The Kingdom of God and Kingdom Building | Lecture 10 : BC215-KOG&KB-20260911

All right, welcome back. Uh, the power to say no. So, let me uh let me just spend some time on this. Now, you have decided to wake up at 5 a.m. and pray. And the moment you make that decision, the next morning comes and you try to wake up and you can't wake up. And then you're thinking in in your mind, oh man, I'm going to I want to sleep. I'm too tired. And then we have 100 other reasons why not to get up. What do you say at that time? Will you go with your 100 reasons to go back to sleep or you're going to say no, I'm going to wake up? Example, another example. You decide you're going to do a book study from the Bible. And as you decide that, there are other things that crowd your life. Are you going to say no? You have to say no. So why saying no is important? It builds you up. When you say no to the things of this world that can stop you from growing in your spiritual walk, it's building character in your life. It really is. So remember this. When you decide especially spiritually to advance to build yourself up right to read more to pray more the enemy will come with many many many many reasonings many don't want today we'll start from next Friday or we'll start from next week but yesterday you were very tired hurt right all these reasons will come character strong character is built when we are able to say no I will still do what God wants me to do right start small start small with the small things okay for example for you for your context as Bible college students okay I'm going to do a book study on the life of uh uh anyone right Abraham or Joseph and you decide okay today's 11th by the 20th I'll do a book study a comprehensive book study on Abraham there will be many things that will crowd your life now you must understand why faith comes by hearing and >> you're going to read the word of God is going to go into you faith is being built and the enemy doesn't like So he'll he'll bring other distractions but it is your responsibility my responsibility to say no and continue because that's when character is built. You may have a long day a really difficult day. It's okay. Right now you don't have to be legalistic about this. You know what's legalistic? I have to get up. If I don't get up, then God will be very angry with me. And if God is angry with me, he will never use me. And if he never uses me, people will not appreciate me. And if I if I'm not appreciated, what's the use of me being here? And I'm not doing anything for God's kingdom. I'm now I'm a waste. I don't do any. No, you're not being legalistic. We must understand that, hey, if I do this, it is for my benefit. God is going to shape me into the person he wants me to be. I'm not doing it for somebody else. I'm doing it for myself to build my character. Everyone with me? Right. So, developing the ability to say no when temptation persists is possible only when you have strong character. A strong character cannot be weakened and will not give into continual temptation. You get that? You fall once, our responsibility is to get up, overcome the temptation and gain victory. And then as you gain victory, there's victory upon victory upon victory. And then you know the enemy will not take you down. Will there be temptations? Yes. Will there be challenges? Yes. Will there be things that the enemy may throw against us? Yes. But it's not going to be easy because now maturity has come in. Character is built. Through the difficult times, you're able to say no to the enemy. Right? How is character developed? What influences or shapes the development of an individual's character? Daniel is a great example of a man with strong moral character. Let's look at his life. Daniel quickly. Okay, all of us know about Daniel, right? Daniel was okay. The there were three exiles. Everyone know this? Three exiles. Babylonians came in the first time. They plundered Jerusalem. They took some people. Daniel was the first one in that. Right? Then there was a second uh plunder by the Babylonians. They came, they plundered again. And during the second one, Ezekiel uh oh sorry, I think it was Neahhemiah. Nehemiah was in the second one, right? And in the third um uh you know the the third exile, Jerusalem was completely plundered and destroyed to the ground. Everything destroyed and some people were taken and uh Jeremiah was there during those times as well. So three uh plunders to Babylon. So Daniel was there in the first exile. So imagine Daniel's about 17 to early teens, just maybe about 20 years old, young man. He's taken from Jerusalem into Babylon. Now Babylon is a place of immorality, idolatry, everything's happening there. But Daniel was taken in. Daniel and his three friends may have been in early teens in Babylon, training in Babylon. Now think of this. These three boys, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed, go and and Daniel, four of them, they were not taken to do, you know, physical labor and physical work. They were chosen, you know, the Bible says they the king, the Babylonians chose the brightest minds to work for them, to do administration. Now, they knew the Jews were wise, you know, they had wisdom. So, these three were taken and directly into the temple, the king's palace. So they had access immediately but there's the the the culture is completely different. They are no more in Judah. They are in Babylon. Different gods, different culture, different people. And now Daniel is there. He served as a king. Daniel