Characteristics Of A Servant | Part 1

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. A very good evening to all of our beloveds who are watching us through live streaming. We pray that all of you, our beloveds who are watching us live now, we pray that you are always in good health and good spirit in Jesus mighty name.

Welcome to a new episode of Spirit of a Servant. If I could ask everyone to stand for this contemplative short prayer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgave our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

The prayer of to you, O Lord. To you, the Lord of all, we confess. And to you, Jesus Christ, we glorify.

For you are the reviver of our bodies, and you are the savior of our souls. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. To you, the Lord of all, we confess.

And to you, Jesus Christ, we glorify. For you are the reviver of our bodies, and you are the savior of our souls. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, from everlasting to everlasting.

Amen and Amen. To you, the Lord of all, we confess. And to you, Jesus Christ, we glorify.

For you are the reviver of our bodies, and you are the savior of our souls. Amen. The Trisagion, Holy God.

Holy God, holy, mighty, holy, immortal, have mercy on us. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Holy God, holy, mighty, holy, immortal, have mercy on us.

From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen. Holy God, holy, mighty, holy, immortal, have mercy on us.

Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgave our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen. The Nicene Creed. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all that is visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the firstborn of all creations, who was begotten from his Father before all the ages, and was not made, through God, from true God, of one essence with his Father, by whose hands the worlds were established, and everything was created, who for us humans, and for our salvation, descended from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit, and became man, and was conceived, and born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered, and was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and was buried, and rose on the third day, as it is written, and ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of his Father, and he will come again to judge the dead and the living, and in one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, the life-giving Spirit, and in one Holy and Apostolic Universal Church, we confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of our bodies, and life everlasting.

Amen. Please be seated. Well, we thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, my beloveds, always for his infinite mercy, love, compassion, and grace, for a new episode of Spirit of a Servant.

However, there is an exception for this evening, and I apologize to my two beautiful angels that had sent me their questions, and I promised them to answer it last Wednesday, and being an old man myself, you know, my memory did not serve me right, and it actually passed me by, so I apologize to my beautiful angels. This question, or these questions, were sent by two angels on earth, which I adore to death. One is ten-year-old, and the other one is five.

I spoke to the five-year-old about a week ago, and I melted like a candle when I heard their voice, and I cannot wait to see them in person, and not only kiss their hands, their angelic hands, but also their beautiful, beautiful feet. I will kiss them. So, their questions were, what year was Jesus born, and how old is he? The Lord Jesus was born in year one, but some claim that the Lord Jesus was also born in around 3 BC, before Christ.

Go on to the Old Testament timeline, but we take it the Lord Jesus was born in year one. How old is he? To be exactly precise, my beautiful angels, he is 33 years and four months. He is 33 and four months, to be precise.

The second question, who made Satan, and is he real, or is he a ghost? Who made Satan? God, my beloved. The Almighty God created first the angels. When we read in the book of Genesis, which is the very beginning of the Holy Bible, in chapter one and verse one, it says, the Holy Bible says, in the beginning Elohim, or God, created the heavens and the earth.

Heaven here means angels, because the galaxies were created on day four, so they were not created yet. So, in the beginning, angels were created and earth. So, Satan was one of the angelic orders prior to his fall.

So, after he broke God's word, he fell from that glory, which God gave him, and became Satan. Instead of a beautiful, illuminative angel, all lit up, all light, became very dark and ugly, called Satan. Um, he is real, because God created, say, this angel, and angels are created from spirit, and of spirit and fire.

They are made out of spirit and fire. So, he is real, he is spirit and fire, but now he is Satan, very ugly. But you are my angels, okay? Always remember this, I adore you.

Now, question number three, why people celebrate Halloween? I don't know. I honestly don't know why. We should really give up on this as Christians.

We should not be celebrating Halloween at all. It has nothing to do with Christianity. But I'll give you a very short idea about Halloween.

The word Halloween comes from All Hallows Eve. All Hallows Eve, which means hallowed evenings. Hallowed means they are holy.

All holy evening. And this Halloween is a tradition that goes back about 2,000 years, and it was actually done by a Celtic festival of, um, uh, sowing or sowing. They were called, um, the Celtic festival of sowing or sowing.

And this tradition, as we said, goes back about 2,000 years. However, Pope Gregory III, he was the Pope of Rome, of our beloved Catholic Church. So, Pope Gregory III, in the 8th century, decided to allocate the November the 1st, or 1st of November, as a All Saints' Day.

