Love, Mercy, and the Scales of the Spirit

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. May the Almighty Jesus Christ of Nazareth bless you, guide you, protect you, and deliver you from the snares of the enemy, whether it be visible or invisible. In Jesus' mighty name we pray, Amen.

As we are all gathered here in this holy church in the presence of the Almighty God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and we're celebrating the Holy Mass service, the liturgical service, the body and the blood of Christ, and the truth, we pray, my beloved, that the Lord have mercy on His beloved church, on His beloved church and on the entire world. We pray for peace, we pray for tranquility, we pray for calmness, we pray for the ocean of the world to be always calm and not chaotic. We don't want tidal waves coming.

We want to be serene and tranquil, my beloved. We pray for the Lord to have mercy on all of us. The gospel of today is, according to Saint Luke, and it's chapter 6 and verses 12 to 46 inclusive.

It is Luke chapter 6 and verses 12 to 46 inclusive. 35 verses. I don't have the time to go through them all in 10 hours, maybe in five minutes, but not in 10 hours.

So, to sum up what the Lord is saying today in His holy gospel, His message to every single human being and more so to those who have received Him as Lord and Saviour. In other words, for every soul that calls themselves Christians. My beloved, today's message, the Lord is saying to all of us there are three kind of scales in this realm.

While we are living in the flesh, in this world, in this temporal world, there are three kind of scales placed before us. And it is up to us to choose which scale we choose for ourselves to be in and weighed in. The first scale is the scale of Satan.

The second scale is the scale of humanity. The third scale is the scale of Christ, the King. The scale of Satan is one thing, hatred.

The scale of Satan is division. The scale of Satan is destruction. The scale of Satan is killing.

The scale of Satan is bloodshed. The Lord Jesus, when He spoke about Satan, He said, He is the father of all lies. He is the one who killed the human race from day one.

He was the reason for Edmund Eve to be cast out from the Garden of Eden, i.e. from the presence of the Lord God. If you wish to be placed in that scale, if you wish to choose that scale for yourself, then your end is evil, total destruction, eternal condemnation, and eternal death. And there is the scale of humanity, the entire human race, the physical realm, the law of physics, and that is the law of the Old Testament.

And until this very day, our beloved the Jews and the Muslims follow this law. And what is this law? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And the law of physics, for every action there is a reaction, equal in force, opposite in direction.

In the biblical terminology, love the one who loves you and hate the one who hates you. This is the law of the Old Testament, and this is the law of the natural realm. This is the law of physics.

This is the law of a human being that is living in the natural realm in a physical way. Physically speaking, naturally speaking, we are only capable of loving the ones who love us and hating the ones who hate us. This is only normal to be expected.

And this is the ultimate any human being, I'm not talking about Christians, any human being that is capable of the ultimate they can do in the naturalistic realm, in the physical human nature realm, they can only achieve loving the ones they love them and hating the ones they hate them. They can't do any more than that. If we follow Satan's scale, we'll end up in absolute destruction and eternal death.

If we follow the humanity scale or the Old Testament law, which is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, where will this lead us to? We will be paid by people, not by God. So when I love the one who loves me, I've been rewarded by those people. And if I hate the ones who hate me, I am also paid back by those people.

I have been rewarded by human beings. There is no reward left for me to be paid by God to me, because I'm already paid. Because I chose the scale where my payment is received from people, not from God.

Because I loved the ones who loved me and I hated the ones who hated me. This kind of a reward will remain in this realm only. It will not go outside of this realm.

And it will end up, since it belongs to this realm, the end result of this kind of a reward will be the grave. Because every human being at the end must die. No matter how much it is prolonged, but at the end we have to leave.

So whatever I've achieved in this world, in the natural way, the end death will take everything away from me. Therefore I came to this world empty-handed, I will leave it empty-handed. If you place yourself in the humanity scale or the old testament law, you will leave this world the same exact way you entered it.

You came with nothing, you live with nothing, see you later alligator. Achieved nothing. So all the hard work, and I'm not saying people, they always steal to be successful.

