The Blind Man

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, amen. Our beloved fathers, deacons, nuns, and our beloved faithfuls, both who are present in this holy church, and those who are watching us through live streaming, may the almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in nature and one in essence, 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. Our beloveds, the gospel of today's holy mass service is from the gospel according to St. John, and chapter 9, verses 1 to 38, inclusive.

John chapter 9, verses 1 to 38, inclusive. The message for today is about that blind man that was born blind, with no eyes from the mother's womb. To understand what the Lord is really saying here, we need just to see prior to this event, this blind man.

In chapter 8, towards the end of it, the Lord Jesus is actually entering into some sort of a dialect with the priests and the Pharisees in the temple. And he was trying to explain to them that he is sent by his heavenly father. And he says, if I honor myself, that honor is nothing, it is my father who honors me.

And he goes on and says, your father Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced in it. Then they replied and said, you're not even 50 years of age, by the looks of it you're around 30. So you haven't even reached the age of 50, when did our father Abraham see your day? Because Abraham is 2,000 years before you.

And then the Lord gives them the pivotal answer that really got them ticked. And he said, before Abraham, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Abraham, past tense.

Jesus Christ, the ever continuous present tense. I am that I am. And to the priest, to the Israelite nation, I am is Yahweh, God the provider of everything.

I am that I am. So the word I am means Yahweh, means God. So when they heard him saying that he is God, they got really agitated.

They took stones to stone him. And then chapter 8 finishes with the following words. And the Lord Jesus hid himself and he went through them without them seeing him.

But he was in the temple right before your very eyes. Talking to you, answering you, and telling you that he is God. How come all of a sudden you didn't see him walking through you? And coming out of the temple right in the midst of all of you.

You know why? Because they went blind. Those who claimed to see became blind. The Lord walked out of the temple and onto this little alley.

And as he walks, he meets a man blind from birth. And then the Lord stops. The disciples ask him, Lord, whose sin was it for this man to be born blind? Was it his parents or was it his own? Because to the Jewish people, when they see somebody sick, when they see somebody blind, they take it, it is the wrath of God.

Looks like this man is so much of a sinner that God has punished him. That's why he was born blind. And to their shocking surprise, the Lord Jesus answers and says, It is neither his parents' sin nor his own, but this man is put here for the glory of God.

For the glory of God. Well, if it was to do with sin, obviously the Lord Jesus did not mean to say that his parents did not sin, nor he. Because every single human being is a sinner.

But what the Lord was saying, since all humanity are sinners, then this man represents every single human being. All of you are blind. Why are you asking whose sin was it for this man to be born blind? Are you trying to say that he or his parents are sinners and you are not? No, all of you are this blind man.

Sin has blinded you. Sin has blinded you. And I came to give you that eyesight, that light to see once again.

So this man has been put here for the glory of God. Then the Lord spat on the ground and he made a clay out of that spiral and anointed the blind man's eyes with that clay, with that mud. And then he said to him, Go and wash your face in that pond of Silom or in the proper pronunciation, because it's a Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac word.

The English pronunciation is pretty close, but it's not very close. Silom is not Silom, it's Shiloha or Shiloha. See, that's how you make it sound when you're a Jewish man or a woman or an Aramaic speaking person or Syriac.

Shiloha or Shiloha, that's the pond. Shiloha in the Hebrew, Aramaic, it means the sent one or the messenger. So that pond that is called Shiloha, the messenger, symbolizes the Lord Himself.

Symbolizes the Lord Himself. I am the messenger from God. I am being sent by my Father.

I and the Father are one. Let someone think that Jesus Christ is a messenger, meaning a prophet. No, He is God.

Be very careful. This man walks, washes his face, regains eyesight. Some say he did not even have eyes.

The Lord created two brand new eyes for him on the spot. The reason why the Lord Jesus sat on the ground and made clay, He was trying to teach everyone at His time and all the time that just like that very God who created Adam, the former creation of God, the former Adam, just like God created Adam out of the clay, well guess what, the same God is me. I created two brand new eyes out of clay as well.

