The Word of God and our Most Holy Faith II

[Speaker 1] Church and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home for [unclear]. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Life Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] We thank Him for His mercies. We thank Him for His love. We thank Him again for another privilege of being in His presence again for another time to look into the word of God. We have been on this topic, on this series of "Kept by the power of God through faith." Indeed, we are kept by the power of God for an inheritance that God has secured for us in heaven. An inheritance that cannot be defiled, an inheritance that is not corruptible, an inheritance that cannot fade. And God, because He has prepared this inheritance for us, which is indeed what He wants to give to those who love Him. I was speaking with somebody and I said, when Jesus was speaking to His disciples, He said, "Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in the Father, believe also in me." He said, "In my Father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you." He said, "I go to prepare a place for you." So the reality is that the inheritance of the believer is not something that is actually on this earth. Our actual inheritance is not here. That's the truth. Because He actually, what did He say? He said, "I am going to prepare a place." After when you come, you will be where I am so you can get that inheritance. So we told ourselves at the beginning of this series that there is an inheritance. We took that in 1 Peter 1. There is this inheritance, and God is keeping us. The reason why God is keeping you and me is because He has a plan, there is something prepared for us. And so the Bible says we are kept by the power of God, but through faith. Through faith. And that has led us into considering this matter of faith. Faith, what is this faith? What is true faith? How does the faith come? How do we walk in this faith? We have been considering so many things around it. That faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. This faith is a victorious faith, it's a dominating faith, it's a faith that conquers the world. He that is born of God overcometh the world. This is the faith that overcomes the world, even our faith. We saw that from the testimony of the elders. This faith was able to subdue kingdom, was able to stop the mouth of the lion, was able to quench fire, was able to hold kings trapped. This faith was a victorious faith. And we said this faith that Jesus authored and is finishing is not a faith that can be dominated. It's a faith that dominates. It's a faith that is victorious. And we began to look at how do we walk in this faith. We took the story of the woman with the issue of blood. Several people were touching Jesus Christ, but she came to touch Jesus with a touch of faith. So we said people may be around Jesus, but what is their heart saying? The woman was saying something in her heart. She was trusting, she was not doubting in her heart, and Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well." Jesus didn't say, "I have healed you." He said, "Your faith." So we saw that it is our faith that is our purchasing power with God. Faith is the currency in the spiritual world. It's what you use. It's like the lifeline. Where there is no faith, grace cannot flow. Until you believe God, the grace of God does not come to you. It is just the same thing with what we found in one of our topics that we took some times ago. He said, "If any man look at the serpent, what will happen? The person will live." The grace and the mercy of God is that serpent that was lifted up. The grace and the mercy of God is that serpent that was lifted up, represent the grace of God, represent the mercy of God. But the people cannot experience that grace, they cannot experience that mercy except they do what? Except they look up. So for us to be able to experience the mercy of God in our lives, the grace of God in our lives, it is by this faith. Faith is that lifeline. Grace is what we spend, faith is the lifeline to it. Grace makes the power of God to become operational in our lives. And so we saw that in that faith we don't need to fear. He told them, He told Jairus, what did He tell Jairus? "Fear not, fear not, fear not." And so it was. We move from there to look at God is a shelter in the time of storm. That no matter what the storm is saying, God is there, He's a shelter in the midst of storm. So we have been considering all of these and last week we were looking at this capacity of the word of God. That the way God sent Joshua, the way God sent Joseph, the way God sent Moses, is the way God sent His word. And so just as you see human beings doing something, the same way the word of God can do in our lives. That took us to the matter of truth. We were considering Joshua 1:8 and John 8:32. "This book of law shall not depart out of your mouth, meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in there." Jesus told the Jews that believe in Him, "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." We were seeing the interplay of these things last week. That there is something about giving attention to scripture. The coming of the word of God, the realization of the truth, and the encounter with Jesus. But we could not conclude last week, and this week I want to wrap up this matter today by the mercies of God. I believe God that we will wrap up this matter of kept by the power of God through faith and believing God that it will be a time of blessing. Let's have a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you. Our God, we bless you. To you be glory, to you be praise, to you be honor, to you be adoration. We appreciate you for all who you are, our God. As we come again into your word this evening, Lord, we are asking. Lord, grant that there will be seed for the sower and there will be bread for the