Knowing God

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. Our beloved Fathers, Deacons, Nuns, Faithfuls, those who are with us in this Holy Church, and those who are watching us through live streaming, we pray the Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in nature, one in essence, bless you, guard you and protect you, deliver you from the snares of the enemy, whether it be visible or invisible. We pray this in Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, Mighty Name, Amen.

The Gospel for today's liturgy is taken from the Gospel according to Saint John, parts from chapter 3 and chapter 4 of the Gospel according to Saint John. From chapter 3, reading is from verses 22 to 36, inclusive, which is the end of the chapter, and then chapter 4, verses 1 to 3. To understand these beautiful verses, and what is the message of these beautiful verses, the message is to get to know God, to get to know God. When we read in the beginning of chapter 3, we'll see there is a conversation, there is a dialect between the Lord Jesus and Nicodemus, one of the elders of the 70 members of the Sanhedrin, and also a leader of a synagogue.

In other words, a very learned man, very well educated and embedded in the Old Testament. So that conversation happens between the Lord and Nicodemus. I was talking about being born again, which is one of the seven sacraments of the true Church of Christ, being the Holy Baptism.

And what is the Holy Baptism? Enlightenment. Enlightenment. Now, today's gospel, the disciples of John the Baptist, the disciples of John the Baptist approach their teacher, John, and they say, you know that person that you spoke of and testified of, you know, on the other side of the Jordan, guess what, he is also baptizing, and there is a lot of people going to him, not to you.

There is a lot of people going to him, not to you. John the Baptist replies to his disciples, and he said, it is absolutely natural for him to grow and for me to be less and less. Why? Because he is the groom, and I am the friend of the groom.

The groom is the one who has the bride, and I, the friend of the groom, when I hear his voice, I rejoice. I'm the groom's best man. And this is where we get the best man when we wed a beautiful couple.

There is a groom's best man resembling John the Baptist. Yes? So he said, I am the groom's best man. The ultimate I could do is to stand next to the groom, but the occasion is not about the groom's best man, the occasion is about the groom.

He is the center of attention. He is the one where all people come to see and greet and congratulate and be with. You don't go to weddings to focus on the groom's best man or the bridesmaid, you focus on the couple.

This is their occasion, this is their day, and this is all about them. So he said to his disciples, why are you so worried that people are going to him instead of me? My role is to pave the way for the Messiah, and I came because I was sent by him to prepare the way. I've done my part.

I came and I said, baptize and repent, because the one who is going to come after me, who is before me, he will baptize you by the power of the Holy Spirit. He will baptize you with fire. I baptize you with normal water.

So you need to go to him. And when you go to him, which you must go to him, because unless you go to him, you will never get to know him. And this is the message of today's gospel, knowing God.

I'll read a couple of verses from chapter 3, verse 19. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. So what is the judgment, condemnation, in other words, judgment? The light has come into the world, but men, or people, chose darkness over the light. They preferred darkness over the light, because their deeds were of evil origin.

They didn't want to come to the light, lest their evil deeds be exposed. So what did they do? Instead of acknowledging the light, they rejected the light, for one simple reason. They were not willing to give up their personal pleasures for the sake of Christ.

And so many people are doing exactly the same thing in our time and age. The issue is, it is us, not the Lord. The light came to the world.

Now who is this light that came to the world? The Son, S-O-N, who is the S-U-N of the world. The S-O-N, the beloved only son of his heavenly father, came into the world to be the S-U-N of the world. But the people who were living for the world, they chose darkness over the light.

But they rejected Christ, because they realized, if we accept Jesus, that means we have to change, and we are unwilling to change. We're not willing. To accept the Lord Jesus, you need to stop going to the club and coming to the church.

I'm not ready. To accept the Lord Jesus, you need to humble yourself before others. I'm not ready.

To accept the Lord Jesus, you need to forgive others who have hurt you. I am not ready. I'm not.

To accept the Lord Jesus, I need to give up on the things I love, which God despises. And I am not ready. So what did I do? I said to God, as they do in basketball, time out.

