God Has a Plan laid out for you

In today's Gospel, our Church Fathers have taken it from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew chapter 18 verses 1 to 18 inclusive, Matthew 18 and verses 1 to 18. And today the Lord is sending a very profound message to all of us and that is to do of His Kingdom and the way we should live in His Kingdom. In chapter 18, to understand what the Lord is really saying, we see in chapter 17 the Lord is establishing His Kingdom which we refer to as the Transfiguration Day where the Lord Jesus took three of His disciples being Simon Peter and James and John, sons of Zebedee.

He takes them all the way to the top of the mountain of Tabor which is in the north of Israel and then the Lord transfigures where He becomes brighter than the sun and whiter than snow. That Transfiguration Day which is chapter 17, the Lord is establishing His Kingdom. And what is a Kingdom? It's a place, it's a country.

Now once you establish a Kingdom, then you need to do two more things. You need to bring people into this Kingdom and then you need to teach these people on how to live in this Kingdom. So once you establish the Kingdom, then you need to find the people that will live in this Kingdom and then teach these people on how to behave, on how to walk, on how to live in this Kingdom.

Chapter 18 is the way of the Kingdom. To remain in the Lord's Kingdom, the Lord says the following. The disciples approach the Lord Jesus asking Him who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven and the Lord Jesus brings a little kid and He puts that kid in the midst of them all and says unless you convert and become like little children, there will be no means of you entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

Unless you become a little child, you will never be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and remain in the Kingdom of Heaven. The way to be with the Lord, to remain with Him, the way for you and I to stay in His Kingdom, we must come back and be little kids. But the problem of every human being is what the disciples asked.

Who is greatest? This is the dilemma of the human struggle. We always seek the greatest, not the weakest. We always seek the highest, not the lowest.

We always seek the richest, not the poorest. We always seek what is significant, not what is insignificant. The focus of the human is on big things, not on small things.

But God's focus is the other way around. God says unless you're small, you can never be big. Unless you're last, you can never be first.

Unless you're a servant, you'll never be a master. Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? The Lord says, when you are a little kid, you're the greatest. Let's look at this little kid, some of the characteristics of this little kid and learn from this little kid.

Number one, when that baby is in their room and mom and dad or either one is with the baby and then they walk away and leave the baby in the room, World War III erupts. The baby will cry and will never cease crying until mom or dad come back and carry the baby. They will turn the whole world upside down.

They will destroy the whole house until mom or dad come back and carry me. How dare you leave me behind and walk away from me? When mom or dad carries that baby, no more crying, no more fear, no more worries. The baby, all that baby cares is I'm with dad.

Baby never asks, dad, where are you taking me? Who are we going to meet? When are we coming back home? Baby never asks because what matters to the baby is I'm with dad. Nothing else matters. The baby knows 100% without mom and dad, I'm dead.

Why? Because it is mom and dad who nurture me, who look after me. When I'm dirty, they wash me. When I'm hungry, they feed me.

When I'm sick, they take me to the doctor. When I'm crying, they are all night long up caring for me. Mom and dad are the only reason for my existence because unless it was for them, I am 100% dead.

The Lord today is saying to you and me, me and you, are you like that baby? When you claim to be a Christian, when you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, do you come to me as a baby and say to yourself, Jesus, my Lord, my dad, without you I'm dead. Do you or do you say I can manage without you? The Lord will not accept that we can manage without him sometimes but sometimes we need him. The Lord says it is either all or nothing.

If you do not confess that you are dead without me all the time, then you are not a true follower of me because the truth will always be the truth. Without Jesus Christ of Nazareth, all of us are dead. Anytime, every time, all the time.

Without Christ, we're all dead. We don't and cannot manage without him, not even for a split second. And the moment you thought you were able to do something, remember it is the Lord who did it through you.

It wasn't you. If you think you were able to come to church, it was the Lord. If you're able, if you think you were able to get up this morning and wash your face, it was the Lord who gave you this ability.

You better believe in this, this is the truth. Without the Lord, there is no life. There is nothing.