lived and served in the courts of three empires. Nebuchadnezzar, his son Belsazar, and then Das when the Mes and the Persians came and Cyrus, King Persia. Now his life was challenged. His life challenged these powerful kings and got them to acknowledge that the God of the Hebrews is truly the living God. Let's read Daniel 1:8. The first thing that stood out in Daniel, Daniel 1:8, >> but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's desolate delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the chief of the unuks that he might not defile himself. >> Now, imagine this. Daniel in his his early te te teens, he's away from family, away from his home town. He's in Babylon and the food that was given was all food that was um against the the priestly the law of Moses. They were defiled foods. They were foods that were sacrificed to idols and placed there to eat. What does Daniel say? Daniel says purposed in his heart. Some versions say resolved in his heart. Everyone say resolved. That means it's decided. It's resolved. Whatever people say is not going to change. So he resolved in his heart what I am not going to eat of the king's table because that food is food that is defiled to my God. the true and the living God. So he stood there. They brought the food. They asked, "Come on, you all have to eat well because you're going to be serving the Babylonian kingdom for a long time." Daniel stands there and says, "No ways I'm going to touch this food." Early teens, he's resolved in his heart that he's not going to do it. Right? We know the story. The officials come and say, "Hey, listen. You have to eat otherwise they're going to come and question me." He says, "Listen, you give me vegetables and uh and see who looks more healthier." Eventually, after a certain period of time, they saw Daniel was looking much healthier, much wiser than anyone else. Now, the point here is not about the food. You want to go eat non- witch, go eat. Don't say I'll become vegetarian so that I become like Daniel. That's not going to work out. What the point here is he resolved. He purposed in his heart that I will not do anything that defiles God. So we can purpose in our heart and say I will not do anything that will defile God. Dishonor God. It's never too late to start working on developing godly character. A man's companions influence his character. Iron sharpens iron. 1 Corinthians chapter 15:33. Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Have the right people around you, people that can help you, people that can build you up, people that can encourage you, people that can uh you know, if if you're a believer, you you know, you know that you have to have the right people support you, to strengthen you, but also have fun. You know, don't don't be in a place where okay, oh, God, God. Yes, God. You know the Lord. You know that, you know, you're living by God's word, but also learn to enjoy your life. Don't make your life boring. Enjoy your life. Go out, eat, play a sport, do all of that, but do it in an honorable way. Right? Strong moral character is built over time through discipline and practice. Very important. Two points. Everyone say discipline. Practice. Some of them will tell you practice what you preach. But discipline is very important. You got to develop it in your life. You You know why I got upset? Why you get upset when you come late? That's a that's a sign of no discipline. I'm going to bring that up till next year last semester so that you learn. I'm going to drill it inside each one of you. Discipline is important. when you go home or go to your room. If you're throwing stuff everywhere, gone, if I I'm going to come one day to your hostels. I'm going to check, boys. I'm not going to come. But you better have your room and your house set in place. It reflects who you are, right? Sometimes my kids come and they throw their shoes somewhere, one shoe somewhere, another shoe somewhere and their uniform is somewhere after school. I sat them down and I told them, "You are not in kindergarten now. There's a hanger. You put your shirt in the hanger. You put your uniform neatly. You take your socks. You put it into the washing machine. you polish your shoes and keep it in the right place because in the morning you're not going to find time to polish your shoes. You got to do it now. Keep everything ready. I don't want you to be throwing your bag here and there. So they don't now when they come they know the bag should be in the right place. Their lunch bags are kept in the right place. Before they sleep they should fill their water bottles. Now why is this important? If I don't discipline them and they grow up and they become hooligans, it's my fault. Yes or no? Right? I have to discipline. Now, many times they've cried, oh no, what is all this? So, it's okay. You do it because when you discipline your children and discipline yourself, it becomes a practice. No matter how tired they are, they will go put it in the hanger. Make sure that everything is neat. They will do it. If I don't do it, you know what will happen when they're in 8th standard and they're in senior school. They'll do the same thing. Take the shoe throat somewhere. Socks will be somewhere, right? All their things will be somewhere. No, no, no, no. These are small things we startups. If you want to make a big impact for your kingdom, for the kingdom of God, first learn to fold your bed sheet in the morning. How many of you do it? Good. Don't take your bed sheet and throw it. I'm going to build God's kingdom. No, no, no. God will say God will say first you discipline yourself. First, you fold your bed sheet and keep it properly. I can't handle those things. No, you want to make a big impact, but small things you can't do. Doesn't work. Discipline. Small things, but it's important. Yes or no? Right. What what what are you doing? How are your books? How you keep your books? This is 10 years old. 10 years old. This is or more than that. Was the first edition. 