go through the Bible, and cut out all the passages that talks about the visible elements that our senses can understand, you will have no Bible left. For example, take the story of Exodus. Here is the lamb that you can see. Here is the blood you can see. Here is the killing of that animal. And you can smell it. And you touch it. And you can hear the cry. And you take out all that God has done, the invisible almighty creator of the universe, who made us in his image, want us to understand him, enter into him and his life. He had to create a bridge. Prayer. Obedience. And things we do, like the holy communion and baptism and so on, things that we do, how do we show respect and reverence to God when we kneel before him, when we bow before him, and on and on. This is all through the Bible you can see. Now you go to the, some may say, oh, that's all in the Old Testament. Well, you go to the New Testament, the culmination of the body of Christ, the church. You read Revelation chapter 4 and 5, you will see something very similar. Now, those, there are churches who have six candles lit, the two candles lit, that's Old Testament, New Testament, dual nature of Christ, the God, the man. Then you have some churches who have six candles. And the cross represent the light, and the seven, the perfect number. Then you have churches that have 12 candles representing the 12 apostles. And the cross right there shows, in Revelation 5, where we see Christ, the lamb as though he was slain, sitting on the throne. And so when we look at these things, none of these things are becoming the object of our worship. The heavens declares the glory of God. The trees and the grass and the rivers and the sun and the moon and the rocks and all the things around us tells us of a creator who made all these. And we see through that they are simply bridges for us, the humans, with our five senses to understand. So now we know when you look at those 12 candles, you say, well, the church actually was built on the teachings of the apostles. They are the foundation stones. And we are part of the same church that was from the very beginning. And when we look at the cross, that reminds us the Lord Jesus Christ is the center of all. When we turn and offer our prayers, it's not just me praying on your behalf. No, all of us are echoing the same prayer offering unto God. There's no mediator. There is no somebody between you and me and Christ. And those are what I call the pure orthodox faith. Jesus Christ is only one. And the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, now we got 42,000 different denominations. Did you know that? No? I just told you a secret. And everybody says they are the right people. So which one is the right one? 42,000 is what we know, but I'm sure it is splitting continually. They keep splitting continually. And that's the reason why one of the high-powered government officials in Bangalore one time said to me, he said, we can't understand this. He said, we Hindus, we only have one, we got millions of gods and goddesses, but we only got one temple. But he only got one Jesus. He got thousands of groups and they're all fighting with each other. This guy is way up there in the government, had a deal with court cases and he was talking about all that mess. Anyway, so are we going to solve the problem of all these people splitting up? Well, you'll be surprised, most all denominations, all groups, they started with some individual who says they got a new revelation, new understanding. There is a group that says if you are not baptized by their priest or their pastor, the way they do it, you will not go to heaven. Well, that's a denomination, you got it? There is only one church that is not non-denominational or denominational in the history of the world, that is the Orthodox faith. This is pre-denominational. And it was 1205 when the Bishop of Rome, he was one of the bishops, he said to himself and to others, no, I don't want to be just the Bishop of Rome, I want to be the supreme of all. And the Orthodox patriarchs said, no, you are one among us, we are all equals, you are first among equals when we say you have that position for this time. So Jesus never made any man to be the supreme head of his church. Jesus is the head of the church. And so we all are his sons and daughters and in it there are people who are called to represent the teaching ministry, the pastoral ministry, the leadership ministries and those things that don't make any human being. I don't know any of our priests stopped brushing their teeth after they became bishop or priest. No, we keep living the same normal life. So you see, when we try to be as close as we can to the faith and the practice of the early church. Now, the passages we read today, they are all very, very significant passages. Sometimes we have these Bible passages and I try to figure out how they all connect. But today it's connected so perfectly, you know, so well. You remember the last passage we read from the gospel according to St. Luke chapter 12? Remember the story? What was the story? It's a historical event. A man came to Jesus and told him, Jesus, I got a problem I'm not able to fix. Can you be the mediator for this? Tell my brother to give me my share. And what did Jesus say? Alright, bring me all