So, he decided to allocate 1st of November as a day for all saints. And in this All Saints' Day, the Halloween tradition sort of ended, and people continued celebrating that Halloween on the 1st of November. But 1st of November is All Saints' Day, nothing to do with this pagan tradition that goes back 2,000 years.

And very briefly, I'll read this to you. Historians have linked Halloween to sowing or sowing, the Celtic festival of summer's end, celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. According to Celtic mythology, the veil between the other world, the spiritual world, the veil, the curtain, the veil between the other world and our world, earth, thins, becomes very thin during, uh, sowing or sowing, making it easier for spirits and the souls of the dead to return from the spiritual world into the physical world.

The veil, the curtain between the two worlds becomes thin on this festive day. So, in the olden days, the pagan world, they thought when the veil became very thin, it was a lot easier for those departed spirits to come back through this now thin veil and come back to earth again. So, this is a pagan tradition that has got nothing to do with Christian faith at all.

And the last question for this evening, why Jesus chose fig and bread is not made from fig? I believe my beloved angels here, they heard me speaking about when I said last time that the fig represents the body of Christ. So, they said, but hang on a second, the fig is a fruit and the bread is bread. So, there is no connection here.

I'm going to just elaborate why the fig tree or the fig, uh, the fruit actually resembles or symbolically represent the body of Christ. Because when the fruit becomes ripe, when it's ready to be plugged from the tree and to be eaten, when it is ripe, you take it, when you actually open the cover, the skin, when you open the top of it, you will see inside of this fig fruit, black seeds, plenty of them gathered together under the skin of this fruit, of this fig. So, when all these black seeds get together, that's when the actual fruit is ripe and it is so sweet, it is sweeter than honey.

So, the fig fruit here represents the body of Christ symbolically, meaning we will only or the only time when we are going to be able to taste the sweetness of Christ, when all of his children get together under one banner, under one roof and glorify Jesus Christ on one altar. When the Christian world unite like those black seeds come together and when they come together, the fruit is so sweet and this is Jesus Christ. We will taste the sweetness of the Lord when Christendom or the Christian world is united under one roof, under one banner, the Holy Cross and on one altar glorifying, worshiping and praising the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's when we taste the sweetness of the Lord Jesus. Alright, so thank you so much my beloved angels for your amazing, amazing questions. That just proves to me that you are so intelligent, you are so smart and you make me, but above all you make Jesus so proud of you.

So, keep up the good work and keep on sending your questions. I love you my angels. Now, spirit of a servant.

This evening my beloveds, we're going to be talking about the spirit of a servant and the characteristics of a servant part one. We will be covering four main points and these four points are vitally important to be seen as characteristics of a servant's spirit. The number one character, love of God.

Number two, action and not words. Number three, humility and number four, responsible and reliable. Love of God, action and not words, humility, responsible and reliable.

Let's come to the first one, love of God, characteristics of a servant. How should we live as servants of the Lord Jesus? How should we live as servants in the house of the Lord Jesus? And I'm not saying only when we serve in the church, but when we serve the Lord wherever we may be. The number one thing, characteristics of a servant's spirit needs to have the love of God.

Love of God is the most important characteristic of a servant that he or she knows and loves God and is continually striving to know God better. A true servant is the one who is seeking the love of God, seeking to know God more and to love God more and more and more. Now, that is not to say that a must attain a certain spiritual level before they can serve.

It's quite the contrary. There is no certain measure that we need to get to in order to be servants of the Lord Jesus. There is no certain measure as long as our heart is really seeking the love of God, to know Him more and to love Him more and more.

And Saint Paul says it very clearly in Philippians 3.1, not that I have already attained or am perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that which Jesus Christ has also laid hold of me. So that just shows that Saint Paul began his ministry of service to the Lord Jesus, yet he's saying in Philippians 3.1, I was never ready, but I am ready in Jesus Christ Himself. The servant must be at a higher spiritual level than those they are serving.

So that spiritual servant needs to have at the same time a spiritual level that is higher than the one, than those people whom he is serving or she is serving. Meaning the people I serve, I need to have a higher level of spirituality than them. Otherwise, how am I going to be a true servant reflecting Christ to those people that I'm serving? So I need to have a higher level.