I am God, the creator of all. Adam was created out of clay and I, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, gave this man two brand new eyes with clay. I am the creator.

There is no one else. But let's focus on this for a moment. When the Pharisees brought his parents, said, is this your son and was he truly blind from birth? They said yes.

But then the parents said, he is of age. Ask him who opened his eyes. We don't know.

They said that out of fear. Because the priests and the scribes and the Pharisees said, whoever confesses Jesus Christ will be thrown out of the synagogue. So out of fear they said, he is of age.

Looks like this man, this blind man was an adult, maybe in his forties, maybe in his fifties even. So for him to sit on the wayside as a beggar, for years and years and years, every single person in that town knew him in person. Because they would have passed him by every morning, every afternoon on the way to work and on the way back home.

They would have passed him by seeing him sitting on the side of the road begging. They knew him very, very, very well. The Lord came knowing this man is blind.

He said, well, I will fix your eyesight by making it more blind. I'll make sure if there was one percent chance of seeing, I'm going to block it with this clay, which I made with my spit. So I'll guarantee that you're blind now, 100 percent.

This is how I fix your problem. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Secondly, I will ask you to get up and walk all the way to that pond and wash your face.

The people of that place knew this man very well. They knew he was blind. All of a sudden, after all these long and many years have gone by, he is now of old age, they see him walking with mud all over his face.

My question is, who puts mud on their face? Only those who have mental issues, isn't it? Because they don't know what they're doing. When they saw this man with mud all over his face, they said, he is not only blind now, but he is also a lunatic. He has lost the plot.

Looks like all these many years of pain and suffering got to his head. He lost it. Look at him.

He's gone haywire. He's putting mud now on his face and walking. Guess what? Let's make fun of him.

Some people would have ridiculed him. Some people would have laughed at him. Some people would have made him hear some nasty words.

He did not mind all that. That did not stop him. He continued his journey to the pond, believing in the voice of the one who said to him, go and wash in that pond.

He believed in that word. He believed on that voice, and he followed through, despite all the persecutions, and the troubles, and the issues, and the stabbing along the way. That did not stop him.

Because he believed. The Lord is saying to all of us, how far are you willing to walk the distance for your Jesus Christ? How far are you willing to believe in the word he proclaims to you? And how far are you willing to go for your Lord? Because if you trust in my word, and if you do according to my word, and you follow through, you will be persecuted by your own people. You will encounter a lot of obstacles and tribulations along the way.

Till you wash your face, there is a journey to be made here. There is a distance to be made here. Before the glory comes, there is hardships, there is dark tunnels, there is tribulations, there is persecutions.

Are you willing to walk the distance for your Lord Jesus? Because I say to you my child, if you are in trust of me, and if you walk the distance for me, I can assure you at the end of that walk, God's glory will overshadow you. He did. Nothing stopped him.

Nothing hindered him. People laughed at him, ridiculed him, told him all kind of words, but that did not stop him from continuing the journey to that pond. When he washed his face, he regained his eyesight.

The moment his eyes were opened, his own people cast him out. The moment his eyes were opened, his own people cast him out. They said, we don't want you.

How come when he was blind, no one went against him? How come every day when they passed by him, they probably would have said hello to him, and they were very kind and nice to him. What happened all of a sudden? Jesus Christ of Nazareth shows up there and opens his eyes. The moment the Lord Jesus opened the eyes of this blind man, all the people who were so close to him, all the friends, all the colleagues, all the family members, all of them denied him, went against him.

Even his own parents said, we don't know who opened his eyes. He is mature enough to speak for himself. They were not willing to put themselves in danger for their son's sake.

They denied their son. Why? What happened? Because the Lord Jesus opened his eyes, my beloved. What does opening eyes mean? The Lord says, the light of the body is the eye.

The light in the Holy Bible means knowledge. When this man gained a new knowledge, when this man gained the knowledge of Christ, the King, when this man came to know Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our Lord and Savior, his own family went against him. Do you know why people go against each other? Even at home.