Not ready for you yet. But the problem is, the light moves. This is why scientists can only measure light, cannot measure darkness.

Because darkness does not exist. It's not a creative thing. God created the light, not darkness.

That's why the light can only be measured, darkness cannot, because it is an uncreated thing. So when the light moves, and if we don't catch up with it, if we don't move with it, we'll remain in darkness. And what is darkness? The absence of light.

The light passed me by and said hello. I didn't say hello back, he moved on. He continued moving.

And as the light moved, I stopped. I did not follow the light. When I stopped, the light passed me by.

When the light left, what was remaining? Darkness. Darkness. I heard the voice saying to me, come to church.

And then another voice called me and said, you want to go out? Let's talk our language. There's a lot of depth in theology in these passages, but I don't want to speak to you theologically. So the other voice said to me, let's go out.

One voice said, come to the church. The other one said, let's go to the club. One voice said to me, let's go to Christ.

The other one said, let's go to Satan. One voice said to me, let's go uptown. The other one said, let's go downtown.

Whichever voice I chose to follow, that's where I will end up being. I choose the voice that leads to light, I will live in the light. And if I choose the voice that leads to darkness, do not be shocked.

Why are you in darkness? This is what you chose, my dear son, my dear daughter. Do not be shocked. And then when we ended up in darkness, we came back and blamed God.

Why did you do this to me? Amazing. Amazing. The light came into the world.

Men, people of the world chose darkness over the light because their deeds were evil. Christ is the light of the world. And what is this light? Life.

What is this light? Life. Now, since light is life, then what is darkness? Death. And what is death, biblically speaking? Separation from God.

You see, when the spirit separates the body, that's called transition. It's not death, departure. And who departs? The living, not the dead.

The dead cannot depart, meaning cannot travel. Who travels? Those who are living. Who goes to the airport? The living ones, not the dead ones.

So when you're traveling, what are you doing? You are departing from one place to another. When the spirit leaves the body, that is departure. You are alive, you're not dead.

So those who think, those souls who left this world into the next and refer to them as dead, excuse me, who travels? The dead or the living? Habibi, do you know who is the dead one? The ones who are remaining on earth, they are the dead ones. The one who left are the living ones. You know why? Because the one who left will sin no more.

And the wages of sin is death. So who is sinning? The one who is remaining on earth, still living in this flesh. But what is the true death? When the spirit departs from God, separates from God.

Now this is the eternal death. Light came into the world and the people of the world chose darkness over the light because their deeds were of evil origin. When they chose darkness, they chose death over life.

Now, what is light, biblically speaking? Knowledge. What is light, biblically speaking? Knowledge. The Lord says, the eye is the lamp to the body.

And when you read throughout the Holy Bible and more so in Genesis, talks about the cherubims which are the highest rank in the angelic order, the highest rank in the angelic order, the cherubims are full of eyes inside and out, inwardly and outwardly. The eye in the Bible represents knowledge and the eye is the light to this body. Therefore, light represents knowledge.

So life, in order to be gained, first we need to know. In John 17.3, the Lord Jesus is talking. John 17.3, the Lord says, And this is the eternal life, that they may know you, that you are God alone and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

So how do we gain eternal life? By knowing God and Jesus Christ of Nazareth. So in order to gain life, I need to know. And in order to gain death, I also need to know.

You see, there is one kind of knowledge that leads to death and one kind of knowledge that leads to life. It is up to us which kind of knowledge we choose to accept. The knowledge of the world definitely leads to darkness.

And darkness is death, evil. Where will we end up with Satan in hell? Total separation from the Almighty God. This is eternal death.

And there is another knowledge to get to know God and Jesus Christ who was sent by God the Father. When you come to know Jesus Christ, you are coming to know the light of the world. Because He is the light of the world.

So when you come to know the Lord Jesus, that will lead you to His light. Because light is knowledge. Getting to know Him is light.

That knowledge is light. When you walk in the light, you are walking in eternal life. And this is what I'm trying to get to.

