We Need To Hear The Voice Of God

There is no tranquility and peace in the world. The world is always in turmoil. The world is like wild, is that like wild ocean, never finding rest.

Never, my beloved. I made friends. And when I made those friends at the beginning, I said, that's it, I found the right one.

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. Our beloved fathers, deacons, monks, nuns, and our beloved congregation, those who are with us here in this holy church, and those who are watching us through live streaming, I pray and beseech the Lord Jesus for you to be always in good health and in good spirit in Jesus' mighty name, Amen. Well, good morning everyone.

What did we say? Whenever you are in the presence of the Lord Jesus, don't ever say good evening. For the Lord is the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness, and he is the light of the world. When you stand in the presence of the light of the world, how dare I to say good evening when it is always morning with the Lord.

So a very good morning to my beloved church. The gospel of today is from the gospel according to St. Matthew, and our church fathers have actually taken two parts, one part from the chapter 4, and another part from chapter 5. So it is the gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 4, and verses 1 to 12, sorry, 12 to 25. I'll repeat that again.

Matthew chapter 4, verses 12 to 25, which is the end of chapter 4, and then chapter 5 from 1 to 16 inclusive. So Matthew 4, 12 to 25, and 5, 1 to 16. The Lord Jesus is actually saying as always magnificent things, and trying to convey a message that is of profound meaning and depth to our spiritual growth and nourishment and advancement.

We won't have the time to cover the entire gospel of today. But I'd like to focus on chapter 4, and that is the Lord Jesus, after hearing that John the Baptist was put in prison, he withdraws from Nazareth and goes to Galilee, and comes and dwells in this city called Capernaum. Or in Hebrew or Aramaic Syriac, depending on the pronunciation.

It is a compounded word, two in one. But on the way to Capernaum, goes to the Sea of Galilee, and there he meets some fishermen, certain fishermen. In this particular passage, in the gospel according to St. Matthew, there are four names being mentioned, which through these four names, we need to learn this profound lesson from the Lord.

If we wish to be with the Lord, we need to have these four names in our life vividly clear, and vividly living in our lives. The first one, Simon who is called Peter. Second one, the brother of Simon, Andrew.

Third one, the sons of Zebedee, James and his brother John. Four names, Simon who is called Peter, Andrew his brother, the sons of Zebedee, James and his brother John. Four names we need to have in our lives if we are wishing to have an encounter with Jesus Christ, our Lord and God.

The Lord is saying to all of us, you want to be with me? You want to find me? You want to reach me? You want to get to know me? You must start with having Simon in your life. The name Simon means, to him you should listen. Shem'on, Shema, to him you should listen.

Who is him or he? Jesus. So Simon or the name or the meaning of the name of Simon is actually referring to Jesus Christ. To him you should listen.

And him is Jesus Christ. You want to be with the Lord? You need to listen to his voice. This is the beginning of the road.

Do you see how the Holy Spirit is actually writing in such perfection through Matthew the Gospel writer. He puts Simon first because the beginning of the road to Jesus Christ is listening to his voice. Now why do we need to listen to the voice of Christ? When you come to the Gospel of St. John chapter 1 verse 1 St. John says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

This word is Jesus Christ which in Greek is logos. And logos is not just the word we know of. The logos means the intellect.

The brain that gives birth to the word. So he is the word. The word in its nature first is heard not seen.

The word in its nature it can only be heard first then after accepted to be seen. Jesus Christ cannot be seen at the beginning. He can only be heard because he is the logos, he is the word which only is heard first then it is seen.

I'm talking to you words you do not see them you only hear them at the beginning. When these words are written on paper then they become visible, tangible. But the very first thing to the word is hearing it.

Now why? Why is the word heard first not seen? Because St. Paul says faith comes from hearing. Faith comes from hearing. How can I hear without somebody preaching? And how can there be a preacher without somebody sending that messenger forth? So faith comes through hearing.

When a baby is born into this world all of us have five senses the physical senses. Seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting. These are the five physical senses.

When the baby is born the only sense that is working absolutely perfect from the moment the baby is born is hearing. That's why the first thing the baby does cries. He cannot see clearly when the baby is born or she.

He or she, yes? I'll kill you if it's otherwise. I'll kill you. The baby can't see clearly.

They've got a blurry vision. But their hearing is absolutely perfect. The moment they come out into this world especially if they are born in a Middle Eastern family good luck to that baby.

The whole family erupts. It's a World War III happening. Somebody is yelling and the other one is screaming.

The other one is fainting. Mama's crying. Daddy's jumping with joy.