No, some people have worked extremely hard to gain that success. They have put every effort under the sun to be successful. But unfortunately they chose the scale of the natural realm which gave them the grave, nothing.

You take nothing with you, what a shame. But the Lord says there is another scale that is the scale of Christ. If you place yourself in this scale, your reward will never be from no human being, only from God.

Your reward will never be from any human being, it will be only from God. And this reward is eternal life, you will never die. The only way I can say this house is mine if I never die.

If I claim that this house is mine and I am a walking corpse, I am a dead walking being, then I am lying when I say the house is mine. Since I am dead, the house can never be mine. Can never.

One day the Lord Jesus was walking. Two brothers, biological brothers, came to the Lord Jesus arguing with one another and then they said to the Lord, can you please judge between us because my brother does not wish to give me this piece of land. This block of land is mine and my brother says no, it is mine, it is not yours.

And we've been arguing whose it is, this piece of block. So since we're not listening to each other, can you please judge between us? And the Lord replied and said, who made me a judge between you two? So sad, my beloved children, so sad fighting over a piece of land, fighting over materialism, fighting over things that are of this physical realm, not realizing. I just wonder, have you given it a deep thought, dear brothers? If you had thought about it really from the bottom of your heart, if you thought about it fairly and squarely, you wouldn't have come to me asking me to judge between the two of you because you would have come to this truth, to this reality, to this realization that this piece of land is neither this brother's nor the other.

It is nothing but a grave for both of you because the very land which you are chasing to gain will be the very land that will swallow both of you in that grave. What are you fighting for? What are you fighting for? It is all vanity, of all vanities. Chasing the mirage, thinking it is water, stop it.

There is no water. You better chase the real, the true water. I am the living water, that if you drink me, you'll never thirst again.

You drink from this well, you will thirst over and over and over again because this well, you dig the water from below, but my well, the water doesn't come from below, comes from above. You place yourself in my scale. I, Christ the King, you have eternal life.

You will never die. And the one who never dies is the only one who can claim possession. But there is a condition to this scale in order to qualify to be in it.

What is the condition, Lord? My scale never says, love the ones who love you and hate the ones who hate you. My scale, I, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, says, love the ones who hate you. Love your enemy.

Be good to those who are bad to you. Lend to those who can never pay you back because don't wait for them to pay you back. Your reward is from your heavenly Father, not from humanity.

Therefore, when you place yourself truly in my scale, whatever people do unto you is totally beside the point. Whether people are good to you or bad to you, beside the point. Whether people love you or hate you, beside the point.

Whether people are nice or nasty to you, beside the point. Because once you placed yourself in my scale, what influences you and what moves you and motivates you is God, not people. You are only influenced by what God does toward you, not what people do unto you.

And this is the way to gain eternal life. We worry too much about what we eat, what we drink, and what we dress, and where we go, and where we come from. But we never worry too much about where I am in relation to Christ.

With love and humility, I say this to every father and mother whom I love and respect for one reason, because God loves you and respects you, Asperes. Amazing how God is. When he gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, he did not say, respect the Pope for me to bless you and give you a long life.

He did not say, respect the Patriarch so that I can bless you and give you a long life. He did not say, respect the Bishop so I can bless you and give you a long life. He said, respect your father and mother.

Because it is not out of Popes good parents come, but out of good parents, good leaders of the church come. So the foundation to that successful Pope are the parents. To that Bishop are the parents.

To that church leader are the parents. They are the roots. They are the foundation to those good, loyal leaders.

Parents. But I say this with love and humility to every mom and every dad. God bless you all.

And especially the mother, because she is the more sensitive side. Sorry dad. See, mothers are driven by feelings and emotions.

Dads are driven by logic. One plus one, dad will say equals two. But one plus one, mom will say equals four, because this is how I feel about it.

And if you keep on arguing, you are arguing a lost case, my dear son. Just give in so you can have a heavenly life on earth, otherwise you will end up in hell if you continue arguing. So every time the mother switches into that mode of argumentative approach, say, honey, you are always right, please.