eater. Lord, attend to our gathering with mercy. Such that, Lord, whether those of us gathering here physically, those of us linking with us online, Lord, the mercy, the grace of God, the hand of God may reach us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, attend to those things in our lives that needs your attention. Lord, they will receive attention this evening in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. So we move on today as we try to wrap up everything together. I want us to move today to quickly look at Psalm 119:130 and Psalm 119:18. Remember that we did mention last week that until the word of God comes to a man, the man remains ordinary. And I pray that the word of God, as we continue again today, will come to us in the name of Jesus Christ. Let's look at Psalm 119, first verse 18 then verse 130. Look at the prayer of the psalmist. What is the prayer here? The New King James Bible says, "Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law." Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law. Of course, the psalmist wasn't... David wasn't blind. Throughout his lifetime he was not a blind person. So, of course, the eyes he's talking about here is not the physical eyes. If you are with us three weeks ago, you'll be able to give the answer about this matter of eyes here. Which eyes are we talking about here? Yes, the eyes of faith, which is understanding. Say, your eyes of understanding being enlightened. Faith has eyes. Those eyes are called understanding. When understanding comes, faith is activated. That's what we mean by faith comes by hearing. It's not just hearing that... it's not the head knowledge hearing. It's not like the hearing in CRS class. They teach the Bible in JAMB class, they teach the Bible in the universities, they teach you theology. They talk about the Bible, but it does not bring faith. In fact, there are many artists, there are many atheists and godless men that teach this subject and yet they are not believers. So we are not talking about just the mere hearing of the word of God. But we are talking about faith comes when the eyes of faith are open. The eyes of faith is what we call understanding. Once understanding enters a man, what it produces in that man is what? Faith. Note, we didn't say believe because there's a great difference between believe and faith, even though they are birds of the same feather. Somebody tried to ask me what's the difference between believe and faith? And I said it's very simple. Not because like somebody made a statement that Nigerians are people who answer question with question. But I answered the person with a question. I said, what's the difference between air and wind? What's the difference between air and wind? What's the difference between flame and fire? Or what's the difference between sea and tide? The sea and the tide. The sea is just the water. But tide is when the water is in motion. When the water takes motion and it's moving, you say, "Wow, tide is coming." You don't say sea is coming. But what is coming is still the same water. But because it has gained momentum, it's running. The same thing is air and wind. When the air is just there, you talk about air. There is air in this place but there is no movement. When there is movement of that air, you say breeze. When the movement is stronger, you say wind. When it gets much more stronger, you say wide wind. When it gets seriously ferocious, what do you say? You say tornado. But it's the same air. The same thing between faith and believe. When we act upon what we believe, we don't say believe again, we say faith. Faith is believe in action. When a man cannot act upon what he believe, there is no faith. When a man acts upon what he believes, you say, "Wow, this man has faith." And that is why you notice that woman believed that when her hand touches the garment of Jesus, what will happen to her? She'll be made well. That was her belief. She acted on that belief. What did Jesus say? "Your faith. Your faith. Your faith has made you well." So faith, the thin line between believe and faith is we may have a lot of believers but we may not have men who have faith. Until we act upon our belief, there is no faith. Now, the psalmist was speaking in this place. Say, "Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law. Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law." Now, you notice something here. We are talking about the word of God and our most holy faith. We are trying to wrap up this matter today. Now, what is the connection here? The psalmist is talking about the eyes of faith. But he's making us to see that there is a connection between the eyes of faith and the laws of God. He says, "Open my eyes in your laws. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." What he's saying is that, what he's saying is that give me understanding when I read your laws. Let there be, let this eyes of faith be open. Because when the eyes of faith are not open, let me try to illustrate something. You see, faith has eyes. Now, when the eyes of faith are not open, I'm just trying to illustrate when somebody is blind. You will notice that there is, even though you might push something before a blind person, something that the person need to reach out to. For example, if somebody is blind and he's like this and a vehicle is coming towards the person, will there be a movement? There won't be a movement. Why? Because he cannot see. But ordinarily, it's not that the person does not want to be saved. If the person could see the vehicle coming, what would the person do? Now, I'm trying to illustrate something to you about this eyes of understanding and faith. You see, when the eyes of faith are closed, you can understand why it looks as if the believer is not doing what he ought to do when he ought to do it. Because he cannot see what he ought to see. Immediately he sees, immediately faith begin to see, immediately