When you come to know the Lord Jesus, once you get to know Him, you will do one thing only. Love Him. You will fall in love with Him.

That's why John the Baptist is talking about the groom. Not any love. Eros love.

Intimate matrimonial love. Now why? Please pay attention. Why? When it came to knowing God, John the Baptist spoke about the Lord Jesus as the heavenly groom.

Why? He said, go and meet the groom. Why? You know why. Because the only place, the only place, the only place where the two become one is in marriage.

Is in marriage. Where the two become one is in marriage. When you get married, you go crazy.

Some will agree. Some will say, not sure. By the way, my intention is good.

I don't mean anything bad. But you will go crazy. On a human level, you'll go crazy in good ways and in bad ways.

I'll tell you how you go crazy when you get married. Poor mom and dad. When I say mom, I mean parents.

Mom, dad, same. God bless every mom and every dad. You know, parents, they sacrifice so long and so hard to raise their children.

And whether it's the mother or the father, the mom will come and says, my daughter, my son, please do this for me. My son, do this for me. They gave their life for their son.

They sacrificed all their life raising their son. Son now is an adult, mature adult. For the son to do one little things for mom or dad, all hell breaks loose.

I will jump up and down, right and left. Go there, go there, everywhere. Old McDonald's had a farm.

So I'll go everywhere begging everyone. And my son, please, I beg you. I scream, no use.

I spoke nicely, no use. I cried, no use. I was angry, no use.

I tried everything under the sun. By the time he just picked up one little thing and done it for me, I started having white hairs. This man meets this girl.

One phone call. Come here. Before she finishes, come here.

He is there. The mother is looking at the son. Ya Rabb urham.

Lord have mercy. Is this the same man that I've raised all my life? Son, I'm your mother. I'm your father.

I've been begging you for 25 years, for 30 years to do one thing. You gave me nothing but mischief, heartaches and headaches. This girl came the other day.

She got you ready. She took you ready. I've done the hard work.

She came easy way. She took you and you ran like crazy for her. Why didn't you do that for mom? He will say, Mom, because the way I love you is not the way I love her.

When you fall in love, you will act crazy. You will talk crazy. The language of love.

So when you haven't fallen in love with Christ, you will not understand the language of love. When the two become one. So when someone else has fallen in love with Christ and talks, you will not understand that language because you haven't fallen in love with Him as yet.

So to you, you will see it out of the line, offensive. But to the one who is in love with the Lord, it's the core of that relationship. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

If they think they are someone or something special. May the Lord have mercy. You know, when you fall in love, you will say things you've never said before.

And you will do things you've never done before. And let me tell you one thing about God when He is all love. When He came to create the human being.

Everything He created with a word. But when He came to create us, He didn't do that. He said, let there be light and there was.

With a word He created. But when He came to creating us, He said, let us go down and make man in our image according to our likeness. What did God make Adam out of? Mud.

The word Adam in the Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac language, the original text, means red mud. Literally. Dam in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac means blood.

Red mud. So when God came to creating Adam, the first creation of the human race, He put His hands in the mud. Now my question is, who puts their hand in the mud? Little kids.

But the problem is, little kids, that's all they know. They don't know any better. You tell them, don't play in the mud, they go and jump in the mud and make all their clothes which mom just bought them and changed them and clothed them with clean clothing.

They just destroyed it all. Kids play in the mud because that's all they know. But God is the source of wisdom.

God is the source of wisdom. God is the almighty. How come God you put your hands in the mud to make us? He said, when you love, you'll do crazy things.

Even God did something out of the ordinary. Because I love you more than me. I acted like a little kid, yet I am the source of wisdom.

Wow. Wow. A grown up man, an adult man, acts like a little kid in front of his wife.

And an adult woman, acts like a little child in front of her husband. Because it's love. It's love.

Pray, my dear friend, for the Lord to bring you into His intimate, matrimonial, bond, love. You need to enter that love and fall in love with Christ, my dear friend, to understand the language of love. Your Ph.D. won't even get you Fairfield, Nita City.