Why is there arguments? Why is there fighting? Why is there disputes? Because there is misunderstanding. Misunderstanding. See, when the Lord Jesus touches your heart, when the Lord Jesus opened your true eye, the spiritual eye, then the physical eye.

You see, the physical eye can be opened if the spiritual eye is closed. We are blind, my beloved. It requires the spiritual eye to be opened in order for all of us to claim that we see.

It is not through the physical eye you see. Even though you see, if the spiritual eye is closed, we are as blind as that man born blind from his mother's womb. And for the spiritual eye to open, it takes God to do so.

No one else. It takes God, my beloved. Only God opens the eyes of the blind man.

When God, who is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, all glory to His holy and mighty name, when He opens our eyes, we change the way we think, we change in the way we think, we change in the way we speak, we change in the way we walk, we change in every aspect of life. Because when God touches you, you are no longer that old person. You are a new creation now.

Everything of the past is dead, is gone. You see, before I used to speak the language of the world, now I speak the language of the Lord. Before I walked in darkness of this world, now I'm walking in the light of the Lord.

Before I used to go to the club, now I'm going to the church. Before I used to swear, now I am praising the Lord. Before I used to take revenge, now I am forgiving those who are hurting me.

When your own family, when the people that know you, when they see this extreme change in you, they will not be able to understand you anymore. Therefore, that not understanding leads to them being against you. Because when you speak a language, they cannot relate to.

They were used to you before. Why? Because you were one of them. You spoke their language.

You behaved like them. You dressed like them. You walked like them.

You lived like them. That's why they loved you. But now that you are living for the Lord, no longer for them, of course they will hate you.

Of course they will hate you. Try it at home. Let's say the family you live in is not so much close to the church.

Not so much close to the Lord Jesus. And you start praying. You start reading the Holy Bible.

You are no longer sitting with them, having a drink and watching footy, and watching Home and Away, and watching whatever is there on channel 7, 9, 10, 11, 24, whatever it is. You change. You start going into your room.

The other family is saying, where are you? You're not sitting with us? You're not mixing with us? We see you praying. We see you reading the Bible. We see you going to church.

Hey, come here. Who do you think you are? Are you trying to be a saint or something? Listen, if you do not act like us, if you do not blend with us, there is the door. Get out of our face.

Are you trying to be Mr. Perfect? Do you think you are the only faithful one? Do you think you are the only one who loves the Lord Jesus? What are you trying to say? We're nothing and you're something special? Then get out of our face. We don't want you anymore in this household. You're causing trouble.

You're causing us discomfort. How dare you deny your own family? What kind of a child are you? What kind of a son or a daughter are you? To deny the very parents who gave their life for you. Wow.

See, they'll come the easy way. And if you don't listen, they'll come the hard way. Because, even though he is my brother, even though she is my sister, even though sometimes he is my dad or my mom, but if the Lord hasn't touched their heart the way He touched mine, they will not understand where I'm coming from.

They will not. And since they don't understand, every time you want to say something, they will block you. And eventually they will say, we don't know you anymore.

Go your way and leave us alone. Or they will grab you and throw you out. He is too much.

He is too much. He is too much for the Lord. Okay, be for the Lord and be for us as well.

Go to the church but come to the club with us as well. Go and sing for the Lord and come and sing I wanna dance with somebody as well. Read the Bible but also talk our language as well, bro.

What happened to you? Do you have a temperature? Have you lost some fuses? Something gone wrong? What happened, bro? We don't recognize you anymore. The moment you get close to the Lord, the closest people to you will misunderstand you. When his own people cast him out, the first person came and revealed himself to him was the Lord Jesus.

No one else. The very one who opened his eyes was the very one who came and showed himself to him. See, when he was still blind, he did not know how Jesus looked.

He only heard the voice. He was not able to see the face. And when he went and washed in that pond and regained his eyesight, the Lord had already gone.