believer will begin to act, will begin to... "Ah, no, no, this!" And then you begin to wonder, is it not the same person that has been passive? It's because something has happened. Formerly he could not see, but now he could see. There is something about this sight, just like Bible talked about seeing the invisible that we talked about before, seeing the invisible, seeing this thing that... it is this seeing, this seeing brings movement. But we are noting that the psalmist said, "Open my eyes," not the physical eye, but the eyes of faith. He said, "Open it that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." It means the wonders that is in the law of the Lord, the wonders that is in that law is not something that we can naturally see except we are aided. If we are not aided, we cannot see it. That was why I began with Luke 24. The Bible says the two disciples that were going to Emmaus, he said when they saw Jesus, what happened? The Bible says their eyes were restrained. I hope you know that Jesus is the living word of God. They could not see. So the living word of God, that was Jesus, took the scriptures and he was expounding the scriptures, he was expounding the scriptures to them, pointing scriptures to them. Now, you will notice that at the end, like we said earlier, they said, "Did our heart burn within us? Did our heart burn within us?" Why is it that their heart did not burn before? They have been seeing those laws. But why couldn't their heart burn? Because they were not aided. But now, somebody is aiding them. There was a divine aid. There was something aiding that thing. And then there was, they began to behold wondrous things. Where? Out of that law. In Psalm 119:130, that's a very popular scripture. In verse 130, not Psalm 130, in verse 130 we are very familiar with that one. What did the Bible say in that place? That's a popular scripture. It says, "The entrance of your word gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. The entrance of your word gives light. It gives understanding to the simple." Look at John. John, the story of the blind man. Please look at something, John 9. Look at something in John 9. Now, as Jesus passed by, I'm reading from verse 1. He saw a man that was born blind from birth. His disciples asked him saying, "Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work." Verse 5, what did Jesus say? "As long as I am in the world, I am what? I am the light of the world." John 1:1-4. "In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Through him were all things made. Without him was nothing made that was made. In him was life. The life is the light of men." I'm connecting something to you, "The life is the light of men. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." John 3. John 3. I read from verse 17. "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." I believe that's very, very clear. Why is the son not sent to condemn the world? Because the world itself is already condemned. It's already condemned. So there's nothing again to come and condemn. Are you following me at all? If you go there, he say, "He who believe not is condemned already." What I'm trying to say is that somebody is committing fornication, he's lying, he's stealing, he's... just mention all these things. That is not why God is condemning the person. That is not what condemned the person. God knows that he's a fornicator, he's this, he's that. But what God is saying is that you are fornicating, okay, believe Jesus and be saved from sin. You say no. That is the real condemnation. The real condemnation is that you are in trouble. I came to take you out of the trouble, you rejected me. That's the real condemnation that is upon the world. So the Bible does not send to the world to condemn the world because ordinarily the world is already condemned. Fornicators, adulterers, they are... they are condemned people. But he's saying so that... he said I've not come for those that are well. Who did I come for? For those who are not well. Those who are well, they don't need somebody. He came to... so those who are well, those who say they can see, they don't need me. That why he hated the Pharisee because they say they can see. He say, go, stay one side. Let me look for those who cannot see. And so he came to seek and to save that which is lost. So he know they're already lost. I'm taking you somewhere. So the situation of the world is that the world is in condemnation. Now, when we say condemnation, we are saying that it's not as if the world, ordinarily the people in the world, they are not enjoying themselves. The fornicator is enjoying himself, he think he's okay. The drunkard think he's okay. The adulterous person think he's okay. Everybody... people are not really seeing that they are condemned people. A sinner cannot even see that he's a lost person. Are you understanding me? Now, we are going somewhere. Please note that these condemned people, they are people that are living their lives. They are going through school, they are growing old, they are marrying, they are having children, they are having riches, they are professionals, they are medical doctors, they are lawyers, they are artisans, they are market women. Are you understanding me? These condemned people. Are you following me? Please, we are connecting the matter of light. "He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who believe not is condemned already because he has not believe in the name of the only begotten son of God." Now, look at it, verse 19. "And this is the condemnation, that..." what do you see there? Did it say light? Mine say the light. That light. Another translation? That light. That God's light did what? Has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. So, what actually came to the world? What came to the world? Light. Light. I'm trying to show you something. So, when you remove Jesus, what actually have you