So stop acting like a fool. Be a grown up. I think that went home, did it? My beloveds, the Lord came to give us that ultimate opportunity to know Him.

God, the invisible one, the unreachable one, the one that you can never comprehend, came to give you that golden opportunity once in a lifetime, once in existence, to get to know the God that is never able to be known. That's why He became a man like us. This man that came over 2,000 years ago is the light of the world.

God revealed in the flesh. He came to give me that opportunity to know Him. Because the only way to gain eternal life, John 17, verse 3, is to know God and Jesus Christ.

And the only way to know God is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. So if any religious leader, no matter what kind of a caliber they hold, any religious leader that comes and says, you can get to know God outside of Jesus Christ, is the son of a snake.

Yes? There is no way to God except Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Period, period, period. No one, no one, no one.

And if any religious leader tells you that you can get to know God outside of Jesus Christ, is a liar and the son of the liars of all. Enough of this hypocrisy. Enough of this cowardness.

Selling your master worse than Judas Iscariot you are. I love everyone, but I will not compromise over my Jesus Christ. Not.

Not. He is the only way. Whether you are a Christian or not, He is the only way.

You will find out, my dear friend, sooner or later. Believe me, I'm talking to you with love and respect. The Lord took me to the other side.

There is no one but Jesus Christ of Nazareth. No one. If you think Buddha is going to get you there, you're mistaken.

If you think Mohammed is going to get you there, you're mistaken. If you think Krishna and over three million gods of in the Hinduism belief, you are mistaken. The cow will not get you to heaven.

It is the Lord. His name is Yeshua. Yeshua.

Jesus. Jesus Christos. Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The only one. And the only way. The light came to the world.

To give the world the chance to get to know the light. But when you get to know the light, you fall in love with Him. Because we've always said this, what leads to love is knowledge.

What leads to love is knowledge. What leads to love is knowledge. You cannot claim to love someone you do not know.

You can only love the one you came to know. So first you need to know the person in order to be able to love the person. But you see in today's gospel, but those who do the truth, who do good deeds, they love the light, they come to the light for their deeds to be seen that they are done by God in them.

So the good deeds, where are they from? God. So when anyone of us does a good deed, remember it's not you, it is the Lord Jesus who dwells in you, made you do the good deed. Without the Lord, I am the most poisonous, the ugliest, the worst of all, without the Lord.

But when the Lord overtakes the heart, you see me, a nice person. I'm not. It is the Lord who is good, not me.

So when I went and greeted someone, it was the Lord in me who greeted that someone. The Lord took me to greet that someone. When I was able to forgive someone who has given me nothing but hell, it was the Lord who did it in me.

Every good deed comes from the good God. But those who do the good deeds, love the light, and they come to the light so their deeds are revealed before the whole world that they are done by God in them. So there is work, deed.

I need to know someone in order to love them. And when I love them, I'll do all the things that make them happy. You see? Why don't you want to go to church? Because you still haven't loved the Lord enough to do the deed that makes Jesus happy.

That's why you're not going to church. Stop finding excuses. I don't have the time.

No, no, no, no. How come when you fell in love with that girl, you dropped everything for her? Stop finding excuses. Please, be a man, even if you're a girl and that's not a GLBT, LGBT, whatever it is.

GLBT. And maybe we change it from LGBT to GLBT, BBC, KFC. I love those people, but I can never acknowledge and accept their way of living.

But I love them, I pray for them. It's very simple, man. No hard feelings.

Nothing personal, my dear friend. I'll always pray for you to come back to the Lord Jesus, repent and receive the Lord as Lord and Savior. But for me to accept it and say it's okay like some so-called churches, den of thieves, shame on you.

To wave their whatever flag it is, I will never call you a church. Satan, be gone. The 21st century language, get lost.

Knowledge leads to love. And what does love do? Give you life. What is hell? Hell is a place where love does not exist or is absent.

Can I live or taste hell on earth? Yes. Live a life that has no love in it. That is hell.