So he never saw the Lord. When the Lord heard that he's been thrown out of the synagogue, the Lord went up to him and he said, Do you believe in the Son of God? He said, Who is he for me to believe, Lord? He said, The one who is speaking to you is the one who opened your eyes. It is I. He bows and says, Lord, I believe in you.

And the Lord is God. The Lord is God. He bows before the Lord.

How much are we willing to give for the Lord Jesus? You see, when you are too attached to people, you will not be able to see the Lord vividly clear. When you are too attached to people, when you rely on people in a very huge way, you will not be able to see the Lord. The Lord says, I am number one because naturally I am.

There is only one God and I am this God. There is none like me. Therefore, naturally, I am the one and the only one.

It is natural for me to be first and last, neither one before me nor another one after me. When you come and try to put anyone before me or anyone after me, you are not giving your entire life to me. You're not believing that I am the only true God.

There are other small gods still in your life. And as long as there are small other gods in your life, looks like you don't need me all the time, then why are you assuming or waiting for me to come if there are other gods in your life? In spirituality, there are levels. You know, just like when you go to school.

In spirituality, there are levels. Just like when you go to school, there's year one, year two, year three, year six, year 12, university, graduation. Imagine somebody has graduated from university and he's talking to someone in year one.

What do you think year one is going to say to the university graduate? The year one student will say to the uni graduate, you're crazy. You're sick. You don't know what you're talking about.

Because the year one, all they know, they are Mr. Know-it-all. And they know everything. And isn't that the case with us? I'm a teenager, don't tell me what to do because I know what I'm doing.

I'm the husband, I know what I'm doing. As the wife, I know what I'm doing. As the mother, I know what I'm doing.

As a father, I know what I'm doing. But let me tell you, the levels to Jesus Christ, it is never ending. The spiritual level to the Lord Jesus is a never ending.

So when somebody comes who is right up there in spirituality and I come now and I'm not even at a kindergarten level in spirituality, I will not understand this high stature, this mighty saint. Because I'll say there are no saints. Because I haven't even started in kindergarten and thinking I know it all, I say there are no saints.

But you haven't been to university, you haven't graduated from university for you to say there are saints or there aren't. You know the problem of our time and age, there are plenty of little children who claim to be professors. There are plenty of little children who claim to be professors.

And there are so many professors who act like little children. Because when they say after graduating and having a certificate long as a train, and after all that hard work and studies, I have to give it to them, all that hard work and studies, they come back and say there is no God. You cannot be any greater childish than this.

It takes God to give you insight to His being. It takes God to reveal Himself to you. It takes God to open your eyes and show you things no one, nothing can ever show you.

And to gain the grace of this God, to gain the presence of this God, to gain the mercy of this God, you need to be kept here for the glory of God. You need to be kept here for the glory of God. Oh, I can see you clearly now.

I can see clearly now, the glasses are on. My beloved, he is put here for the glory of God. Ask this of the Lord Jesus, please Lord, allow me to be put here for your glory.

You see, it takes that moment, that special moment in history, where you need to be at the right place at the right moment for Jesus Christ to be passing by. In that perfect moment, God's glory is given unto you. But you know that God's glory did not come over time.

It took decades of suffering for the Lord to give that blind man His glory. As I said, maybe he was 40, maybe he was in his 50s. Only God knows how much he suffered.

Only God knows what his heart was saying all these many years. I am dying just to see the light of this world. I am dying just to see how my dad and my mom look like.

I am dying to see my maybe siblings, maybe cousins, maybe friends, maybe neighbors. I'm dying. I'm dying to see the birds, the trees, the stars, the moon, the sun, the land.

I'm dying. And this would have been eating him alive from within for all these years. We go through these kind of struggles but in different colors.

And we long for something specific to get to, to gain, to achieve. And I'm dying to get there. I'm dying.

And it's eating me alive until I get there. There is no rest, there is no peace, there is no comfort. I am not living until the moment is within my grasp.