removed? Light. When you remove the word of God, what have you removed? Light. "Cause me to behold wondrous things out of your law." So, what is the wondrous thing? What is the wondrous thing that is in the law of the Lord? The wondrous thing that is in that law is light. Light. Why light? Why is the matter the matter of light? Because our real situation is that we are in what? We are in darkness. Not that we have lost our reasoning. That's why I said these people that we say they are condemned, they are in darkness. They go to school, they will read physics, chemistry, biology, they will read government, whatever, they will pass, they will have A1. They will go through university, come out with first class. They are professionals. Are you understanding me? But what is the problem of their life? Darkness. So, what is the darkness? Are you getting it now? So, the real issue about man... what I want you to get very, very well is that the situation of man is that once you remove light, it's not as if man will not be living and be doing things. But all that the man is doing is in what? Is in darkness. Now, what is the issue about this darkness? What is the issue about this darkness? He says because their deeds are what? Are evil. Their deeds are evil. Are you getting something at all? It means whatever a man does outside light is what? Is evil. Whatever a man is doing outside light is evil. The thing may look good and reasonable to you. It will look very okay. In fact, he will tell you that he does not have problem. But you know what the psalmist is saying? He says, "Open my eyes that I may behold light." That's the wondrous thing. When I see light, light will help me to see that actually my deeds are not correct. Why is it that man cannot see that his deeds are not correct? Because he's in darkness. What is the darkness? The deeds are evil, isn't it? Evil. What is therefore the evil in that evil? It's self-justification. Self-justification. Let me explain it to you. When light came and Adam and his wife hid themselves. When God said, "Adam, where are you?" what was his response? What was his response? He said, we are... his eyes opened, he said, and he was naked. What was the question? Where are you? He said, we are hiding because we are naked. Did he say what are you doing? He say, where are you? I'm trying to make you understand something about God and man. The next question, "Have you... you must have eaten what I said you should not eat." What was the answer? What was supposed to be the answer? Yes. Are you following me at all? Are you seeing man and what? Self-justification. You see, until light comes, man does not see the evil in himself. Until light comes, he cannot see the evil. Let me give you a good example of this matter that is becoming a societal issue, very serious issue today. Rape. A lady was raped around 9 PM beside a nightclub by a man who did this and this and that. What will be the next thing that people will say? Why would she be raped? What is she doing there by night? Why is she by a nightclub? Has being there by 9 PM and being by a nightclub justifies the perpetrator of the rape? Has it been... it means, eh, that person is correct now. Why was she there too by night? So our society, instead of saying rape, who is the person? The person must be dealt with. It will be, eh, why wouldn't she be raped? I'm just giving you a good example of what I'm trying to talk about. There is this mechanism in man that if you slap me and I slap you, if they ask me, "Why do you slap me?" "Ah, he first slap me first!" Self-justification. I'm showing you this naturally so you can understand. You tell a husband, "Why do you do that to your wife?" "Ah, you need to know what she did." He... I'm trying to make you see this state of man. That man, rather than facing truth, justifies evil in the face of self-justification. It does not face truth. And that is why you'll find out that no matter how much you want a man who has not personally experienced truth to see the truth about his life, he will tell you, "What is your problem?" If you are pointing to a wife, she say, "Look, the problem is not me, you need to go and meet my husband. He is the problem." When you meet the husband, what do you know that husbands normally say again? They say it's their wife. When you meet a father, say, "Don't mind my daughter. What happened now because she's so stubborn." When you meet the daughter, what will daughter say? She'll say, "Think about my father, it's that I hate him, he will never..." You come to see this matter. Are you understanding me? That is why there is an adage among the Yorubas. They will say, "Taba fun were gan l'oko..." How do we interpret that in English? But if we give a madman hoe, he will still make sure that the best of the things comes to his side. Is that not? To tell you that man, even when he's insane, he's insane, he's still in self-justification. Even when he's insane. It is self-justification that makes a man not to want to come to light. The word of God and our most holy faith. But the matter we are actually addressing this evening goes beyond self-justification. What I'm actually addressing with you today is this. We are talking about being preserved by faith. That's our focus. But I like to make you understand something at the background to make something clear. So, what I want you to see is that until light comes to us, the deeds... man is in darkness. His decisions, his actions, and whatever will be what? Will be in darkness. And I want to tell you, what is it that you can do best in darkness? Please tell me some things you can do very well in darkness. You can commit more sin in darkness. Okay, that's one. You sleep. When you want to sleep, you off light, you put off the light. Am I correct? You sleep in darkness. What is again in darkness? What are things that we do normally in darkness? We stumble in darkness. There is fear. You notice that when you are going through a particular place during the day, you are not afraid. But once night begin to comes, 7 PM your fear will rise small. 