And here we see nowadays, especially my beloved, the church is truly lacking spirituality. There is a lot of knowledge in the world, in the Christian world, there is a lot of knowledge. We see people talking on all social media platforms, but I just wonder what kind of a spiritual level do you have in order for you to come and claim to be a spiritual leader or a teacher or someone trying to bring spiritual insight to certain people or to a group of people.

I need to build my spiritual level before I begin to teach people. Otherwise, I won't be qualified and I could actually give and send the wrong message across. In Isaiah 40 verse 9, O Zion that brings good tidings, get up in the high mountain.

O Zion that brings good tidings, get up in the high mountain. Meaning this verse is saying for that servant of the Lord Jesus and servant in the house of the Lord Jesus needs to be standing on a high mountain. Meaning you need to already have been elevated.

You have walked away from earthly materialistic things. You can never be a successful servant in the house of the Lord until you've given up on worldly things and seek spiritual things. You have to have climbed the mountain and when we climb the mountain, we have detached ourselves from the earth.

We have elevated ourselves from earthly things, worldly things, physical materialistic things. We've climbed the mountain and we got closer to heavenly divine things. A true servant in the house of the Lord needs to be focused to heaven not on this vanity of all vanities this world.

It's not that easy to serve in the house of the Lord. It's not that easy. We need to give up on so many things my beloveds but how are we going to be able to give up on those things? I need to have this characteristic in me that is the love of God.

God must be first in my life. I need to love him first before anyone else or anything else. Point number two, action and not words.

Another characteristic of a true servant of the Lord Jesus is the one who shows action and not words. The servant has to be a role model in that they serve by action and not words. Actions have the greatest impact on others.

Thus we should minimize our lecturing and maximize our actions. Actions are more influential, are more effective than talking. So we should not be talking a lot and working a little.

It should be the other way around. We should increase our actions and decrease our talkings. Again I'll say this, the problem of the church in our time and age and when I say the church, I mean all Christians, whether it be clergymen and lay people, every baptized soul, every Christian is the church.

The church of our time and age, there is too much talking, very little action. But a true servant of the Lord Jesus, their action has to be more than their preaching or their talking. Jesus our Lord shows us this when he talks about the cost of discipleship and says, what does the Lord Jesus say? He says, foxes have holes and birds have their nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

Foxes have holes and birds have their nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Matthew 8 verse 20. So a true servant is the one that has nowhere to lay his head my beloved.

Wow! When we are able through the love of God and his grace, we give up on this materialistic world, rest assured we will be enlightened by the light of the world, Jesus Christ, on how to reflect Christ in our life and be true servants of the Lord and of his holy house. Also in the epistle of Saint James we read, thus also faith in itself, if it does not have works is dead, James 2 verse 17. So faith without works it is dead and also works without faith are also dead.

But in here it says, faith without works is dead. So I could say I believe in the Lord till kingdom comes, but if I do not reflect my faith in Christ through my actions, through my deeds, then I just wonder what kind of a faith is this. It is nothing but a dead one.

So when I truly believe in the Lord, then my deeds should be reflective of this faith in Christ. Also Saint Paul, his epistle to the 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 2. Saint Paul says, you are our epistle written in our hearts known and read by all men. You are what? Our epistle written in our hearts known and read by all men.

What Saint Paul is saying here, let your action be the talking. Let your actions be the talking. I'll give you an example of what Saint Paul means here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 2. You are known, it's an epistle written in our hearts and it is read and known by all men.

When somebody comes and asks me, what is kindness? Can you please explain to me kindness biblically? I could talk about kindness in the biblical sense for hours on end, but even if I explain it and I explain it so eloquently and so thoroughly and deeply, it is not as effective as when I say to that person, do you really want to know what kindness is all about? Do you know so and so? Do you know that person? They'll say yes. When you look at that person, you will know what kindness is all about because that person has actually defined kindness through their actions. This is the most influential, the most powerful way of gaining people to Christ when we teach people through our actions, not through our talkings.

So number one characteristic is to have the love of God in your heart. Seek him, get to know him and love him more and more and more. Number two, let your actions be your talking, not your talking be your actions.

Number three, humility. This is one of the most profound foundational characteristic of a true servant of the Lord Jesus. Humility.

Humility is the foundation of service. It is humility that facilitates every service and it is the lack of humility that destroys every service. My goodness, how foundational humility is in being a true servant of the Lord Jesus.

