Why Your Name Doesn't Need to Be Known by Men, Only by Jesus

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. Our beloved fathers, deacons, and our beloved nuns, and congregation, for all of you who are watching us through live streaming, I pray that you are always in good health and in good spirit. We thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ forever and evermore, for he is always the loving Heavenly Father, for he's always the Lamb of the God that carries away the sins of the world, for he's always the ever-enlightenment, the wisdom, the source of wisdom, and the truth that stands forever, and for giving us always this opportunity to be in his holy house, celebrating the true body and the true blood on the holy altar of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We thank our Lord for his body and blood that was shed on Calvary. We receive his body and the truth, and we receive his blood and the truth. It is the true presence of Christ in the body and the flesh.

It is not symbolic, but it is the truth, and the Lord Jesus gave us his body and blood in the last supper, when he stood up and he broke that bread, and he gave to his disciples and said, this bread is my body. It has been broken for the forgiveness of sins, and he took the cup and blessed and thanked and gave it to the disciples and said, this is my blood that has been shed for the remission of the sins of the world. We thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our Beloved.

In the Gospel of today, from the Gospel of Saint Luke Chapter 17 and verses 5 to 19. Luke 17 verses 5 to 19. The Lord Jesus was talking to his apostles, and then they came to him and they said, Lord, increase our faith, strengthen our faith.

The Lord Jesus said, if you had a faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this sycamine tree to be uprooted and thrown into the ocean and it will happen. My beloved, a mustard seed, it is one of the tiniest seeds out of all seeds. In size, it is the smallest.

The Lord is saying, if you had faith as small as the mustard seed, you can say to this particular tree to be uprooted and cast into the ocean. This particular tree, my beloved, it is symbolically here representing the trials we go through, the obstacles we have in our life, the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis. The sycamine tree, the roots are extremely deep underground.

They go very deep and they go very far as well, so the tree is actually strongly rooted into the ground. It is so hard to uproot this particular tree because of the strong roots this tree has. This represents the challenges we face in our life.

What are the things that are so deeply rooted in the crevices of our being? What are the things that are deeply rooted in our souls, our minds, our hearts, and our spirits? What are the things that when we face them, we cannot overcome them? They are like the giants in our life. We need to slay the giants in order to make it to the promised land, Jerusalem. Whatever our challenges are, whatever our obstacles are, and whatever the stumbling stones in our way are, whether it be people, whether it be money, whether it be lusts, whether it be fame, whatever the challenges are, the Lord is saying to all of us, if you have faith as the size of this mustard little tiny seed, you will say to the most difficult things in your life, you'll order them and they will perish from your life.

Faith, my beloveds, faith. Then the Lord Jesus goes on and he said, what do you think? Do you think when a master servant comes from the field working all day long and coming after a very long day of hard labor, do you think the master is going to say to that servant, go, wash up, you know, have something to eat and then when you finish, come and then look after your master? He said, I don't think so. When that servant comes back from the field after a hard long day of work, the master will say to the servant, gird yourself up and come and put food before me until I eat, then wash all the dishes and after you finish of washing everything and packing everything, then you can go and have something to eat.

Do you think when the servant does this to his master, i.e. serving his master, do you think the servant will be commended for serving his master? He said, of course not, because he had just done what was expected of him doing. The Lord is trying to teach us all on how to serve in his church, on how to serve in his holy house. The Lord is saying to all of us, whether you are a clergyman or just a faithful in the church, a layman without a rank, the Lord is saying, when you come to serve your master, Jesus Christ, whatever you do, don't ever be boastful of what you do, because whatever you are going to do in the master's house, you are just doing what was expected of you.

This is the least you could do is to serve your master, Jesus Christ. You will not be commended for serving the Lord, so do not wait for being applauded, do not wait for being recognized and acknowledged, do not wait to be paid for it, to be awarded something big for it in return, expect absolutely nothing. Whatever we do, we need to come back and say, we are nothing but the hopeless, useless servants in the house of our master, Jesus Christ, for everything we were able to do, it was through the Lord's grace, was made possible only.