8 PM it will go up small. 9 PM you say, "I cannot go alone." 10 PM you say, "Don't let us go." Even if somebody want to go with you, "Don't let us go." Am I correct? As thing that darkness intensify, it brings what? Fear. What again do you know again in darkness? You will notice that I don't know whether you have walked in the darkness before. Have you ever walk when everywhere is dark before in the... late in the night? You know that even when you see a nylon just hanging beside the road, it's a big thing. It would take another kind of shape. It would take another kind of shape and color. You may just see the traffic light and you look as if there is a tall person walking towards you. Are you understanding me? So you notice that inside darkness, what am I trying to say? There is misrepresentation, there is misinformation, there is misconstruction, there is misperception. Are you understanding me? Inside darkness. I'm showing you the life of man when the light of faith don't come. Without faith, we are dead people. That is why the Bible says, "The just shall live by its faith." A man can never be just until he's living by faith. Once you remove faith, he will become unjust because there will be no light. The just, the wicked cannot live by faith. The unjust cannot live by faith because faith is light. For anybody to be just as far as this life is concerned, it is only by faith. Once you remove faith, you become unjust. That is why Paul was saying in Romans 14 that "whatsoever is not out of faith is what? Is sin." Whatsoever is not out of faith is what? Is sin. Are you familiar with that scripture? Romans 14, you will find it there. Romans 14:23. He say, "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does it not from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin." You know what he's saying? You know what he's saying? Now, combine that now like this with Psalm 119:105. "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." So once you remove the word of God, there is no light, you are in darkness. Darkness, your deeds are evil. There's misconstruction, there's misrepresentation, there's misinterpretation. Are you... are you understanding? All of all those things, self-justification, count them. For us to be just, thy word must be a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So once you come out of the word of God, you are not in light. Now, but the matter is this, please get the matter that we are saying. The matter is this. When we are saying the word of God, we are saying the wonders that is in the word. By the wonders of the word, what are we talking about? The light that is in the word. That is why he say meditate day and night. Meditate. What are you meditating for? Meditation does not mean that somebody is reading the Bible. We begin with the Bible by Bible reading. What I personally call Bible appreciation. There are many believers today who have not done Bible appreciation. Bible appreciation is about to read through the whole Bible over and over again such that there is no information, there is nothing, no story they mention that you are not familiar with. That's Bible appreciation. That is not understanding. That is Bible appreciation. Then from appreciation, you move to Bible study. Bible study is you are reading the Bible, but there are certain words that you don't really get the meaning. And so you pick the dictionary to check. When the Bible say be patient, what does it really mean to be patient? Do I know the meaning of patient? You go and check. You begin to check. You are comparing scriptures with scripture. You're looking at dictionary. You're reading commentary to understand it. That is still brain power. But these are the processes. That's why the Bible did not say, "thou shall read the Bible day..." It say "thou shall meditate." Talking about the climax of all of them. You read, you study, you now come to the place of meditation. Meditation is the place of devotion. In meditation, you have read, you have understood. Now you are saying, ah... for example, let me pick a word of God. "By his stripes we are healed." Ah, you have checked, "by his stripe." You mean the stripe when they were canning him, we were healed. Ah, we were. You check were, were is past tense. Oh, it was done. Ah, say, "God, I don't understand. Please give me understanding." We were healed, but if we were, why are believers sick? Are you understanding me? You were the level of talking, speaking back the word of God. It's like something you carry in your heart. Trying, trying, it's like somebody wanted to crack a nut, wanting something to crack. And then you are turning it. You are speaking back the word of God. Or look at another one. "I'm with you to the end of the world." You begin to meditate, "Baba, I don't understand. It mean you are with me. Ah, to the end. So you are always with me. You mean that you don't leave me at all? You mean that at every time you are with me? You mean that those times when I'm afraid you are with me? Have you seen God? Ah, give me understanding. To the end." As you are saying that, oh, you receive aid. As you turn over and turn over the word of God, as you turn over the word of God, as you take delight in it, those are the men that receive aid. You turn it over, you turn it over. You are turning it to the Lord. That's why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3, it says, "When we turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away." You turn to the Lord. Many times we don't turn. So the veil is still on our mind. The veil is in our eyes. It's not open. But when you turn to the Lord, what happened? The veil is taken away. It's the only one that can remove the veil. Turn to the Lord! Forget your brain power! Forget all of those