Through humility, it facilitates every service and the lack of humility destroys every service. The lack of humility serves as a big stumbling for others in service and to those whom we serve. The lack of humility becomes a stumbling stone to the ones we serve in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The most dangerous of all things for a leader, for a servant in the house of the Lord is when that servant makes people love him, not love Christ. This is the most dangerous thing any servant could do. When a servant makes people love him or her than Christ, that servant is a failure.

We are here to serve people in order to give them the Lord and make people love Jesus Christ through us, not love us and ignore Jesus. That is a failure. When we lack humility, then what is vividly clear in our life? Self-exaltation, self-pride.

You see, when humility is missing, then self-pride is existent in us. My goodness, when a servant is full of pride, it is extremely dangerous for that servant to work in the house of the Lord, because whatever they're going to do, they're going to do it for their own benefits, for their own accreditation, for their own acknowledgement, for their own applause, not for the Lord Jesus. They are seeking people's attention.

That is a very dangerous servant to be in the house of the Lord. As church leaders, as servants in the house of the Lord, all we are really should do and must do is give the Lord Jesus to people and let people see Christ, not us. I'll give you a very good example here, biblically.

When we read in the Gospel of Saint John chapter 11, when we read in the Gospel of Saint John chapter 11, the Lord Jesus went back to raise Lazarus from the dead. Now Lazarus was dead four days. He was rotted in the grave, gone.

The Lord Jesus came where the tomb was. He said to the disciples, remove that big stone from the face of the tomb. So the disciples went and removed the stone.

The Lord stood before the tomb and he said, Lazarus come forth. Lazarus was tied up from head to toe and rotted in the grave for four days. On the voice of the Lord, Lazarus come forth.

Lazarus rose being tied up and rotted. He rose and walked out of the tomb and outside. When he walked out, the Lord Jesus ordered the disciples to untie him and loosen the headband that was tying his head.

Now when you tie someone's head, which includes the eyes, you would normally, normally put the knot, you tie it from the back. The knots will be from the back. When the Lord Jesus said, go loosen that piece of cloth, the disciples went from behind Lazarus and loosened that piece of cloth from his face.

So they went from behind to undo those knots. When that piece of cloth fell from the face of Lazarus, who did Lazarus see first? He saw Jesus. He didn't see the disciples.

The Lord is saying a true servant is the one who hides himself and reveals Christ to the world. You go from behind Lazarus so that when the piece of cloth falls off the face of Lazarus, he sees no disciple. He sees no human being except Jesus Christ.

Why? Because this is the one everyone is ought to see. Because Jesus is the one who raises the dead. The Lord Jesus is the one who heals the sick.

The Lord Jesus is the one who forgives sins, who revives us, who gives us life eternal. He is the only one that is ought to be seen. A true servant is the one who lets people see Christ in them, not them before the world.

Reflects Christ. But when we lack humility, there is self-pride. And when there is self-pride, I want people to applaud me, acknowledge me, and look up to me.

So dangerous. That's why my beloved, the church has got a problem. The throne.

Every church leader fights for the throne. This is mine. No one can take it.

My beloved brother, the throne is not ours. It is the Lord's. The cross is not ours.

It is the Lord's. The crown that we put on our head is not ours. It is the Lord's.

The ring of authority. Everything is the Lord's. These clothes, the church, and everything is the Lord's.

We are nothing but useless, hopeless servants brought here through the grace of the Lord Jesus to reflect Christ to everyone that comes to the house of the Lord. To be humble in service, we must understand one, who we are, two, where we came from, and three, where we are going, and four, we must remember that. So we need to understand who we are, where we came from, and where we are going.

These things we must remember always. Who we really are, where we came from, and where we are going. We are not saviors.

We cannot develop a messiah complex. Our goal is only to bring others closer to Christ. We are not bringing people to us.

We are bringing people to Christ. He is the savior. It is not us.

Where some servants go, they fail in their service when they let people be so attached to them, not to the Lord Jesus. Now that is a failure. We need to always remind people that I am nothing.

It is the Lord Jesus whom I'm trying to give to you because He is the one and the one and only. He is the savior. I'm not.

I'm not. It is not our right to serve. It is a holy privilege.

No one is qualified to serve, and none of us are worthy of it. So when we come and serve the Lord and serve His house, we need to remember we have no right to serve the Lord. We have no right to serve in His house.

We are not worthy of any service in the house of the Lord. This is a privilege given by the Lord to us. It's a gift given to someone who is not worthy.