And I'm sure some of us, along the way, we have had a small glimpse and a small taste of what hell is about. When I came at a certain time frame in my life where love was absent, nobody wanted to love me, everybody was against me. How was I living? Ask yourself, wasn't it hell? Yes.

Why? Because love was absent. Were you dead? No, I was still living. I'm not dead.

But why was it hell? Because what makes life, life, is love. The absence of love is hell. And what is hell? No life.

What's the point living where love is absent? I'm dead. There is no life. See, the world is missing love.

That's why they try frantically to live but they are ending up killing, destroying themselves. When a young man or a woman, my son, my beloved son and my beloved daughter, I love you, but the Lord loves you the most. I was a teenager like you.

I was a youngster like you. Before I became Santa Claus, I was one of you. One day I was 14, I was 15, I was 18, I was 19, 20, 21, 24, 28.

Trust me. No use. So we try to explore things.

We try to go and experience it for ourselves. Discover it for ourselves. What do we do at the end? Destroy ourselves.

Hurt ourselves. Fear of the road. And we find ourselves somewhere very dark, ugly, not knowing what to do next.

We need to choose to come to know the light of the world. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. All glory to His holy and mighty name.

And when we come to know Him, we fall in love with Him. When you fall in love with Him, that love gives you life. And when you are alive, then you are able to do good deeds.

A dead person cannot work, only the living one. Now, when it comes to work or doing something, two things are required. Love and will.

W-I-L-L Love and will. Why? Because I'll never do something I don't love. And I'll never be able to choose something unless there is a will.

So the will is to choose it, the love is to do it. Yes? I chose it willingly, I did it lovingly. So when you get to know the Lord Jesus, you love Him.

And when you love Him, you'll do all the things that make Him happy. Just like the husband does all the things that makes his wife happy, the wife never does anything. Just kidding.

Even the bishops sometimes are naughty. But you have no choice, you're living in the western world, you have to do everything for your wife. Otherwise, you will not sleep at home.

Go to mama. But when you love, truly you love someone, you will go out of your way. You will act in a way the world will see you as if you are out of your mind, as if you are crazy, you have lost it.

Yes, because the world do not understand the language of love. When you become one with your sweetheart, matrimonial bond, Christ is the groom for heaven's sake. And the church is his bride.

Christians are the church. When we come to Christ, we must remember we are united to him by the precious blood, which he shed on Calvary and made us one in him. Because this is matrimonial bond between Christ the man, church, the bride, the woman.

We became one. The only one who will understand the language of this love is when he becomes one with Christ. If you haven't yet, even if you are a Christian, even if you are a church leader, if you haven't fallen in love with Christ, if you haven't become united with him, giving your life to him, you will not understand the language of Eros, intimate language, intimate love.

You will never understand it. Even if you are a Christian. So what? You were baptized.

So what? You received a rank in the church. So what? If you haven't put your head under the sandals of Jesus Christ, you will never understand the groom, the heavenly groom. You will not.

You will be talking out of your empty head, being boastful, taking pride in your certificate called PhD in Theology. What a joke. So many educated church leaders, look at the church, live... It is in turmoil.

Where is your PhD, church leader? What have you done with it? The church is in ruin. Satan is playing with you like a soccer ball. Because you are not united with the heavenly groom.

You spoke about him, but you are a total stranger to him. It is not he who says, Lord, Lord. It is the one who does, doing.

When are we going to do the will of the Lord's Father, Jesus Christ's Father? When are we going to do his will? When we fall in love with the Lord. Because then and then only, when I'm in love with the Lord, then I'll do everything that makes him happy. It is not he who says, talk is cheap.

I want to see action. Talk is cheap. When you love Jesus Christ of Nazareth from the heart, it is then and then only, God can do all the good things in you, so that you may shine before the whole world.

And let this world who lives in darkness come to this light and glorify not me, but your Father who art in heaven. Father. It is not he who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

It is the one who does the will of my Father. I want to see people doing, not talking. The church today, majority only talk.

Very few do things for the Lord. All talk into thin air. Vanity of all vanities.