thing! Turn! Go and check that scripture. It say, "Until today, anytime Moses is read, anytime they are reading the Bible, what happened? There is always a veil." That's why you find this... this song among the Yorubas. This Yoruba song, just among the Yorubas. "Mimo mimo mimo, Olodumare, oju elese, ko le ri ogo re. Mimo mimo mimo, Olodumare, oju elese, ko le ri ogo re." Listen! Please! When we say light, who is the light of the world? Jesus is that light. So when we say you behold light in the word of God, what actually did you behold? You behold Jesus. When you behold Jesus, what are we beholding? "For this is life eternal, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ that you have sent." So when we behold Jesus, what are we beholding? Eternal life. So brethren, I'm calling your attention to something that they are so connected together. They are so tied together. Today, what we have around us... let me describe it like this. We have more of believers, but we don't have people who have faith. I believe that is very clear. We have more of believers. Believers, we believe, we believe, we believe, we believe, we believe, but go and check when it comes to living. When I say believers, I'm serious oh. You will see us, we will speak in tongues, we will pray, we will call Jesus, but get to a situation, for example, where they say, "Bro, for you to get that promotion, you need to... you know that number is 3-0. You need to turn it to 4-0 so that Oga can get extra 10%. If you don't do it, there will be no promotion." You know what Bro will quickly do? He say, "Ah, what is that to me? Is it not just to add zero?" Are you understanding me? Why can't he be just? Because the eyes of faith are blind. He's a believer, but faith cannot see. What is coming? Hell fire. He could not run from the danger because he cannot see. The eyes of faith. Why is he blind? Because he has not turned to who? To the Lord. So he's reading the word, but the veil is not taken away. He's reading it, but the veil is not taken away. He's reading it, but wondrous things cannot be beheld. That is why the psalmist was crying in that verse 19, "Oh, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." Because you may be by the law till the day you will die, and you will see nothing. You will not see anything. And I'm telling you, until we can act on what we believe, we are faithless. And as long as we are faithless, we cannot be preserved. We will always fear. The victory is our faith. We cannot be preserved outside faith. You cannot be just outside faith. If you cannot please God, you are not a just man. Without faith, you can't please God. You can't please God, then you are a sinner. You cannot please God, then you are in darkness. You cannot please God... without faith, you can't please God. Without faith, you cannot be victorious. You can't faith, you cannot take action. You will misunderstand, you will be misinformed, you will misconstrue, you will misperceive. Everything about a man without faith is miss, miss, miss. And they will keep missing everything. They will miss it financially, they will miss it spiritually, they will miss it everything. They will keep missing it. Faith! The light has come. Brethren, there is a light shining in the dark. That light is Jesus. When you got born again, a light was shining in the dark. Jesus came in. He's the light shining in the dark. If you give hit to... if you give him, this light will grow and he will be formed in your heart. And that is eternal life. Eternal life is to know him progressively, is to understand him progressively. That is the life eternal. That is the life of faith. That is the life of light. That is the life of glory. That is the life of mercy. That is the life of favor. That is the life that pleases God. It is the same life, this life of faith. Thank you, Father. Oh, blessed be your holy name, our God. Thank you, eternal God. Thank you, everlasting Father. Oh, blessed be your name, Father. Lord, you will help us. Lord, you will help us. Lord, you will help our generation. We must arise, we must arise, we must turn to the Lord. Thank you, eternal Father. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Almighty God, we just look up unto you again. Lord, you said "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail." Lord, build your church. Lord, build your church. No man have the capacity to do this thing except you. Oh, Lord, arise. Oh, Lord, come into your temple again, like you did in the former time. Come into your temple, overthrow the table of the money changers, drive out those who are selling dove, make your house again a house of prayer in the name of Jesus. And Lord, the reality of our Christian life is that a light, a light is shining in a dark place. That light is there. When we got born again, that light came. But it is still in a dark place. We need to, there is a need for this light to grow and grow until the morning star dawn in our heart. Oh God, I pray, beyond congregational experience, Oh Lord, Oh Lord, draw us into a personal work in the name of Jesus. Lord, Lord, until this matter becomes a personal reality, Lord, our Christian experience is not real. Lord, I pray. Lord, I pray. Every branch must be personally connected to the vine so that they can be fruitful. Lord, Lord, Lord, I pray. Beyond congregating, beyond congregating, this personal work where the prophetic word of God, where the word of God comes to a man, where the light of God shines in our spirit, where the daylight shines, where Jesus is made real in our heart, where Jesus is formed within us. Paul prayed for the Colossian church. He said "that Christ may be formed in you." Oh Lord, I pray again today, that Christ may be formed in us in the name of Jesus. That Christ may be formed in the body of Christ, in the heart of his people, in the name of Jesus. Thank you, blessed Father. In Jesus' most holy name we pray. Amen.