10 years old. I still use it. all my books, all that I have. That's why the pages don't synchronize because this is a what do you do? All my Bible college notes is all stacked up. And my wife is like, "What's wrong with you? Why do you why?" I said, "Because that's how I am. That's I'm going to be like this. It's a good thing." So, you got to develop discipline that can help you for your life. Don't try to make an impact for God's kingdom with no discipline. So next time tomorrow when you wake up first thing this should be in your mind. Paul said not apostle Paul pastor pastor Paul said if I want to make an impact for God's kingdom fold my bed sheet and keep it don't you know once I went for a house visit one young man he called me home. There was no place to sit. So he said, "Pastor, you know, George called me for the apostolic calling." All I said, "All that is good. When I came to your house, your house is a complete mess, right? There were there's a rat running. There are there are snacks, halfeaten snacks somewhere." So I asked him, "What do you want to do? I want to become an apostle." And he was very serious about it. Right? This is in 2015, okay? Don't keep guessing who it is. And I remember just first telling him, you forget about forget about God. First look at yourself and look at your house. Said today you clean your house, set everything right. I'm going to come after two weeks. If I see there's an improvement here, then I'll talk to you. Otherwise, I'm not talking to you. Right? You should know how to keep your stuff. Just discipline. And it then becomes practice. So you need to discipline yourself. It's a hard word. Nobody likes the word discipline, right? We all like free life. Enjoy life. No, no, no, no. Discipline is important. You wake up and you tell yourself, God, I don't feel like praying at all. I'm angry. I'm irritated. I'm upset. I'm tired. I'm sleepy. My head is ringing. My body is spinning. All of this is happening, Lord. But I'm still going to practice praying and spending time in your presence. Okay? What's happening? That will build strong character inside you. It'll keep you going. Strong moral character is strengthened through adversities. Romans 5:3 and 4. Read that please. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope. >> Tribulation produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character and character produces hope. Lovely. You know, tribulations we need. There will be tribulations. All of us will have our shares of tribulation. But look at the outcome. Hey, it's going to bring perseverance inside me. That means I'm going to continue. I'll fall. I'll get up again. Fall, I get up again. Perseverance. And when you are persevering, it builds character. When you build character, it brings hope in you. There's a hope that I know that God will fulfill what he wants me to do. You know yesterday I was speaking to a pastor he's in North India and uh he was just sharing about the things that was happening there the challenges and you know the whole the way that ministry is just changing there and uh uh as you were talking you know there was so much of hope inside of him he's talking about all the things that we can't do but in the end he's telling me pastor know what I have the vision I have I'm going to build this Bible college. I will do it. I will build an you know like a prayer center. I said what about all the you know they'll come and break it down. I'll build it again. That's what he's telling me. I'll build it again. Then what about you know if they take you and put you into prison he said that's okay pastor at least something no will be there. I was amazed and I asked him, "How long has this vision been in your heart?" He said, "For 15 years, it's I've been persevering for this and I know it's going to come." And I was so moved. He said, "Nothing can stop me. Nor the police, nor the persecution. I will do it. If it breaks down, that's secondary, but I will do it." And I was amazed that character builds hope. Right? So why is character important? First one, godly character is a pre-erequisite for kingdom ministry. What is prerequisite? Without that don't get into ministry. Godly character. When the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and to Titus appointing them as spiritual leaders, he listed certain qualifications and he emphasized character and lifestyle over gifting. Everyone understand this. Character and lifestyle over gifting. We're all gifted. The biggest danger is to stand and depend on your gifting more than the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the character. Don't depend on your gift. Oh, I have a gift that I can sing and play an instrument, so I I'm fine. No, no, no. You're not fine. That's not going to last for long. That's standing on weak foundation. Depend. Your anointing and gifting are important, but they must not cause a neglect on your character and lifestyle. Don't hide behind your gifting. What would you do if you didn't have a gift of music or singing or preaching? What would you do? What would you do if people stopped calling you pastor? Will you get offended? What would you do if people don't recognize you as a Bible college student? Will you get offended? Right? Ask yourself that you should never be in a place you are hiding behind your gifts. Your gifts is to build God's kingdom. Okay? Anointing. Look at 1 Timothy 3. Let's read a few verses. Not the whole thing. Three one onwards. Just keep reading that. Now Paul is writing to Timothy and he's Timothy. There's already bishops and deacons in Ephesus in the church in Ephesus. So Paul is writing and saying, "Listen, you're going to appoint more leaders, but make sure they have some of these or all of these qualifications." Read. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. The bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, not gentle, not quarrelome, not covetous. one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? >> Should I >> keep going? Yeah. >> Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. >> Yes. Okay. Look at that. Quite strong. No. Now Paul is writing it. He say, "Husband of one wife, temperate, soberminded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money." Think of this. Paul is writing this to the early church, right? Gentle, not quarrelome, not covetous, one who rules his house. Well, I love that, right? If a man does not know how to rule his own home, how is he going to rule and oversee the house of God? And then he lists down a lot of the good things, right? Um being reverent, not double tonged, not given a wine. Uh you know, uh so there's whole list there. So what's the point? A godly character is the foundation for ministry for all kingdom building. How do we react when somebody you know gets better than us or becomes better than us? How do we react? You know we must check ourselves. How do we react if people uh you know young people are given opportunities and sometimes we are sidelined? How do we react? Do we feel discouraged? Do we feel angry? Do we feel that hey I'm not been given importance? All of those things right? The true strength of ministry is not our anointing but our character. That true strength of our ministry is not our anointing. So we can be very prophetic. We can be full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which is important. We're not discounting that we need the gifts of the spirit. But the true strength is character. That's our true strength. Gifts it's important but don't hide behind your gifts. And sometimes we may say hey I'm a prophet. I'm an evangelist and you know I have word of knowledge all of that. We hide behind those gifts. Wherein here we see that true character, true strength lies in character. The anointing is the wine. Our character is the wine skin. If wine skin, if the wine skin is weak and breaks, the anointing will be wasted. Beautiful. Matthew chapter 9:1 17. Nor do they put new wine into old wine skin, or else the wine skins break. The wine is spelled and the wine skins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wine skins and both are preserved. What a beautiful example Jesus giving. You can't make new wine and put them into old wine skin. It's just going to the wine skin is going to cut and it's going to break and both are wasted. And here the Lord Jesus you know we can take this imply that the wine skin is our character. The wine is the anointing. If I have old bad character and I'm trying to put in the new anointing of God into it, my character is not going to sustain my anointing. So, first I've got to get new wine skin, then let the new wine come in and stay in and both are preserved. Right? You understand? Wine skin is your character. The wine is anointing. The beautiful part is the anointing can keep coming in and God will keep ex you know increasing our anointing. He keeps pouring out his anointing upon us. But the wine skin is our responsibility. Is my wine skin all right? Is it going to hold? Is going to be strong during those seasons of testing. Right? So that's what character does. Your moral character is your true strength. Your inner a man's real strength is his moral character to withstand temptations, accusations, persecutions, lies, seductions, all the other pressures of this world. That is your true strength. Your character will shape the most important message you will preach. Your character will shape the most important message you preach. Let's read 1 Thessalonians 1:5 and 6. >> For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. For our gospel did not just come in words but also in the power of the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. They were not just speaking. This is Paul's second missionary journey. He's gone into Thessalonica. He's saying, "Listen, I'm not coming here because ministry is, you know, good fun and it's a good place to be." No, no, no. I've gone through hardships. I've gone through hell and back. And Paul is especially the second missionary journey. He was beaten. He was scourged. He was shipwrecked. He was he went through all kinds of things. No food, no water. Imagine days in the sea. I don't understand how he would have sufficed. But sure, it's God's grace. Days in the sea. And he's saying, "Listen, we're not just talking things. We are demonstrating it in the power of the Holy Spirit. Remember your life speaks. If you, you and I, we can preach a wonderful sermon on the love of God. We can preach a wonderful sermon on forgiveness. Yes. Right. We can preach a wonderful sermon on mercy and grace and all of