Be like the baby. The baby knows without parents, I'm dead. You as a Christian, without your heavenly father, do you believe you're dead? Secondly, that baby, all he cared was to be with dad.

Time went by, the baby grew older. It's the same father and it's the same baby but now as an adult. The same father comes and says to his son, son, let's go.

The son comes back with a question. Where to dad? Who are we going to meet? When are we coming back dad? Sorry dad, I don't have the time for you but hang on. Remember when you were a baby, you never questioned me.

All you cared about that you were with me. That's all that mattered for you to you. But now that you're a grown-up, you think now you can do it on your own without dad but remember son, who raised you? Who gave you this life? Who looked after you? If it wasn't for your dad, you would have been dead long time ago.

Seeing yourself as an adult now, you think you can't, you can do it without daddy. Well remember, without daddy, you wouldn't have been an adult. It wasn't your friend who raised you.

Now that you are preferring your friend over your dad. You're choosing your friend over your dad. You're saying my friend is better than my dad.

You're saying my friend and total stranger, outsider, you're saying he's better than your own dad who gave his life to raise you. What happened son? It's the same father. The father never changed.

The problem, the child did. The Lord says, even when you grow older and you become mature, but when you come to me, come to me as a baby always. Don't ever say, I know what I'm doing Lord.

I don't need you now. I'll come to you when I choose to. But when you choose to and come to the Lord, the Lord will not choose you because you didn't come as a baby.

He came as an adult. He will not recognize you. You need to confess and acknowledge this truth that no matter how wiser I become, how older I become, I will always be that baby in a nappy when it comes to Jesus Christ of Nazareth because all wisdom fails when it faces the wisdom of Christ and all strength fails when it faces the strength of Christ and every power fades away when it faces the power of Christ.

When you are in the presence of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you better be that baby because this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We are nothing but that baby in a nappy because we are in the presence of the source of wisdom. We are in the presence of this and the source of wisdom, of that source of wisdom.

The church gets destroyed and divided when the shepherd becomes mature in their own minds and when the shepherds becomes boastful of their Ph.D. certificate. Well, this bishop has Ph.D. in theology. This pope has Ph.D. in philosophy.

All of that, when you face satan, he will laugh at you and he will play with you like a football and you won't even know what hit you because all of that knowledge compared to satan's knowledge, you're nothing. You are nowhere near the power of satan. You are nowhere near the wisdom of satan when you face him outside of Christ.

Don't ever think you're smart enough. Don't ever think you're strong enough. Don't ever think you're wise enough when you face the world because the world is in the placed in the bosom of satan.

No one wins all with satan unless Christ is your king. No one. Look at the world.

Look at the world that has denied the existence of God. Look at him acting like fools, so educated yet ignorance, so smart yet foolish. Look at him.

Look at the world. They're saying we're a superpower. Do you know what kind of a weaponry we have? If you face this superpower and they got each other and they threat one another, you can't mess with me.

One press of a button, I'll finish you off. What a fool. So this is the wisdom of the world.

Created weapons, technology to destroy itself. Can't be more fool than this. A fool is the one who kills himself by himself.

And this is the world. On the other hand, the world chases positions, fame, power, treasure, wealth. But at the end, it's a grave.

Where is Hitler? Dead. Where is Caesar? Dead. Where is pharaoh? Long time ago, rotted.

Long time ago. Where are all the empires who thought they were gods? They could have done whatever they wish to do. Where are they? They're all dead.

This is the world. But the Lord is saying my kingdom is not like the world. The world seeks power.

The world seeks prestige. The world seeks position. The world seeks its own existence.

Everyone wants to prove they are more powerful than the other. The world chases thrones. That's the world.

I want to be the greatest. I want to be the most powerful. I want to be the most famous.

I want the whole world to look at me. I want the whole world to applaud me. I want the whole world to know me.

This is the world. But Christ says in my kingdom, you need to be a kid. A kid meaning you don't exist without your parents.

You're nothing without your heavenly father. In my kingdom, you deny yourself. You do not seek to prove that you are here and you are powerful.