So don't ever think you are doing something magnificent in the house of the Lord, or you're doing something big for the We are all nothing, no matter what we do and what we say. We are the hopeless, useless servants. Everything we say and everything we do of good origin comes from the good God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

All glory to His holy name. We are all sinners. We are not perfect, and we never will be perfect while we are in the flesh.

So we are no better than our fellow servants, nor are we better than those we serve. I am no better than any other servant in the house of the Lord, and we are not better than the ones we serve. When people come to the priest, when people come to the bishop, when people come to the patriarch or the pope, all these church leaders are no better than these people that are coming to the house of the Lord.

They're not. We are all sinners. No one is better than the other one.

No one is greater than the other one. We're all sinners in the eyes of God, and we can never be perfect. So when the Lord gives to someone like me this position of being a bishop, that doesn't mean that I am better than anyone else.

Quite the contrary. That doesn't mean that I am higher. I am greater.

No such thing. I am the least of all of you, my beloveds. I am the least of all.

A true servant is the one who humbles himself before the sheep of the Lord Jesus, before the flock of the Lord Jesus. We need humility. God does not need our service.

He doesn't need it. The church service will do just fine without us. On the contrary, we are in need of service in order to strengthen our spiritual life.

So when I come and serve in the house of the Lord, when I come and serve the Lord Jesus himself, I need that service to strengthen my own spiritual life because I'm weak, and unless I begin to serve, I'll never get stronger and stronger and stronger. I'll remain that weak human being. So it is through the service I grow in spirituality, and I strengthen my spiritual life.

We must know our identity. We must know, as we said earlier, who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. We were made out of the dust of the ground, of the earth.

We were made out of the dust, one puff, and we're gone. So never ever be boastful about yourself. Don't ever be proud that you are strong, you're intelligent, you're smart, you're wise, you're this and you're that.

Remember where we came from. We were made from the dust of the earth, my beloved, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2-7.

The Lord God made us all out of dust. Dust is so weak. Dust is so cheap, it's so nothing.

Don't we step on dust when we walk on the ground? Do we really give any penny about the dust? Do we really pay homage and respect to the dust? Do we step on it? God made us out of something so cheap, but God put in this cheap dust the ultimate, the ultimate gift, the image of God was placed in this dust. He created us according to His, in His image, according to His likeness. The most expensive and precious thing was put in the cheapest of all things.

The image of God, the most expensive thing was put in the cheapest thing called dust. So when God gives us that glory of His, when God gives us that position of His, when He gives us His name and His, His fame and His mightiness, we should always remind ourselves where we came from. We're nothing but a piece of dust.

Don't be boastful about yourself and don't say you've achieved this and you've done this. It is the Lord who's done it through you, my beloved. Without the Lord, we are all nothing but a piece of dust.

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. John chapter 13 verses 3 to 5. It's amazing.

Jesus knowing, look at this, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into what? Into His hands. After the Lord came to this insight that the Father had given all things, can anyone explain what all things mean when God the Father gives all things? Only God knows what all things are really coming from Him and they were given all to what? To the hands of Jesus. All things were given to the hands of Jesus.

Those hands, those very hands of the Lord Jesus that hold all things given by God the Father, those hands went down and washed the disciples' feet, piece of dust. Wow! The authority, all authority of heavenly things, all authority on earth and all authority of hell as well is in the hands of the Lord Jesus. These hands that hold all things went down and washed the feet of the disciples.

This is the perfect illustration of what humility is all about. When you hold the highest level, when you hold the highest rank, yet you go down and serve the lowest rank of all. This is humility in its core.

It is not by talking, you say, oh I'm humble, I'm this. When people say you are a saint, you say, no please don't refer to me as a saint, I am nothing but a sinner. It is easy said than done.

It is easy said than done. You can say it, please don't call me a saint, I'm a sinner, but are you going to live it when they really treat you as a sinner? Are you going to live that? Now that's when humility will be put to the test. Saying it is very easy, but when you are really humiliated, when you are really degraded and kicked out, are you going to live that humble life? Or are you going to retaliate and search for revenge? What are you going to do? Humility seeks what is God's, not what is mine.