the papers, let me write it for you. Did he say that? He said, why are you trying to do this with me? It's none of my problem. That's what he said. Who made me to do this? Why are you asking me? Then instead of talking about his request or giving him any answer that he hoped to get, Jesus simply said, this is a warning. Take heed. Now, in a few minutes time, when we have these whole passages being read to us, how do we apply that is the biggest question that's in my mind. And this is not given to us for us to study and memorize and make sermons. This is for us to live by. For the sake of time also, let me say this as clear as I can. Jesus said this very important statement. You cannot serve God and money. You can only serve one master. You cannot serve God and money. Either you live for the things of the world and your focus is the life just here on earth. You know the animals in the jungles, in the forest, they are not thinking about going to heaven or any of those things. No. Their life consists of survival. Am I right? They are always looking for the next meal. And they are satisfied if they can get a buffalo or a deer or whatever, if it's a lion and it kills it and eat it and then it can go to sleep and then will do the hunting again. You know, monkeys live in the forest. Are you listening? And so what God is saying, do not live your life based on here and now. And nobody is going to live here forever. This is a statement you hear but we don't think about it. I mean, you go to a hospital, you will hear every week somebody is dying or dead. They didn't expect to, you know, die. But we must keep in mind whether you are 20 or 30 or whatever, life here on earth is very brief. Brief in the light of eternity, tens of trillions of billions and trillions of light years will not be even the beginning of eternity. There is no time there. And we are made not for eating all the food we can get, get all the places we can have and the money and these are not the reason. And Jesus said, if you have enough food to eat and close to where, you'll be satisfied. And he said, why you worry about all these things? Look at the birds in the air, look at the lilies in the field. I mean, they don't worry and agonize and God cares about them. He will care for you. And so much he talked about, but I will tell you this, to me, the biggest enemy of people, understanding, fleeing from all things that destroys their understanding and life of God and have them be in a place where they can be peaceful and silent and be praying, involved, witnessing, doing things in the place of Christ in their generation. The one thing that stops them, slows them down, hurt them, it is forgetting that we are a son with Christ. Therefore, do not seek for the things that are here on earth. And this man was blessed. I mean, he got land and the crops was abundance and you read there, you know, he had a conference, a discussion, not with anybody else. No, he was not talking about poor, suffering people in his neighborhood or children dying without food or helpless people somewhere. No. He talked to himself and he said, what I am going to do. Then he decided what he is going to do. He said, I am going to make things bigger for me and then enjoy. And then God said, you fool, if you die tonight, who is going to have any of this? Oh, by the way, nobody owns anything. The earth and the fullness of it, everything in it, owned by God. And we are allowed to use some of these for the little time that he allows us to use. And so, our call to live in the light of eternity also means you will make some serious decision in your life now or later that enough is enough, that you are not going to make life decisions based on what you can get for yourself. Have you ever wondered about this? I need to close. This is an interesting thought. Have you ever, if you understand what I am saying, have you ever wondered why well educated or Christian leaders of any kind, why people with so much intelligence or opportunity do not really give value for serving God and then God looks around someone to represent him and he bypasses all the smart and able and sharp people and he finds the nobodies and that's what Paul said. And the problem with us, when God finds us the nobodies, the least and the last and he gives us empowerment and circumstances and possibilities and friendship and we soon forget and most do forget. And by the way, the medical doctor who treats the patient, the patient will die, maybe not then but someday so will the doctor. But how foolish we are that we don't realize and we easily forget our life is only for a short time but we must live our life making every decision in the light of eternity. And that means for me something, for you something else maybe but all of us, I pray, someday when we face the Lord not like this in shadows and images and remembrance but face to face and then we have to give an account. To the extent Matthew 12, 36, 40 every word we have uttered we have to give an account. If that be the case what about the strength and the abilities and possibilities God gave us? How do you respond to it? And your decision you must make. With your time, with your abilities, your skill and your talents and resources, make those decisions. Don't be like the man Jesus talked about.