No, no, no. You deny yourself. Let God deal with you and with the rest of the world.

Don't prove nothing to nobody. Prove one thing to your heavenly father. I'm a baby.

Without you, dad, I'm dead. That's all you need to prove. Without you, Lord, I'm dead.

So being a pope, a patriarch, a bishop like me, you need to be like a baby when it comes to the Lord Jesus. Don't ever think you're a shepherd, you're smart, you're educated, you're this, you're that, and you can manage the church and the affairs of the church. Satan will swallow you before you blink your eyes.

Be a baby, my dear church leader, and let your heavenly father deal with Satan and everything else. We can't manage anything without the Lord Jesus. My son, next time somebody tries to challenge you, don't fall for this trap.

If they try to prove that you are strong or not, and let's see, putting you under peer pressure, don't ever fall for that nonsense. Say, listen, mate, I don't need to prove to nobody that I'm strong. I don't need to prove to nobody that I'm smart.

I don't need to prove to nobody that I am somebody. All I need to do is I need to deal with this in secret, in privacy with my Lord Jesus. And you can laugh at me, you can do whatever you want to do, but at the end of the day, you will have to answer.

When the church chases the world, loses Christ, becomes very weak. Today, the church's success is measured by material. So sad.

So to determine if the church is successful or not, let's see how many properties it has, and how much money in the bank account, and how much wealth the church has. It is not measured by how many faithfuls the church has. Maybe those faithfuls are all poor financially, but with that faith, they can move mountains.

But you see, when you focus on the world, this becomes nonsense. It's an embarrassment. We need to be strong, and the only way to be strong, we need to have money.

We need to have wealth, because with that, we can conquer. And we need to have thrones, and power, and my throne needs to be supreme. Where is that little kid, which the Lord Jesus says, unless you become a little kid, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Which leader is accepting upon himself to be that little kid? Dear Pope, dear Patriarch, dear Archbishop, dear Bishop, anyone wants to be a little kid? Or are you all adults? Are you mature enough in your own sights, in your own eyes? Because you'll be seen as ignorance in the eyes of God, and the Lord will say, I don't know who you are. I want that baby that cries for me, and will not stop crying until daddy comes and carries me. Where is that baby? Now you watch, and you see in the thousands, in the millions, faithful coming to you, and suddenly you forgot who made you, who gave you life, you forgot.

Oh, now you're someone big, Pope. You're someone big, Patriarch. You're someone big, Bishop.

Have you forgotten who made you? Who fed you? Who clothed you? Who forgave your sins? You've forgotten. Where is that baby that once upon a time cried for Jesus to come and carry him? Where is that innocent approach? I always say this, when you face the Lord, be a baby, or when you face the world, be a man. Don't ever be a baby.

Fear no one, fear nothing, because the Lord is with you. So the army can say, don't go to that church. And I'll say to that army, I have an army in heaven that is much, much more powerful than you.

Do you think I need your acknowledgement? But it's a shame to be living as fools. I don't need your acknowledgement, world. But I'm here to show you this love, and to give you this love.

His name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It's up to you, accept him or reject him. But before we know it all, a time will come, we must leave this world, whether you're a colonel or whoever you are.

You're gonna die, my dear friend. And when you die, those stars on your shoulders ain't gonna help you. There is only one QC that will stand in the courthouse to defend you.

His name is Jesus. And if you don't choose him to be your QC, you're in deep trouble. Because the only one who can get you out of the hands of the judge, who is God the Father, is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

No one can get you out of the hands of God the Father when you stand in his court. Because he's the only true judge. And no one can say I'm innocent when they face God.

But that justification came when Jesus died for you and me. So you better make Jesus your lawyer, otherwise you're in trouble. But for the Lord Jesus to be your lawyer, you need to be a baby.

You need to be a baby, my beloved. My son, don't ever say dad is my enemy. Don't ever say my dad doesn't love me.

Why? Because he is not letting me do what I want to do. My friend is the best, because he always encourages me to continue doing what I choose to do. My dad stands in my way, but my friend is the only way.