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, two out of the twelve apostles of the Lord Jesus, they asked the Lord Jesus that one sit on his left and the other sit on his right in the kingdom. Gospel of Mark chapter 10 verse 37. The Lord Jesus answered, yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

Mark chapter 10 verses 43 to 45. If anybody is seeking to be great among you, let that great person be the servant of all, and if anyone is desiring to be the first, let that first to be last, and the slave and the servant of all. In Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 to 11, Saint Paul talks about unity through humility.

Philippians chapter 2 verses 1 to 11, Saint Paul talks about unity through humility, and in the same chapter, Philippians 2 from verses 5 to 11, is sometimes called the incarnation song of Saint Paul. How to live unity through humility? Read Philippians 2 verses 1 to 11. You see, humility is the key to success.

Unity will never come unless there is humility, because unity can only come when there is obedience. I can never be united to God and united with God unless I am obedient to God, and I can never be obedient unless I am humble down to earth, unless I am humble. So it is through humility that obedience come, and through obedience unity comes.

The reason why we cannot be united, whether it be at home, whether it be at work, whether it be in governmental bodies, whether it be even in church, wherever we are in this world, the reason why unity is not made possible, because that place is lacking humility. That place is lacking humility, my beloved. That's why nobody wants to lower themselves and be obedient to the other.

It's a problem. When the husband and the wife, when neither of the parties humble themselves, arguments, frictions, fighting at home will never cease. They will always fight, they will always argue, there will always be frictions between the two.

But when one side lowers themselves, everything is now at peace, there is unity. So we need to learn how to be truly humble, how to be truly humble. We've mentioned this before, humility allows you to receive wisdom from the Almighty God, allows you to receive wisdom.

Now wisdom is foundational in our spiritual life. Why? Because wisdom is the tool that allows you to discern between what is good and what is evil, and to discern all the indifference in people. Sometimes wisdom, which is received through humility, sometimes wisdom goes quiet even when it is right.

It is so difficult for any one of us when we are in the right and we keep our silence. It is so difficult. When I'm in the right, I will do everything under the sun to make sure the other side gets it in their head, in their heart, in their mind, in their soul, in their spirit.

I'll make sure they get it and understand that I was right. But imagine when you are in the right and you keep your silence. Why? Because through wisdom, God gave you that discernment that it is not the right time to speak now, even though you are right.

Keep silent, I will show you the right time to speak when the other side now is ready to be receptive to what you are about to say. The spiritual life is absolutely and totally different from this physical world. When people think that because they studied the Holy Bible, when people think that because they went to uni and studied theology, now they can live spiritual life.

No, my dear friend. To live a spiritual life, only God gives it, not university. Because to live a spiritual life, you need to acquire wisdom.

And wisdom is only given by God, by no one else. What uni gives you, what preaching gives you, is knowledge. It's the knowledge of God, not the wisdom of God.

When we come and read the Holy Bible and we get to know the Holy Bible, the more we get to know the Holy Bible, what happens? We begin to love the Lord. You see, I was so distant from the Lord Jesus, one day I listened to this Bible preach, I listened to this sermon, and when I listened to this sermon, it really touched my heart, and I changed from inside, I changed, I began to love the Lord. You see, knowledge leads you to love.

When I was touched by that sermon or that Bible preach, I began to love the Lord. However, on the other side, God is wise. God is love, and God is wise.

How do I acquire wisdom? Through humility, through humility. So knowledge leads to love, humility leads to wisdom. But guess what? Without wisdom, the love that I gained through my knowledge of God, when I began to read and research and study and learn, I became to know Him, I got to know Him, I got to love Him.

But when I gain that love, without wisdom, I will lose and abuse that love. I will abuse it and I will lose it. Unless I acquire wisdom, the love I gained through knowledge, I'll abuse it and I will lose it.

Because it takes wisdom to understand how to live this love, how to taste this love, and how to share this love with others. It takes wisdom in order for me and you, you and I, to do that. But for wisdom to be acquired, I need to be humble.

And to be humble, I need to say one thing to myself, I am the greatest sinner of all people. I am the number one sinner. I am the least of all.

I am the worst of all. When you look at yourself, see yourself the least of all, the sinner of all sinners. The sinner of all sinners.

I'll say this, my beloved, and we'll continue to the fourth point. When it comes to love and sin, please pay attention. When it comes to love and sin, when it comes to love, see everyone but you.

See everyone else but you when it comes to love. When it comes to sin, see yourself, don't ever see anyone else. When it comes to love, see everyone else but yourself.

You know why? Because true love gives, never takes first, it always gives. If you see yourself, you will never be able to give. Because when you see yourself, you will say, I want people to give me.