these things. And then all your friends come up to you. Oh, brother. What a message. Beautiful message. Best message I've heard. That's wonderful. But imagine you're talking, you've made this beautiful sermon on forgiveness and you're not even talking to your classmate. You're upset with them. You're angry. You're not talking to each other. There's unforgiveness and bitterness. That means what? You have preached a sermon without say it. It's okay. What have you done? If there's unforgiveness inside you and me, even me, okay? All of us. And I preached one of the best sermons of forgiveness, what have I done? Correct. It's like a hypocrite. So, what is that sentence? Practice what you say. Practice what you preach. Don't preach about forgiveness when you yourself are living in unforgiveness. You get what I'm saying? So the point is it's not about how well you preach and teach. That anointing is there. That's the anointing. That's a gift that God gives. But the point is your life speaks. The greatest message you will ever preach is the life you live. While people may forget the sermons, they will remember the life we lived. And one thing that always I I would never forget was in 2012, I think I've shared this before. Um we went to vision India conference in Delhi and this was one of the first conferences that we went as a church and there were maybe 20 or 20,000 people huge stadium right and uh you know pastor had preached powerful sermon on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and and people were lined up to pray and then we were all there just helping to pray for people and and after the sermon money. After all of this preaching, you normally go to the green room. Green room is where you know the main speakers come there. They have a nice meal and everything. There's AC and people serving you there. I remember this so well. He came searching for us in that. It's a massive stadium, right? So he found out where is where is where are my people? Whereas he came searching for us. We were having you know this one hard rice and dal because it was made in the morning by the time it's 2 3:00 hard rice. Okay. Imagine cooking for 20,000 more people. So and some dal no side dish at all. He came. We went in this small like a classroom. It was full of dust down. We we had served it all off. He sat down with us and he ate the same food that we ate. And when I saw that, I said, "This is true character." He had all the options to go enjoy. What would you and I do? What do you think you and I would have done? You think you would have done that? Very unlikely. I questioned myself. Do you think I would have done this? I don't know. But it was amazing. And I saw we all sat down, we finished food, went back on the stage, preach in front of 20,000 people. That's true character. That's true strength. Not what? Not the gifting. All all that is there. These are my people. I was they eating that. How can I eat something nice? We'd all eat together. There are many times we have traveled all three of us. We have slept in chicken sheds. We have slept in five-star hotels. You know, we have slept in villages where there are snakes going up and down. There was this one time we when we were in Rajasthan and we were sleeping and three of us pastor three of us we were sleeping and we were looking up and there were snakes going up and down and we're looking at we're talking to each other saying who's going to sleep first you know looking at those snakes and nothing changes and no matter how big your ministry is be willing to be humble be wise is small things they build character, right? Character determines your durability, right? Durability meaning how long you can sustain. Character, sorry, next one. Spiritual maturity as important as spiritual gifting. Look at these three Greek words. Everyone know what spiritual maturity? Yes or no? In the natural be mature right now you don't cry for food. When you were a baby you cried for food. Spiritual maturity. When you just become a believer you'll cry for the smallest problems. But now after couple of years okay problem will come. We're not saying problem came on its own. It'll go on its own. No you face the problem deal with it and move on. Right? So spiritual maturity is important. Spiritual calling also is important. Let's look at these three words. Teley teles which means complete a full age mature perfect man. Leo to fill up or to be full of or under the influence of. Then katar katariso which is to complete thoroughly thorough equipping often translated as uh the literal meaning talking about being equipped. Now you don't need to know these Greek words. If you want to you can but what's the point here? He's talking about three different aspects. One is coming full of age right to be a perfect man. When you say perfect meaning reaching the place of maturity to be filled up or to be completely full of that anointing of God's presence and then spiritual gifting using your spiritual gifting to be thoroughly equipped for the work of the ministry right so just as the your calling is important spiritual maturity is going to enable you to fulfill your spiritual call if we keep behaving like children that's why Paul writes to the Corinth and he says you have all the gifts but you all are like babies that are drinking milk why they're fighting over each other don't you know that love is the basis of all of these gifts how can you fight with each other and you're flowing in the gifts of the spirit so Paul is saying it's like you're making sound