The whole tribe are on a rampage. The baby for almost nine months was so... their ears were so adherent to absolute calmness and silence in this world of mine called mommy's womb. I was so used to this quiet life.

So used to this beautiful, silent and tranquil world. All of a sudden something went wrong. Assyrian people started... The baby's ears are pierced.

The baby is frightened. Oh what happened? My world is trembling down right before my blurry eyes. But I can hear it very clearly.

The baby out of that fright starts crying. To your eyes God gave a gate. Eyelids.

To your mouth God gave two gates. The teeth and the lips. To your ears God put no gates at all.

The ears are always opened because God wants your ears to be always open to His voice. That's why He gave the ears no gates whatsoever. Faith cometh through hearing.

The Lord says the beginning of your journey toward me you must hear my voice. Not see me. If you are trying frantically to see me you will not succeed.

Because naturally I need to be heard first before I get to be seen. Why? Because the reason why you must hear me first because I want to test you to see if you are going to accept my word or not. When you hear my word being preached to you are you willing to accept this word? Put it in the depth of your heart and allow it to grow in the field of your heart to be a fruitful tree or not.

I want to test you to see if you are having faith in me or not. Trust in me or not. Before you get to see the glory of Christ you must accept the voice of Christ.

So when you are silent to Him you should listen. To Christ you should listen. When you listen to Him accept Him and receive Him in your life as the Lord of Lords and the King of all Kings then your name will be Peter the rock or yalla the stone built on the rock atztera but from a weak Simon to a strong Peter from a weak Simon to a strong Peter from a physical Simon to a spiritual Peter from an earthly Simon to a heavenly Peter from a temporal Simon to the eternal Peter that never dies from Simon born from below to Peter born from above to have this conversion to have this renewal to have this new beginning you have to hear the voice of Christ and accept it when you accept it Christ will make you Peter now when you begin a new journey a new beginning a new life a new being what needs to be followed after that Andrew the name Andrew means the serious one the one who takes things seriously that is Andrew the Lord is saying when you hear my voice and accept my voice you'll be Peter strong when you're strong now what do you need to do next to stay strong you need to take my word seriously meaning now it is the time for my word to be implemented in your life you need to live by my word you need to focus on my word you need to breathe you need to take my word and make it melt in every fiber of your entire being you become indwelled in this word you need to take it serious so when you take my word seriously as Andrew James comes along what is James? Ya'qub the proper pronunciation Ya'qub now Ya'qub means the one who follows in the footprints of someone else the one who follows in the footprints of someone else whose footprints I need to follow in the good shepherd's footprints I need now to follow in the footprints of Jesus Christ of Nazareth all glory to his holy name I've heard his word I listened to his word I accepted his word being Simon by accepting the word Simon became Peter when Peter became in me living I need to be serious now I need to be Andrew when I am serious now I need to get up and follow in the footprints of Jesus Christ of Nazareth for he is the way the truth and the life period I need to be James when I follow in his footprints James I'll reach John John in Hebrew Aramaic Syriac Yohannan or Yohannan Yoth which is E equivalent of E, the letter E is for Yahweh Yahuwah, Chnan means mercy or compassion Yohannan or Yohannan means God the compassionate, God the merciful or more so the compassionate I'll reach God the compassionate it all began with listening to him Simon accepting the word became Peter the strong one when I became Peter I got up and became serious about Jesus Christ and I became Andrew Andrew followed by James I started walking in the footprints of the good shepherd, I started following the Lord, meaning I started living for Christ before I lived for the world now I began to live for the Lord James, when I began to live for the Lord, those footprints led me all the way to John, Yohannan God or Yahweh or Yahuwah, the compassionate I was embraced by the mercy of Christ John I was engulfed by the mercy of Christ when I received John the mercy and the compassion of God God took me to Capernaum Kafar Nahom or Nahom Kafar means city Nahom peace tranquility finally I took my breath back and I was relaxed Jesus my Lord took me through his compassion to the city of tranquility to the city of comfort to the city of peace silence Nikhuthah or Nikhuthah means ahh I'm at ease now when you sit in silence you start thinking deeper and further the Lord is saying the problem with the human race is that they are missing on Kafar Nahom they are missing on this place of rest they are missing on this place of tranquility they are missing on this place of silence and quietness and stillness why they are missing on it because they are not listening to my voice they are not adhering to my voice they are listening to every other voice except Christ when you and I chase the world we will never find peace we will never find tranquility we will never find silence and stillness in our lives because my beloveds the world no matter what it gives you everything the world gives is external it is an external giving now an external giving is temporal because everything that is visible is temporal yet what is invisible is eternal everything in this world the world and everything in it is visible is temporal so when you chase your comfort when you chase your peace when you chase your quietness and tranquility in this world