I want people to do for me. I want people to come and serve me. But when you deny yourself and do not see yourself when it comes to love, you will see everyone else.

When you see everyone else, the very first thing you're going to do for others, you will give them your service. You will give them your love, your life to them. When it comes to sin, see yourself, don't see anyone else.

Why? Because if you see others, you will point the fingers at others and you say, look at that sinner, look at this sinner, look at those sinners. And what about me? I am the greatest sinner of all. So when it comes to sin, I say, Lord, I am the greatest sinners of all.

Have mercy on me, son of David, have mercy on me. I want to see you, my Lord, because sin has blinded me. Humility.

When we begin to see our own sins, not others, this is the road to becoming humble. And this is the road to receiving wisdom from God, to protect, preserve and flourish the love that you gained through the knowledge of God. The fourth point, responsible and reliable.

The servant must be mature, responsible and reliable. They must be serious about their service. The faithful servant that Jesus talks about in the verses 35 to 48, as well as the parable of the Talents in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, verses 14 to 30, is the one who takes their service seriously.

The servant's struggle does not stop until he presents every man perfect in Jesus Christ, as Saint Paul says. A servant that is slack, a servant that does not take things on a serious note, cannot succeed in serving the Lord and the house of the Lord. When we come to serve the Lord, we need to be serious.

We need to be responsible and reliable. Meaning, when I say, Lord, I'm going to see you at 10 o'clock, that means it's 10 o'clock. It's not 10 past five or 10 past one minute.

No, it is 10 o'clock on the dot. I need to be reliable. I need to be prompt and I need to be responsible with the duties that I've been entrusted with me there.

I need to fulfill them with absolute responsibility. Meaning, I'll take ownership. I don't blame others.

I take the ownership. Don't pass the buck. I take it on board.

I need to be responsible and I need to be reliable. Four characteristics of a true servant of the Lord Jesus. Number one, loving God.

You need to love God. Otherwise, if you don't love God, how are you going to serve him? You can never live with someone you do not love. You can never serve someone you do not love.

You only serve the ones you love and you only live with the ones you love. That's why when Saint Paul is writing his epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13, the last verse, he says, and three things remain in every one of us. That is faith, faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of all is love. Now, why is love the greatest of all, of faith and hope? Now, when I ask any Christian, what do you hope for? What is your hope as a Christian? Well, my hope as a Christian is to make it to God's kingdom. That's what I'm hoping for, to make it to God's kingdom.

And what is your faith? My faith is to sit at the right hand of Lord Jesus in his kingdom, in his glory. Now, a time will come through the grace of the Lord Jesus, I'm going to make it to God's kingdom. You're going to make it to God's kingdom.

When you've made it to God's kingdom, you don't need hope anymore. Hope ceases. Why? Because what you were hoping for, now you're there.

You were hoping to get to God's kingdom. You've made it now through the grace of the Lord. So, when you got to God's kingdom, hope ceased.

And the Lord sat you at his right hand in his glory. When you sat at the right hand of the Lord Jesus, your faith is no longer required. Because what you were believing in, your faith was to sit at the right hand of the Lord Jesus.

Now, I've sat there. I don't need faith anymore because I'm living it. But I need one thing to remain at the right hand of the Lord Jesus in his kingdom forever.

I need love. That's why hope and faith are for this world, for this life. But love is for this life and the next forever.

Because without love, I cannot live with God or with anyone else. So, I need to be responsible and reliable. I need to come and love God in order.

Look how these four points are interlocking, like they are woven together. You cannot separate them from one another. But love is foundational.

You see, when I love God, the second point came, actions, not talking. Wow! Now, action is to do with work. Why? Because my beloved, to do something, to serve the Lord in his house, to serve the Lord himself, you are doing a task.

You are doing a job. Now, to do any tasks, it requires love and the will. Because I need the will to choose that job.

And in order to be able to choose it, I need to love it. You see, if I don't love something, I'm not going to choose it. And if I don't choose it, I'm not going to do it.

But because I love that thing, I chose that thing, therefore I did it with all of my heart. When you truly love God, you will go out of your way to please God. You will do everything that is within your capacity, through his grace, to put a smile on his face.

Because when we love people, we go out of our ways, don't we? We do things we never ever thought we were gonna do. You know, God is love. When he came to create us, the human race, Adam and the entire human race, the word Adam, I've said it before, comes from Edemta in Hebrew or Aramaic, Syriac.