Empty. Eloquent speech is no power in them. They keep on talking, the living become dead.

Before, one word was spoken, the dead became living. We have filled the air with noise pollution. Every channel, Jesus, Jesus.

Every way, Jesus, Jesus. And everybody is being lost. What's going on? Talk.

Galahs. Cockatoos. They just repeat, allow, allow.

They just learned. You know, copy. They went, they got brainwashed.

What does he know about love? I don't know. Have you tasted this love? No. Have you lived this love? No.

Have you asked the Lord to give you this love? No, no, no. I just learned it and I'm just repeating it. Like that birdie.

Birdie, birdie. Maybe even that bird, when he learned saying a few words, he thought he graduated from university. We'll give him a certificate.

Honestly, I'm laughing out of sadness and hurt. The church has reached a level never should have. Never.

Because we did not want to be one with Christ. Because to be one with Christ, you need to give up on a lot of worldly things. And we're not ready yet.

Come to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm weak. I cannot do it. I've tried.

The more I tried, I failed. The more I tried to come closer, I kept my distance. I went the opposite direction.

Lord, just like St. Paul is saying it to his epistles, in his epistles to the Romans. The things which I wanted to do, never did. And the things which I never wanted to do, them I did.

Who's going to come and save me from this body of death? You thank God for Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It's the Lord Jesus who came to my rescue. So say, Lord, I can't do it.

I tried it. I failed. The more I tried, the more I failed miserably.

Today, I surrender and I'll say, no more me. You do as you wish in me. I give you my whole life.

From head to toe, inside and out. You shape me, form me, mold me, according to your divine will. Make me live for you, Lord Jesus.

Make me live for you, Lord. I came to know you because it is only through knowing you I have the chance to loving you. And I want to love you.

Because you are worthy of every love I give you. Because you are love. You created me on the basis of love.

You created me You saved me and redeemed me on the basis of love. And today I'm coming back for a return of that love to the one who is love. I'm saying, I love you too, Lord.

And I'm coming back to give you my heart. And I ask you, give me your heart and let that heart be united in you. And become one with the sacred heart of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And then when you love the Lord the natural instinct you'll start doing the things that put smile on his face. It's natural. So the Lord says, you want me to be happy? Yes, Lord.

Forgive the one who's been stabbing you in the back all these years. Lord, in your name I forgive them. I've got nothing in my heart but love and forgiveness for them.

And I wish them nothing but the best. From the bottom of my heart. And I can't lie to you, Lord, because you're God.

You know every heart. You know every mind. You know every soul.

You know every being. I can't lie. So therefore, I'm standing in this holy of holies and I'm confessing, Lord, from the bottom of my heart, I love, forgive the ones who hurt Bishop Murray every day.

I love them. And I'm ready to put the prawns on the barbie. And I'm ready to take you to Maccas, bro.

And I get you a fish burger and a chocolate sundae. And I say to you, Gucci, Gucci. Was that the obstacle, Gucci, Gucci one? Okay.

Honestly, it takes much more energy and effort to do bad things than to do good things. Why are you doing bad things? That's naughty. It takes so much out of me to say, I hate something or someone.

But it's so easy to say, I love you. Look, it's so natural. No energy.

What kind of a brain is that, man? Why are you wasting your time, your life, your energy on bad things? Too good. Let the Lord take over you. Let the Lord.

Just let go of you. Let Him take over. It'll be so easy.

Take things easy. Focus on the Lord. Not on what people say or do to you.

Focus on the Lord. Leave everything in the Lord's capable hands. Get to know the Lord.

Ask Him to help you to get to know Him. Because the more you know Him, the more you will love Him. The more you love Him, then everything outside of the Lord means nothing.

Matters not. The world loves me. The world hates me.

This guy is against me. This guy is not. Who cares? I'm not here for people.

I'm here for the Lord. It's very simple. Trust me.

I mean, trust the Lord, but trust me. It's very simple. Just focus on the Lord.

Do not focus on what people say or the way they behave toward you. Just leave everything to the Lord.