nothing's happening just a sounding gong So don't do that. He's saying mature, forgive one another, love one another, forget all these divisions you're seeing in the church. Use the gifts together. Become that perfect man or that man of who's attained spiritual maturity. Now we all need will keep growing in spiritual maturity. One of the things is the seasons of life will make us mature. We will understand. Remember my early days preaching I I'll give everyone nicely you're not praying gone for you you know half my sermons were like grow up don't be a child learn to pray how can you watch TV for hours you want to watch TV instead of vision you are watching television that people were like oh bad. Right? So then I realized, hey, I need to change. I can't be talking. I mean, it's it's not wrong, right? There's no vision because there's television to throw your television out and I have certain vision in life and write it down and use it. That's how I used to preach. And I realized, okay, not everyone everyone are learning, everyone are growing, right? Uh so sometimes when I'm one-on-one with people who are believers, depends on their spiritual maturity. Sometimes I'll be very stern, sometimes I'll be very kind. Okay, don't worry. God will help you read the word. Sometimes I'll tell people, you don't know how to read. You know how to read? No, read the word. But you say it kindly, you know, you understand what I'm trying to get at, right? Depends on the spiritual mature. But we all should come to that level of maturity. Okay. Quickly, seven characteristics of spiritual maturity. Before that, any questions. Any questions on maturity, character? Everyone are I hope we are all you know learning this. Build this. What are the two important words? If you got nothing, at least get these two in this lecture. What are the two important words I said? >> Discipline and >> practice. Please. Discipline and practice. Keep that going in your life. Discipline. When you wake up in the morning, what's the first thing you should do? That's what I wanted actually. Fold your bed sheet. Don't don't say the anointing is coming upon me. I don't have time to fold bed sheet. You tell the anointing, wait, let me fold the bed sheet. It's building character. Okay? Then go back to your horse. Don't throw your socks to find your socks. You have to do research. Where I where was I the last time? Don't do all that. Keep your stuff properly. When I came here this morning, there was a mosquito coil on this. I don't know why. Why is there Why is that always here? I don't understand. But it's here. One day it's going to I'll throw it out. Should I like that's that's how I am at home. You know, if it's not there, if it's there, the second day is gone. It's thrown. It's because it's not supposed to be there. I'm a hard task master. And a discipline does that to you. You just so mentally you become strong. And you're able to look at the positive. You're able to there are negatives, okay? Where but you're able to defeat what the enemy enemy is bringing thoughts. Your body says you're weak. You can't do it. But your mind says you can do it. You can do it. Why? Discipline practice. Get those two done. Um, pastor, just as character is important and like when you're hard on yourself, how do you find the balance? Cuz you said also spend time enjoying your life. What if you're too discip like not disciplined, say you're too hard on yourself to do the right thing all the time. How do you balance you know being >> disciplined and being faithful and at the same time >> yeah so so some of the things is uh like how do you balance everyone understood the question most of you understood it okay yeah the question is see I've been talking about discipline and practice but I also mentioned enjoy your life so the question is how do I balance it good question that time I said enjoy your Now pastor you're telling discipline and practice what is this? What should I do? Enjoy your life. Do both. How now? Monday to Friday for for me personally right. I work work right. So work get it done get the things done. You delegate you get things done whatever work you have to do. Saturday comes you know. So Monday to Friday is always get up morning wake up pray the word get the kids ready go to school. So you got all these things doing now you know. Okay, Saturday, you relax. So sometimes Saturday, I tell myself, wake up at 10:00 a.m., forget about 3:00 a.m., right? So I I intentionally don't want to wake up at 3:00 a.m. So sometimes I wake up 5:00, you know? I'm so used to it, right? 5 6:00. Okay? So I'm not hard on myself. I'm not saying, "Oh man, 3:00 a.m. I didn't get up. What is the Lord going to do to me now?" you know. No, I've told myself, hey, I'm going to be intentional. Now, on a Saturday, I'm not going to be opening my Bible and reading the whole day. No. So, I'm going to spend some time with the kids, you know, maybe go out for a drive, go out and eat something and come back. Uh, some Saturdays there's like this Saturday, tomorrow is weekend school. So, I have to be at weekend school. Evening I'm going to a So, there's those. So, I know I compensate. Okay, this Saturday I tell them I can't be I'm not much here but let's do something on another day or take days off. Right? Uh so how not to be hard on yourself is to balance it out by saying okay these days in a week I'm going to give what I'm going to give my 100%. The other days I'm going to relax. So Sunday afternoon after eating I just relax and sometimes I don't