That is a lie. Satan is trying to destroy the family and take you away from the one who truly loves you. But more so, and above all parents, is your Heavenly Father.

No one will ever love you more than Jesus Christ of Nazareth. No one. Don't ever be deceived by the lies of Satan, the father of all lies.

Don't ever. Come to the Lord and say, Lord, teach me on how to be humble before you. Teach me on how to remain that little kid in your holy presence.

And teach me on how to love, honor, respect my parents whom you gave me, and then my family members, and then society in general. What is the church? Families getting together. So where does the church start? At home, not here.

If home is not a church, here cannot be. And even if you come to church, then you're coming for something else and someone else, but definitely not Christ. The church starts at home.

Son, daughter, when you honor and respect your parents, you're respecting God. I'll always say this, if there is one thing the western world needs to learn from the east, it's family bond. We just came back from a missionary trip to La Benon and Jordan, both Middle Eastern countries.

And I'm not saying this because I come from the Middle East. No, I'm just stating facts. These Middle Eastern countries, not all of them are Christian countries.

Most of them are Muslim countries. But regardless, if you want to learn about family value, go to the Middle East. Whether they are Muslims, Christians, you'll learn family value from the Middle East.

Till this very day, an adult son married with children, but when he faces his father, he grabs the father's hand, kisses it, and puts it on his forehead out of respect. This you don't find in the west. Why? Because the west has placed the system so sneaky.

They focused on individualism, not family. Individualism. Even the ads on TV, even the ads, look how sneaky they are, sons of the snake.

Even the ads, watch them all, it's all about you. What you love, what you should love, what you should want, what you should seek, it's all about you. You want this cream? You want this ice cream? You want a big nose or a small one? You want eyebrows or you don't? Laser cut or otherwise? It's all about you.

The ads is all about you. Everywhere you go, it's all about you. It's all about you.

Individualism leads you to one thing which is the source of all sin, loving yourself and no one else. Loving yourself, you become your own God. This is the ultimate sin.

So when you focus on yourself, loving yourself, you will never ever help no one, serve no one. You will never be able to humble yourself because when you love yourself, you'll expect the whole world to bow before you. You will never listen to no one because myself is too precious to bow before someone else.

Myself is too elevated to listen to someone else. It is either my way or the highway. This is the western world, no family value.

That's why depression has engulfed the western world. And you go to these wonderful doctors, the moment you say, doctor I feel down, they give you a tablet, depression tablet. Not all doctors, some.

There are still some doctors that still have a living conscience. You want to get rid of depression? Go to Lebanon, go to Jordan, go to the Middle East. You go there brother, 24-7 the country is alive.

It's difficult, it's very hard to make a living, but everybody is happy. Why? Because everybody knows everybody. Family together, going, coming, laughing, talking, crying together, laughing together.

No depression. What depression? Go to Middle East, come back. You drop every tablet in the rubbish bin.

Here, everyone is for himself. 5 pm, like chicken, all lights off. We go into our house, you make a little noise, then the neighbor calls the police on you.

If you were in the Middle East, they would have buried you. The police would have buried you. You know that you call the police in the Middle East and the police come, what's wrong? You say the neighbors are making noise.

The police will bash the daylight out of you. They'll say, well what kind of a human if you don't make a noise? Here they'll come, don't make noise. Don't know.

That's why they're all, oh I'm sad, I'm upset, I'm anxious. No wonder you're living for yourself. Stop living for yourself.

Live for others. Learn to live for others. Be a baby and let Christ teach you how to live, not for yourself, but for others.

Not for yourself, for others. Love the Lord. Number one, love your neighbor like yourself.

Don't just love yourself and stop there. Don't love yourself and stop there. Be a giver, not a taker.

Be a servant, not someone to be served. You'll be the first to making peace and unity. Don't wait for others to do it.

Do it yourself. You'll be the first one to say hello. Don't wait for others to do it.