I'm dying. I'm dying to get married in order to say I am a divorcee. Nah, I'm just kidding.

I'm dying to be rich. I'm dying to be famous. I'm dying to be wealthy.

I'm dying to be healthy. I'm dying to be a father. I'm dying to be a mother.

I'm dying to be a doctor. I'm dying to be the Pope. I'm dying to be this and that.

We are searching for so many things. We are dying to get somewhere. But the Lord says, He is put here for the glory of God.

Are you dying to receive the glory of God? Where is the Lord? Where is the Lord? See that Pope over there? That picture over there is Pope Cyril of Alexandria. He was the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church. I'm not Coptic.

I love him because he is the child of the Lord Jesus. Not because he's Coptic. So what you're Coptic with all love and respect.

But I will adore you when Christ is your King. Pope Cyril. Made Jesus Christ his Lord and King.

That's why I adore him. He chose to live in a windmill. A deserted windmill for six years in the middle of the desert.

He was a monk. And he was a hermit. He decided to live in that windmill in the middle of the desert.

Vicious animals, thieves, robbers, you name it. For six years and there was no rooftop either. It was collapsed.

Very old. He lived for six years in that windmill. In search of the moment.

To be with the Lord. The Lord came. Took him out of that windmill and out of that desert.

And made him the head of the Coptic Church. Someone that ran away from the world. Ran away from fame.

Ran away from glories. Ran away from everything. Everything he gave up just to gain the Lord Jesus.

The Lord Jesus said, you ran away from everything for my sake. For my sake I will give you everything. So he took him out of nothing.

Made him everything. And he made him the Pope of the Church. The Church flourished in his time and in his reign.

One day they were opening that massive cathedral in Cairo. The president of Egypt, Jamal Abdel Nasser was there. And so many officials.

So many hierarchies. Millions of people came celebrating this historic event. And then after everything was done, he was going back to his residence.

His secretary happened to be a deacon. The deacon is telling the story after the departure of Saint Cyril. Pope Cyril.

After his departure, he was telling the story himself. He said, it was the driver, Pope Cyril in the back seat, and I was sitting next to him. And I was saying, Pope, you have made history today.

Today's event will not be forgotten for generations to come. What a glorious day. What a historical day.

Unbelievable. What an achievement. Look what the Lord has done through you, Pope.

And then he looked at the Pope, saw him absolutely sad and miserable. To his shock, he said, Pope, you should be the happiest man on earth today. What's wrong? Why are you sad? He said, my son, you do not understand anything.

He said, you're absolutely right. Today was glorious. The president was here.

And the celebrities were here. And the hierarchies were here. And millions of people were here.

But you know, let me tell you this. Today I saw people I didn't see God. But that one hour in the windmill, I saw no human's face.

Because I saw the Lord Jesus every time. That hour in the windmill, I will never replace it with all the glories you're talking about. With all the glories.

Because that moment with the Lord overrides all the glories of the world put together. It's nothing. When you have an encounter with the Lord Jesus.

Oh yes. Oh yes. Oh yes.

When you have the Lord, you have the heaven of all heavens. When you have the Lord, you have all the angels of heaven. When you have the Lord, you have all the saints of heaven.

When you have the Lord, you have the mother of all saints, Mary with you forever. When you have the Lord, you have everything. But when you don't have the Lord, even if you have everything, you have nothing.

The Lord says, are you willing to accept suffering for me? Are you willing to accept humiliation for my sake? Are you willing to accept persecution for me? I said go and wash. I put the clay on your face deliberately. I could have just opened your eyes with one word.

I am God. I can do anything and everything. I did not go through, didn't have to go through the process of spitting on the ground, and making clay, and applying it on your face, and then telling you to walk the distance to that pond and wash your face there.

I could have done it in a split second. But I chose to do it the hard way because I am testing your faith in me. How much do you trust me? And how much are you willing to continue trusting me? When I say something, if you are going to use your head to understand what I'm saying, you will never understand it.