talk to anybody you know just quiet relax listen to music the kids come play with the kids don't use the phone because again it's keep it away right just relax do something that I like you know some one of my friend told me why don't you join swimming okay let me try it out so I joined swimming beautiful right I never thought swimming could be so relaxed and so sometimes you you know now I'm reading about sessationism, determination, determinationism, all the isms cuz we have a record of a couple of podcasts and I'm trying to read it. I've been reading and sometimes you feel your mind's going to explode with all these theological stuff and sometimes I go in the evening get into the pool it's like all your stress goes away. You come out of the pool, you feel so fresh. It's good. Yeah, it's good. It's just you feel refreshed. Tiredness may be there, but you do things that you like, right? So, cycling, whatever. You find that balance. So, Monday to Friday, work hard. And then in the other times of leaves, don't don't be too hard. Now, there'll be times that you may not get up early in the morning and pray. Doesn't mean that God is angry with you. God is uh you know I have disappointed God. No, no, no, no. We have not disappointed God in any way. Right? Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Is when you uh when you and I sin against God, then we are grieving against grieving the Holy Spirit. If we don't get up for pray, doesn't mean we're grieving the Holy Spirit. We're not. Unless the Holy Spirit tells us, I want you to do this right now. And we don't do it. Then that's okay, right? But God understands us, right? Okay. They didn't get up because they're tired, physically tired. This too much of work or anything. So, it's okay. Instead of getting up at 5, you got up at 7:00. Okay. 7 to 7:30. It's all right. Don't be too hard. Don't don't tell yourself, "Oh, now God is angry with me. He's not going to talk to me. Uh, you know, I may not hear from God." No. But on the other hand, don't slack off in that area. Anyway, God is not God is love. So, I'll do what I want. Now, that's extremes. You get it? So you just learn to um again remember that we are not perfect. So we we we learn, we practice, we learn, right? It took many many years for me to get into the habit of waking up early, right? It took many many years to get into the habit for me to read. I was not a reader. So reading all but practice and discipline gets you going, right? So begin with that, right? Begin small. What are you going to start with? Give me two things you are going to start with that can going to help you. It doesn't need to be spiritual but anything discipline. Oh, which one? >> You will wash your wash your Okay. Very good. Yeah. You wash your clothes on time. Don't think no. Oh, God is not God is very much interested in it, right? Very much interested in it. Daniel was doing administration work. He is okay. What else? Some more pass. We don't have time. What are you going to do? Routine of routine of the week. You'll try to follow the routine of the week. Okay. What else? What is the routine? You have to write it down and maybe others okay pastor you practice you discipline don't ask me tell me what what do you think you're going to do timing you know what's another practice learning to keep your mouth shut don't talk too much the more you talk the more you're going into problems and you realize that and you say God please help me God is saying you have too many problems because you talk too much, stop talking. Okay, you understand what I'm saying? So, you find out where you're going to discipline your life. You find out, sorry, it's true. You find out where, okay, I'm going to, you know, one weird certain things, my shirts are in color order in hanger. So there are things that really can you know through practice and okay the reason I'm sharing this is you do something for years it becomes a discipline that no matter what happens around you it becomes a discipline you will do it you will do it right and it can need not be something very spiritual even if it's in the natural later on you'll be able to apply it in the spiritual right so the smallest temptation that comes to your mind you'll be like hey I'm able to defeat this just by the word the word I'll use the word it's done gone right so it's good I'm I'm happy that you all came on time and you know that's that's good right you practice this just practice the same thing 15 days 30 days it becomes a habit you'll slowly realize that hey it's time I have to go you don't need a shepherd coming and telling you go in go in go in no you will not need the bell You understand? So all these small things matter. It may feel you may feel it doesn't matter. No, it matters. It matters. Okay. So think of two things this week, Monday to Friday. Next Friday I'm going to ask you two things that you have changed. It need not be spiritual, right? Can be something very even the fact of the food. the food comes. Don't skip the line and go off in front. Brother, today leg pain I want to go in front. No, don't eat your food and then you know you just throw the plate wherever you want to play throw. Wash it neatly. Keep it there. Small things. Think okay if Jesus is eating in the plate next how will I wash it? You'll scrub and scrub and scrub till you can see your face in that. Yes or no? Right? Do it like that. Okay. So, we'll begin next class seven characteristics of spiritual maturity. Uh thank you everyone. Have a great weekend. See you next week.