Edemta means red mud. So when God, the Almighty, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient God, the Sovereign God, this Powerful Mighty God, when he came to create us out of love, he created us with mud. Out of mud, he made Adam Edemta.

So he put his hands in the mud. The question is, my beloved, who plays in the mud? Little kids. Little kids play in the mud, but little kids play in the mud out of ignorance, because that's all they know.

They don't know any better. Little kids, they don't know any better. That's why they play in the mud.

But God is the source of wisdom. He knows what he's doing. But God is saying, when you truly love from the heart, when your love is so perfect, when your love is so holy, so pure, you do things like crazy.

God became like a little kid. He came to create us out of love. The first thing he did, he put his hands in the mud and became like a little kid playing in the mud.

Because love makes you do crazy things you would not normally do, if it wasn't for the one you love more than yourself. So when you love God, that is the foundation. Out of love for God, I loved his house.

And I loved everything that is relevant to God. Whatever God loves, I loved. Whatever God was pleased with, I did.

And since I chose to do it out of love, therefore I did it willingly. And it came naturally. When it came naturally, my action, which is the second point, was the talk, not my words, reflective of my action.

But my action spoke loud and clear. You see, when you do things from the heart, people will notice it, people will see it from a hundred million zillion miles away. It is so clear like the sun in the sky.

When you do things from the heart, everybody will know this is genuine. But when it's done in a fake way, everyone will know as well. So you need to love God for your action is genuine, reflective of that love of God for the people that you are serving.

So when you've done that work, humility came. Because you loved God, God humbled you. When he humbled you, he gave you his wisdom.

When he gave you his wisdom, everything you did, you were prosperous in it. Because wisdom gives you success. Lack of wisdom, failure.

Pride gives you destruction and failure. Wisdom gives you exaltation and success. So you were given that humility because you loved God from the heart.

He made you humble, gave you his Holy Spirit, the source of wisdom. And then everything you did, you were successful and prosperous in it. When you were successful and prosperous, you ended up being responsible and reliable.

We need to remind ourselves always that wherever we serve the Lord and whenever we serve the Lord, we need to remind ourselves that this is for the Lord, it is not for me. I am here to reflect the Lord Jesus. I am here to give the Lord Jesus to my beloved or the beloved children of his.

That is my job. No more, no less. I give you the Lord and I leave you with the Lord.

He will teach you on how to live for him. It is not about me, it is about the Lord Jesus, my beloved. This is the true servant.

This is the true spirit of a servant, where that servant through him and her Christ is glorified. Let us be the reason for Jesus Christ to be glorified through us. Let us be that reason, my beloved.

May the Lord Jesus bless you. May the Lord Jesus guide you and protect you. May the Lord Jesus give you the wisdom to discern how to be a true servant for the Lord and for his holy house.

Come, deny yourself and reflect Christ in everything you do, you say, my beloved. Amen. God bless you.

I pray we have learned something today and I pray we will continue learning and growing in the spiritual life and growing on how to become more and more successful servants of the Lord Jesus and the church of Christ, the bride, the beloved bride of the Lord Jesus. Amen. So may the Lord Jesus bless you, guide you and protect you and I pray that we are always true servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, where the world sees Christ in us.

Come to this light and glorify your heavenly father who art in heaven. Amen. Now if I may ask everyone to stand for the finale prayer, please.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. Have mercy on us, O Lord God, have mercy on us, because you are always worshipped and glorified in heaven and on earth. Christ, our righteous, patient and full of mercy and compassion.

He who loves the just and shows mercy to all sinners, whom I am the first of them all. He who does not wish death for sinners, but rather repentance and life as he calls us all to salvation and to the promise of all gifts that await us. O Lord, accept our prayer in this hour and in every hour.

Calm our lives and be our shepherd so that we may be able to work according to your commandments. Make holy our souls, purify our bodies, straighten our thoughts, enlighten our intellect, heal our sickness, forgive our sins and deliver us from every discomfort and evil tribulation. Encircle us with your holy angels to be preserved and protected with them to gain unity of faith and knowledge of your glory which is invisible and eternal.

For you are glorified for eternities to come. Amen. In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God.

Amen. I leave you in peace. May the peace of Christ be always in your hearts, my beloveds, now and forevermore.

Amen. God bless.