Because everything what God says is beyond your realm of logic. It doesn't make sense for a blind man to be anointed with clay. To fill those eyes with mud.

They're already blind. You blinded them more. He says yes, because that's what your head tells you.

Your head only understands and functions within the realm of logic. One plus one equals two. But God's mathematics, guess what? One plus one equals one.

The two are no longer two. But the two are one in me. When he said Adam and Eve, they're no longer two.

They're one. That's how God works outside the logic of our realm. Will you trust in his word that does not make sense to your head? Will you trust in it? Amazing how the Lord works through us when we let him work.

Don't use your head because you won't be able to continue walking in his footprints. You won't. Because if you use your head, nothing will make sense.

If this blind man had used his head, he wouldn't have got up and walked. But he stopped his head and listened to the voice of the Lord. Followed through with it.

Then he saw the glory of God. Maybe one day you'll get up and say, I'll go to church and something happens. And you say, no, I don't feel like it now.

I'm not going. Don't listen to your head. Go.

Because you don't know that day if he had gone, you would have seen God's glory. So when the voice says, go to church and you don't feel like it, go. When the voice says, pray and you're not up to it, pray.

When the voice says, walk, you walk. I'll leave you with this true story. Probably said it a long time ago.

I was a deacon. That's many years back. And I look like Santa Claus now.

So I was a deacon. One night I came back from the church. And it happened to be midnight.

I looked at the petrol gauge in the car and it was empty. So I said, I'll pull over into this service station to put some petrol in the car. I don't want it to stop on me in the middle of the road.

So I drove into the service station. It was just past midnight. There was nobody in that service station except that poor guy behind the counter and myself putting some petrol.

As I started putting petrol in the car, I had a glimpse of a man walking into the petrol station premises. In that moment, a voice inside of me said, go and ask that man if he needs a lift. I ignored the voice.

I am not Tarzan. So I pushed it away. The voice came back again and said, go and, actually, go and ask that man if he wants a lift because he is tired.

That's the voice. He is tired. Ask him, do you want a lift? I pushed it away.

Third time he said, you better go. I filled the car with petrol. I closed it.

Before paying for it, I went up to him. Past midnight. Nobody there except me and this stranger.

I said, do you need a lift? He said, oh, yes, please. I am extremely tired. I said, okay.

Let me just pay for the petrol and I'll take you wherever you wish, my dear friend. We sat in the car. And as we were driving, we started talking.

I said, so, where do you want to go? He said, do you know such and such place? I said, I think so, yeah. He said, yeah, if you can take me there, it will be nice. I said, so, like, okay, what are you doing here? He said, well, to be honest with you, I came out of prison.

I've been in prison for the last 20 years because I stabbed my wife to death. I said, Lord, you're the best. Thanks so much for your kind voice.

Good luck, Lord, next time I'll listen to you. I said, well, Lord, I'm driving. The doors are locked.

And I've got someone who's killed his wife. I said, oh, really? Wow, amazing. I said, do you need money? He said, oh, yeah, if you can give me some, that would be very nice of you.

I gave him some money. But let me tell you, I was not afraid. I was not afraid.

That's the honest truth. We spoke, and then we spoke about the Lord Jesus. He started crying.

He said, I miss the Lord. Anyway, we ended up taking him to that place, gave him some money, and he was very thankful and grateful, very kind. He left.

I went home. I went inside, and I'm talking with the Lord in my mind and my heart. I said, Lord, so what was this all about? You put me next to a killer? And you asked me to give him a lift? Why did you do that? Believe you me, the Lord said, the reason why I put you in that situation, I want you to learn how to trust me.

Even when I tell you to give a lift to this murderer, when I say it, he will be, instead of a wolf, I'll make him a lamb. Will you trust in me? Didn't I make him a lamb? Oh, yes, Lord. Then, next time when you're in trouble, can you trust me? Can you trust me? Don't forget how many times I've saved you in the past.