I am innocent. But I say, mom, my dear mother, if you put your baby or your son, your daughter to sleep, and when you put them to sleep, after that, you've realized you forgot to feed them. You will run and wake them up and say, sorry, mama, I forgot to feed you my honey.

How could I put you to sleep hungry? I have to wake you up to feed you, then put you to sleep. But dear mother, would you do the same if you put your child to sleep, forgetting to giving them the spiritual food, the word of the Lord Jesus? Would you run to your child and say, wake up, I forgot to read the Bible to you before putting you to sleep. Wake up, my son, my daughter, you need to hear the word of the Lord before you go to sleep.

You won't do that. How focused are we on the Lord? That's what it all comes down to. See, the Lord Jesus is not about giving him service.

Please, we need to grow up in our spiritual life. It's not about I come and give a sermon for 10 hours. It's not about I come and I sing a song for 10 hours.

It's not about I come to the church every single day, attending church services every single day throughout the year. It's not about that. It is about how focused are you on the Lord.

Because my beloved, I'll tell you this, you may go all your life to church, but someone will come with one second, he'll get the heaven of all heaven's attention. Yet you've been trying all your life and you haven't even got there yet. Because the Lord seeks the ones who are focused and fixated on him.

When you come about to eat, do you remember those who are hungry? When you come about to drink, do you remember those who are thirsty? When you come about to put your clothes on and cover yourself, do you remember those who are naked? When you come to go out of the house freely and come into the house freely, do you remember those who are imprisoned? When you are able to go and come, drive, travel around, do you remember those who are sick, bedridden, unable to go anywhere? Do you? Mother Teresa in the streets of Calcutta, serving the Indian lepers and she's a foreigner to that country. She's a foreigner. She's not Indian.

A foreigner serving Indian lepers, yet Indians not getting anywhere near their own Indian lepers, but a stranger serving the Indians. One day this journalist came and approached Mother Teresa and he said, mother why are you serving this Indian leper? Why are you touching him? Aren't you afraid? She said, my son if I ask you this, if I give you a million dollars and I ask you to wash, change, feed this Indian leper for a million dollars for one hour, would you do it? No. Yet we do it day in day out for free voluntarily and you still don't know why I'm doing it voluntarily for free? He said, mother I don't.

That's why I'm asking. She said, my son I am not serving this Indian leper. I am serving my master Jesus Christ who is in this Indian leper.

Isn't my Lord worthy of my voluntarily service? The Lord died for me to purchase me with his own precious blood. What is it if I serve him? No matter what I do for the Lord, it is never enough for what he has done for me. I am indebted to him for eternities.

Now that is a focused person on the Lord Jesus. I am serving my master. There was this priest every time he went to visit somebody in hospital before walking into that ward, he would take his shoes off and walk into the ward barefooted.

The people who accompanied him to the hospital once, twice, ten times, hundred times, seeing him doing the same thing without fail, they didn't know what he was doing. So one day they said, we'll ask him, why are you taking your shoes before walking into that ward? So they asked him one day, father, why do you take your shoes off before walking into the ward? He said, don't you know my children, what did the Lord Jesus say? I was sick and you visited me. I'm not visiting this person.

I'm visiting my Lord who dwells in this person. Because the Lord said, he said, I was sick, not so and so sick. I was sick and you visited me.

So when I come to visit, I take the shoes off because wherever my Lord is, the ground is holy. Like he said to Moses, take your shoes off of your feet because the ground you're standing on is holy. This is my Lord.

Now this is a focused person, my beloved. This is a focused person. Love your enemy.

Do good to those who do bad or evil to you. Lend to those who can't pay you back for your reward will be from your Lord Jesus Christ. This is my scale.

But this scale will lead you to eternal life where you will never die. And since you will never die ever, then you can claim this is your property. The kingdom of God is your property, is your inheritance.

Be merciful like your father who art in heaven is merciful. Do not judge lest you be judged. Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye yet you fail to see the log in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye and you don't take the log out of your own eye? First I say, remove the log from your own eye for you to see clearly, to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Do not judge lest you be judged. Do you know when people judge? When they haven't realized as yet that they have been broken by Jesus Christ of Nazareth. See when the Lord Jesus breaks anyone of us, we come to this realization.