So we need to give back the glory to Jesus, we need to give every glory and praise to the Lord Jesus, no matter what we do, even if we raise the dead, we need to say, it was the Lord who raised the dead through me, I am nothing, I am a hopeless, useless servant of the Lord Jesus. Whatever we do, we should never expect a reward. Now why? Because our reward is not on earth, it is in heaven.

And secondly, no matter what we do for the Lord Jesus, can we ever pay Him back for what He has done for us on the cross? Can we? Never my beloved, for what the Lord has done for us on the cross, on Calvary, all the beautiful things we could ever think of doing for the Lord Jesus, it is nothing compared to what Jesus had done for us on the cross, it is nothing. We fight in the church for position, we fight in the church for recognition, we fight in the church to be acknowledged, we get upset and offended, why wasn't my name mentioned, why was not applauded, why was not recognized, I did this and I built this and this is my doing and this is my genius of work. The Lord is saying, when you have faith as the mustard seed, when you have true faith, even if it's as tiny as the mustard seed, you will plug those deep roots that have been embedded in your spiritual life, in your soul, in your spirit, in your mind, in your heart.

Get rid of those boastful things, get rid of that fame, get rid of that name, get rid of those stars that were on your shoulder, humble yourself before your Lord, because if you do not plug those vanity of all vanities out of your life, you cannot serve the Lord Jesus in his house. If you do not get rid of your pride, self-pride, you cannot serve the Lord. If you cannot get rid of and plug out of you, your own dignity, you cannot serve the Lord, because serving the Lord, it requires humility.

Serving the Lord, it requires self-denial. How can you serve the Lord when you are boastful? How can you serve the Lord when you are searching for your own name and your own fame? How can you give glory to Christ when you are seeking your own glory from people? You are working in the church because you want to be applauded by people. Well, you are in the wrong place, my beloved.

You are in the wrong place. You are in the wrong place. A true servant of Christ is the one that never reveals Him and herself.

I beg you, when you serve in the church, don't ever show yourself. Don't ever reveal yourself. Don't ever seek to be applauded and acknowledged by others.

Seek your Master. Seek your Lord Jesus. Seek His reward for you.

Do everything in hiding, in secret. Sit at the back, and I'm saying not literally sit at the back, but sit at the back even when you talk to your own self from within. Because it is being boastful, it is not just when you show up physically.

You can be boastful internally as well when wrong thoughts come in your head and gives you a big head. You have to be very careful. Don't let any thought give you false glory.

Don't, my beloved. It requires self-denial humility in order to be able to serve the Master. I'll tell you this true story.

This is a true story, my beloved. It happened not long ago. There was this preacher who was extremely famous in that particular country.

It's a true story. He was extremely famous in that particular country. They used to invite him to all the churches in that country for being so powerful in his preaching.

This preacher was accompanied without knowing, without knowing, he was being accompanied by this man who used to sit at the front, but he was so silent. He never made a move, he never made a whisper. He was unknown all these many years.

He used to sit in absolute silence. No one knew who this man ever was. One day, the preacher and that man, they pass away, they move on from this world.

One of the monks in a particular monastery, and I love monastic life, my beloved, it's stunning, amazing. One of the monks in this particular monastery had a vision. The angel came to him and he said, come, I'm going to show you a place in paradise.

So he says, it's a true story, he says, he took me to this, to paradise, and he brought me to this magnificent mansion in paradise. And then I was a bit quick, I was a bit quick to speak, and I said to the angel, wait a minute, this mansion, I definitely know who it belongs to. This mansion definitely belongs to that famous preacher who had just passed away a few days ago.

The angel said to him, you are wrong. This mansion is not for that famous preacher. The monk was shocked.

He said, well, whose is it then? He said, this mansion belongs to that poor, that poor man that was sitting at the front on the floor, silent all his life. He said, you know why that preacher was so powerful in his preaching? He said, because the Lord Jesus looked at that man whose life was all about self-denial and non-existent. He never boosted about himself, he never showed himself, he never seeked no glory from no one.