Don't forget how many times I've delivered you from the snares of the enemy. Don't forget how many times I've taken you alive out of the mouth of the lion, without a scratch, without a blemish. Do you think I cannot deliver you again? Do you think I cannot save you one more time? Do you think I am not the same Jesus Christ of Nazareth? I am the same.

So, Marmari, if you are worried you've lost your eye, can you trust in Jesus, who is God, that out of clay, he can give you the eye back? Please, my beloveds, whatever you've been through, and whatever you are going through now, the Lord is the same. If there is one reason for us to be thankful of the Lord, and indebted to Him, we thank you, Lord, because you are the never-changing God. We thank you, you never change, you can never change.

We are so grateful and indebted to you. You know why? Because when you said, I loved you yesterday, guess what? Because you never change, you will never stop loving me till the very end. Even though I walked away from you, even though I sold you with 30 pieces of silver, even though I lived in the filth, I lived in the mud, I lived in the world and for the world, but your love is the never-failing love, because you are the never-failing God, the never-changing God.

Whatever you say, it's forever, forever. And when you said, I am with you all the days of your life, and until the end of all ages, the never-changing God is always with you all the days of your life, and until the end of all ages, and forever more. And all the days of your life mean, when the Lord said, I am with you all the days of your life, my question to every single one of us, are we with Him all the days of our lives? No.

Maybe, out of 10, one day I'm with Him, 9, I'm with Satan. But the Lord says, I am with you all the days of your life, meaning, I am with you in the day you are with me, and I am with you in the day you are not with me. I'm still with you.

This man is put here for the glory of God. Lord, make me that blind man to be put here for your glory. Use me for your glory.

And whatever glorifies your holy name, let me be that man, the reason for your glory. Even if people make fun of me, even if people ridicule me, even if people persecute me, even if people depose me from the church, let me be the man put here for your glory. Let me be.

Some people say the bishop is deposed from the church, don't listen to him. Let me tell you, my dear friend, it is okay to be deposed by people, as long as you are not deposed by the Lord Jesus. People are people.

Today they love you, tomorrow they don't. The Lord loves you today, tomorrow and forever, never change. I'm not here for people, I'm here for my Lord.

My stay on earth is like a dream at the awakening, it's a short drive, it's a short walk, it's a short distance. So it's okay if I get persecuted for this short moment to gain the glory of all glories for eternities to come. What is one moment of suffering compared to eternities of glories and praising and honor? Let me suffer, but as long as at the end I'm with you, my Lord.

I don't want heaven because you are heaven. I don't seek places, I seek the owner of all places. I don't want no thrones, I don't want no high places, I don't want no limousines, I don't want no red carpet Lord rolled under my feet, I want my Jesus even when he makes me his donkey, I want my Jesus.

Laugh at me, kick me, punch me, ridicule me. I'm being put here for the glory of God. Seek the Lord, seek the Lord.

Young men, young women, sons and daughters. Don't imitate the world. Don't imitate other people your age, similar to your age.

Don't look on how they dress, don't look on how they walk, how they talk, how they dance, how they jump, how they eat, how they travel. Don't, you don't belong to the world, you belong to Christ the King. You belong to the Lord Jesus.

Let the Lord see you beautiful, not the world. Let the Lord recognize you, not the world. Let the Lord acknowledge you, not the world.

Let the Lord say this is my child, not the world. Because the world will make you a slave. The Lord will make you the son of God, free.

And look at the world. What a joke. Some people, they want to play God.

Thinking with money, with power, they can rule the world. And they do things. And they say, wow, look at us.

You know, we said, let's bring this so-called pandemic, and they did. Wow, what an achievement. And so many people fell for it.

It was one of the biggest lies. Now then climate change, another lie. So we need to kill the cows because they are contributing to climate change.

They are releasing too much methane into the air. Was it only the cows? I don't know. What a joke.

Jesus Christ is not for sale. Never has, never will. So if you want to buy me, you cannot.

Because I'm already being purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God. I don't need your money. But if you truly mean friendship, I need you.

Not your pocket, I need you. My Lord can give me more than the whole world put together. The problem of the church today is one thing.