If there is anyone a sinner is me. If there is anyone and nothing is me. If there is anyone that is hopeless, useless, blind, good for nothing is me.

When the Lord corners me and breaks me, he makes me see myself in the truth through his own eyes. He shows me what kind of a person I am and what I am capable of. I'll realize when the Lord breaks me, I'll realize that I am the weakest of all and the least of all.

When I come to this realization that I am the weakest and the least of all, the last thing I will do, judge others. And if any time I come to judge, it will be definitely judging my own self but no one else. I'll leave you with this.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Two things, remember my beloved sons and daughters. Two things, one is love and one is sin.

When it comes to sin, put yourself first and when it comes to love, put yourself last. Because my beloved, when it comes to sin, if you put yourself last, you will say to everyone our sinners except you. But when you put yourself first when it comes to sin, you will say and all the sinners whom I am the number one.

I'm the number one sinner. You'll put yourself first. When you put yourself first in relation to sin, you will never judge anyone but yourself.

But when it comes to love, put yourself last because if you put yourself first, you'll expect everyone to love you but you loving them back. When you put yourself last, you'll say I have to initiate the process of love. I will not wait for my brother to love me.

I'll go and say to him I love you. I will not wait for my wife to come and say sorry for what I've done. I love you.

Before she says sorry, I'll run and I'll say darling I love you and I am sorry for what happened. When you run for love being last and therefore you are putting everyone first, this verse will apply in your life where no one can go against you. Love never fails.

You'll never fail in life because love never fails. The scale of Christ is love where I am last. And Lord you are first.

When you do that, no matter how people react toward you, you're fine. People love you. Thank you.

People hate you. Oh hallelujah. Thank you.

Thank you. But if you're still living for yourself, nobody wants to be hated. I'll retaliate.

How dare you? You think you are to say this to me or do this to me? You punch me once, I'll punch you 10 times. You see, to gain eternal life is not easy. We need to sacrifice.

The ultimate sacrifice, which is a struggle with the human race in general, is to let go of one's self. That's the ultimate struggle. How could I let go of myself? Like so and so wiped the ground with me.

He humiliated me in front of others. I'm gonna go and shred them. No habibi.

Send them tabbouleh baba ghanoush. Don't worry. Or send them some nice Italian pizza.

Be merciful because you'll be imitating your heavenly father. Be merciful. Merciful meaning loving those who don't love you.

Loving those who are giving you nothing but pain. Forgiving those who are hurting you. That is called mercy.

Don't ever think this is weakness. Don't ever think this is failure. No, you're imitating Christ.

Has anyone won against Christ? None. Yet he was merciful and forgiving. All perished.

Christ endures forever because he did the will of his heavenly father. Amen. Be strong.

Be happy in the Lord. Rejoicing in the Lord. You're going through some some rough seas today.

It's okay. Thank the Lord. You're going through some obstacles in your life.

Thank the Lord. You're going through some challenges in your life. Thank the Lord.

It's not happening the way you planned it to be. Thank the Lord. You wanted to marry Rachel.

You ended up marrying Elizabeth. Thank the Lord. Or maybe Stella for that case.

Thank the Lord. Brother. Thank the Lord.

Maybe Stella was your portion. I don't know. Ask the Lord and thank him for it.

You need to be grateful. You need to be thankful. You need to be humble.

In Arabic, there is a saying. Those who understand Arabic here and those who are watching us. Contentment is a treasure never ending, never ceasing.

Contentment is a treasure never ceasing. When you're content, your treasure will never cease. Thank the Lord for what he has done for you and what he has given you.

The more you thank him, the more he will do. But he will do it his way, not your way. And his way is the only way that you could ever wish for it to happen.

Because his way is the only truth. His way is the only way. His way is the everlasting life.

Because he is the only way. There is no other way but the Lord Jesus. Let us bow our heads.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God, Amen. 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 have mercy on us all, forgive us, and make us worthy to come forth and receive him in the true body and the true blood of Christ the King. Amen.