Don't say, I will never put myself down until she comes and says hello to me. In her dreams, I will say hello to her. Yeah, get a life man.

Just go and say hello to her. Be humble. I'll never say I'm sorry.

No, you better say you're sorry. And even if you're not wrong, just say it. With family members, there is nothing called pride.

Even if you are not wrong, you go and say to the one who is wrong, I'm sorry if I made you do wrong things. I'm sorry. Husband, go to your wife and say I'm sorry before she throws you in the street.

And my son, go to mom and dad and say, I'm sorry if I upset you one day. Forgive me dad. I want you to know that I love you.

I know I've been naughty and I know at times I don't listen to you dad. And I know at times mom, I really hurt you. And I really make you cry mom.

But I'm today coming to say I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Whether knowingly or unknowingly for upsetting you, for hurting you, I'm sorry.

So beautiful when we say I'm sorry. When we humble ourselves. When we lower ourselves.

When we come to be those peacemakers. So beautiful. So beautiful.

But so ugly when we are so boastful about ourselves. So ugly. Be a little kid.

You know another thing about little kid and I will stop. I talk a lot. But don't forget it's been two weeks I haven't spoken to you guys.

So I'm revenging. The little kid, you slap the kid. Christ hates you for it.

Can't stand you. You give him a lolly. All gone.

You become number one. The baby holds no crutches. So beautiful.

One moment, the other moment, straight away. One little lolly finished. Forgot about you being the enemy.

You being whatever. No forget city loves. Everything is beautiful.

Be like that baby. Some people waste their life and so priceless and precious life by holding crutches. I'll never forgive so-and-so.

They hurt me 549 years ago. Just forget about it. They hurt you.

Move on. Next time you see them, greet them. Say hello to them.

Who cares what they said and what they did. Move on. Because the more you let go, the happier you are.

No more depression. And if you are really hurt, go to Lebanon. Go to Jordan.

You come back fully replenished and fully refurbished. Man, I love Jordan. Stunning.

I didn't want to come back to Australia. And to my beloved Jordanian people, what a beautiful country it is. It's beautiful with the people that it has.

Beautiful in its culture. Beautiful in its hospitality. I went to a Muslim house.

A Muslim family. They greeted me. Very hospitable.

Opened the house. The food. Stunning.

Stunning. Here don't come. I'm not gonna spend money on you.

Don't come here. No, very hospitable. Very welcoming.

I had one person working with the king. Came and picked me up with their car and drove me everywhere. If I had the time, I would have seen King Abdullah.

Yeah, it's so beautiful. In Jordan, they have a lot of respect for the Christians. It's a Muslim country, but they have a lot of respect for the Christians.

In every checkpoint we went, and same in Lebanon. In every checkpoint we went, they looked, they saw me sitting in the car. Welcome.

They never stopped the car. They have respect. Same in Lebanon.

The soldier standing saluting. Welcome, sir. Here everybody is a mate.

What do you mean mate? Have some respect. Father is a father, is not a mate. Mother is a mother, is not a mate.

We've lost touch. Why? Because there is no family bond. We didn't realize what respect is all about.

Be that little kid and say, Dad, I need you all the time. Not sometimes. No, all the times.

Amen. Let's bow our heads, my beloved. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God.

Amen. Our good God and full of mercy, our good God and full of mercy, whose grace and mercy is poured upon all. Pour, my Lord, the compassion of the delightfulness of your love upon your servants, and again transform them in the hope of renewal to the life of repentance.

Renew in them your Holy Spirit by whom they are sealed for the day of salvation. Purify them by your compassion from all flesh and spiritual blemishes, and assure the hope of their faith by the aid of your grace, and instill the walks of their behavior and the paths of righteousness. Please them along with the saints in your kingdom by the assurance of the hope of their faith, and the adoption as your children, and in the joy of your absolving mysteries.

Empower them by the aid of your mercies to observe your commandments and fulfill your will, to confess, worship, and praise your Holy Name, the Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever. Amen. May the Lord forgive us and make us worthy to come and receive him, the true body and the true blood of Christ.

Amen.