Since we lost track of the true Christ, we started focusing on buildings of bricks and mortar, not buildings of people's hearts. Today the church is recognized as being rich by the properties it has and the wealth it has. But it's not recognized by how many faithful the church has.

How many faithfuls. One person comes back to the Lord, heaven rejoices. One person.

I'll leave you with this. One day I was walking on a footpath in beautiful Malta. And that day was like, yeah, not the best of the days.

And then I heard somebody shouting behind me. I stopped, I turned around. I see three young boys, one probably nine, the other one maybe ten.

The oldest, 12, maximum 13, no more, 12. And they said, in a beautiful Maltese accent, We watch you. We watch you.

Hey father, we watch you on YouTube. We watch you on YouTube. And then the oldest one, that 12 year old, he said, You know, one thing, your words are so inspirational to us.

I said, the word is bigger than you. I had to look up in the dictionary what the inspirational meant, you know what I mean. He said, your words are so inspirational, it brings us close to God.

12 year old, nine year old, chasing a celebrity. And I didn't even have to go, I feel good. You don't have to go, I didn't have to.

Why are you chasing this Santa Claus? Why are you chasing this old man? One day this priest asked Pope John Paul II, He said, why do these young boys and girls go crazy when they see you? They are so attached, you're an old man, these are teenagers, there is no connection, the gap is huge. Why do they so much love you? He said, the Pope put his head down for a few seconds in silence, and then these words came out of his mouth. He said, Father, it's the Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit. Teenagers chase Hollywood celebrities, not a bishop, in a tent outfit. Or I call it Ninja Turtle.

$20, I do it for you. Why are you chasing this old bishop in a tent? It's the Lord. It's the Lord, my beloved.

This man was put here for the glory of God. Let us be this man, tonight, my beloved, this moment. Lord, let me be the reason for your glory.

Amen? Amen. All right, let's bow our heads, ask the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, and allowing us to be worthy to come forth and receive him in the true body and the true blood, the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. 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 in the paths of righteousness.

Please them along with the saints in your kingdom by the assurance of the hope of their faith in 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.

We thank the Lord always. Amen? And that's it. I'm so sad that I stopped talking now, and you're so glad that I've stopped talking.

He said, thank God, finally he stopped talking, my goodness. I love you so much. I mean it from the bottom of my heart, I love you so much.

You know, I thank the Lord for all of you. I pray from the bottom of my heart, the Lord blesses you, and bless your families, bless all your loved ones. Heal every sick soul.

Release every soul that is in bondage. Give shelter to those who have no shelter. Feed those who are hungry.

Quench the thirst of those who are thirsty. Dress and clothe those who are naked. Hold on to the hand of those who are strangers.

For those lost sheep, I pray, Lord, bring it back to the fold. For those who are close to you, I beg you, Lord, protect them, and keep them, and preserve them, for them not to veer off the road, and be distant from you once again. Lord, bless every single child of yours, here in the church, and everyone who's watching us through live streaming.

I pray that you're always healthy. You're always good, physically and spiritually. I pray that you're always strong, built on the rock, unshakable, unbreakable, Christ the King.

I pray that you are always close to Jesus Christ and his holy church. Don't ever walk away from your spiritual mother, the church. She gave birth to you through the sacrament of baptism.

Don't ever deny your mom. Respect your father and mother. For that, I, God, bless you and give you life abundant.

Your father is Jesus Christ, and your mother is the church. Honor them, respect them, by coming to the church, and praising the honor of the church, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. God bless you.

Keep on coming, baby. Just come. Men, I love you.

I kiss every feet that is present here. I kiss it. No, no, no, no, no.

I literally kiss it. With honor, with pride. I kiss every feet.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for showing that love for the Lord Jesus. I'm indebted. I kiss your feet.

I thank you for coming. And I thank the Lord for you. And I pray and ask the Lord to bring you always, to multiply more and more for His glory.

Amen? I love you. But Jesus loves you the most.