thinking you will find it your chase and your hard labor will go in vain for there is no tranquility and peace in the world the world is always in turmoil the world is like wild is that like wild ocean never finding rest never my beloved I made friends and when I made those friends at the beginning I said that's it I found the right people for me these people I feel so comfortable with I feel so at ease with I am so tranquil finally I found my rest I found the right people for me and before you know it you were mistaken so miserably so miserably you were mistaken for your choice was made outside of Christ there is no tranquility there is no kafarna home there is Jericho see there is Jericho Jericho the city of fragrances city of fragrances meaning everyone in this world they have their own mood swings one is Chanel the other one is Versace the other one I have no idea what other brands there are everyone has their own mood swings this is the world this is the world my beloved everyone comes with their own way of thinking before you know it this friend is gone with the wind the other brother is gone and feared of the road and the other sister went astray and I thought they were going to be there when I needed them and when I fell so miserably deep and I hit rock bottom I found no such thing called as friends then and then only I realized when I was left alone when I was left behind I realized it is only God who is truly my friend for God never forsaken me when everyone else did God never forsaken me the Lord is saying stop listening to the voices of strangers for God's sake my beloved children stop listening and giving ear to the strangers voice stop it give ear to God for he is the only voice that needs to be heard and accepted there is no climate change don't ever believe this nonsense there is no climate change the climate change happened in us not in mother nature, poor mother nature mother nature is a good girl we are the naughty boys and girls she is a good girl she is always been mother nature have you ever seen the sun going on a strike and saying I'm not going to shine today have you ever seen the moon saying I'm not going to be the moon anymore or the stars or the flowers or the birds or the rocks or the oceans no they've always done their part every single day for an extremely long time and they never failed we are the naughty the climate change happened in our thick heads yes the climate change one climate change is called evolution and another climate change is called the chip well I don't know now they are improving they are putting it in the arm now it can be in the brain wow amazing we've changed my beloveds we've lost the plot why? because we did not adhere to the voice of Christ with all love and respect to every human being I will put my life on the line for what I'm saying here there is God 100% there is God in heaven creator of everything and everyone visible and invisible the spiritual realm and the physical tangible realm they are both created by this true divine God one God 100% there is this God came and became a human just over 2000 years ago his name is Jesus Yeshua Yeshua Jesus Christ of Nazareth he lived on the face of this planet 33 years and 4 months he was crucified and died in the flesh buried rose from the dead on the third day this is the truth with all love and respect to any human to every religion out there there is no religion there is one thing Jesus Christ of Nazareth there is a belief in a person not in a religion religions are man made I beg you I beg of you religions are man made and since they are man made they were pushed and brought together by Satan Satan had a hand in the religions of the world for God never changes his word for God never changes his mind for God never changes his way his word is one his way is one and his way of working is always the same Christianity is not a religion Christianity is not a religion in that sense of a religion why because the moment you invoke the word religion you are invoking a set of rules guidelines regulations and laws you go to all the religions of the world they will tell you if you want to end up being in a nice place if you want to end up being a good person you must do this and this and this and this you have to do them if you don't do them you'll end up in a very ugly place and in some religions you could come back in the next life as a cockroach man made with the hand of Satan in it what a joke next time don't step on a cockroach could be your uncle when are we going to grow up when this it's very sad the human being created with love created with dignity created with identity created with value and principle and morals ethics is this it you believe you'll end up a cockroach if you don't do good things in this life you'll be a cockroach in the next or someone comes up with a fairy tale story and you'll have 72 mermaids in the next life and some other one comes up with over 3 million gods the leaves fell off the tree oh that's the god the wind blew on the tree god the cow god the earth god the fire god the sky god the stars god the moon god the sun god where are you is this your dignity human you're behaving so childish christianity is not a religion christianity is a belief in a person called jesus christ of nazareth the ultimate in the human race the perfect in the human figure the perfect one the one who came and gave respect dignity honor name value identity to every human who accepted him elevated you from childish behavior to a mature and adult behavior from an earthly playing in the mud and in the filth into heavenly walking in holiness and purity he gave you elevation he exalted you he dignified you jesus love impossible to exist in a religion there is no place for love to exist in a religion you know why very simple religions are based on laws if you do you go there if you don't you go over there it's all about laws that's why love is absent in religions because love cannot exist in laws love can only exist in humans not laws