Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
We have started a series called The Kingdom Life based on the
life and teachings of Jesus from the Gospel according to Mark.
We look at how we must live our lives on this earth as followers
of Jesus in a way that is countercultural yet powerfully
impactful. As you listen in, our hope is
that you will be motivated to live, love, lead, and serve just
like Jesus. Hi Church.
It's such a joy and a privilege to be bringing God's Word to you
today, even as we've been going through this entire series
called The Kingdom Life. For those of you who are
watching and for those of you who are listening, our prayer is
that even as you hear this, that God will walk in and through
your lives. And even as I'm speaking, my
prayer is that God will walk in and through me as I speak
because I believe this Kingdom life that we are called to live
is 1, where Jesus is seated on the throne and no one else.
There's no other God that can be seated there.
There's no other person that can be seated there.
There's no other thing that can take its place, it's only Jesus.
And so why do we follow this Kingdom life?
Because Jesus modelled it right here for us.
He walked here on this earth 2000 years back and He lived His
life here on this earth. God as man, just like you and
me. He felt what you felt.
He felt what we all feel today, irrespective of how many years
it has been. But I want to ask you today that
even as we pursue Him, even as we've seen three parts, we saw
in the first part, it matters what matters, this Kingdom life,
our motives matter who we surrender.
Two matters, our breaking matters.
And we also saw the spiritual sensitivity matters In the
second part. We saw that the crushing causes
us to spend time with him, where he causes all these things to
kind of like fall down in the VAT, where we spend intentional
time with him. We allow him to crush us so that
we will be able to see all that we are made-up of.
And many a times we are called to stand on our heels and crush
Satan so that whatever comes out of us will not be that sinful
nature, but will be His nature working in and through us.
And we saw that we have to be this new wine and new wine skin.
And so today, whatever season we are in, we move into that so
that we can be poured out just like the Holy Spirit wants us to
be poured out. Last week we saw it was probably
a heart wrenching sermon where we were called hypocrites
because many a times we say we are following Jesus, but we end
up doing something else. And then in our pursuit of this,
we tend to put that very thing that Jesus called us to do on
shoulders of others and not offer them grace.
And God taught us. And even as we saw last week, we
saw through the Scriptures that it's easy to put on that
attitude, but as we concluded, we saw that His grace is
sufficient for us and we need to hold on to His grace so that
we'll be able to move through. And today, as we go into this
4th part, I've titled the sermon as E&T Be opened, Ears and
throat be opened. And it's coming off of Mark 7,
what we saw last week towards the last few verses of that
chapter. And I want to ask today, you and
me, how will we respond if we encountered Jesus face to face
today? Jesus is seated on the right
hand of the Father. He is right above us.
He gave us the Holy Spirit. And so many a times when we
commune with God, when we talk to God, I don't know about you,
but many a times when I'm making those prayer requests, it seems
just one sided. I often times don't wait to hear
for what He has to say or I'm not pursuing Him enough.
I'm pursuing Him only when things get tough.
I'm pursuing Him only when there's a need in my life,
there's a lack in my life, or there's a breakthrough that I
need. But Jesus is reminding us today
in this Kingdom life, we pursue. We keep that communication going
every day. I delight in His presence.
I want to be in His presence more.
So today, as we look into this, we are called to live out this
Kingdom life. And so to live it out, we need
to experience Jesus more and more in and through our lives.
One of the beautiful things that happens when we invite Jesus
into our lives, when we are aware of our sinful nature, when
we realize, you know what, this is not the right way we are
called to live. We invite Jesus in and we've
become a new creation. Jesus promises.
In fact, Paul writes to the Corinthians in Second
Corinthians chapter 5 in verses 16/17/18, he writes, behold,
you're a new creation. The old is gone.
And in the amplified it says this beautifully.
It says therefore if anyone is in Christ, that's invited of
men. And who says that we are giving
ourselves wholly to Christ and we are in Him?
It says here that it is grafted and we are joined to Him by
faith in Him as Savior. He is a new creature, reborn and
renewed by the Holy Spirit. The old things, the things which
held us capture the previous moral and spiritual condition,
have passed away. Behold, new things have come
because spiritual awakening brings a new life.
It says here that we are grafted, and we've seen this
time and again. I think Tina spoke about this in
a sermon before being grafted and how garden up grafts and
other plant and it's like these. It's like how we can tie 2 knots
together. In fact, you know, they
literally remove those threads, move it together, intertwine it
and they try and that's what being grafted into Jesus looks
like. We the, the minute we have to
pull out, it will be really painful.
We will pull out in such difficult circumstances, but we
join together with him in faith. What is faith?
It's not the scene, but it's in the unseen.
That's why we constantly have to go back to him and say, God, I
trust you wholeheartedly. I believe you're with me.
And that's why this journey of a Christian to walk with Jesus is
one of faith. It's not one without faith.
It's one with faith and that causes us to say no to our dead,
full sinful patterns. And we ask the Holy Spirit to
renew us and restore us each day into this new creation.
And as we've been meditating on this passage, as we saw last
week, I want us to move further down into verses 31 to 37.
And the context before this was Jesus had just finished talking
and telling his disciples and the Pharisees all these things
of, you know, why they are causing this burden to be put on
others. And he was saying you are being
hypocrisy. Why don't you allow, why do you
see the speck so much? Why don't you look into your own
lives? Repent, don't put on the show,
don't look for these immediate places that you can occupy.
We see Mark bring out this beautiful story or story of
faith, of this sight of Phoenician mother who wanted her
daughter to be liberated. And you know, in that culture at
that time, they were probably immigrants from Phoenicia who
were settled there. And so they weren't looked upon
well. And so Jesus is moving across
and this lady catches hold of him.
And as Jesus sees her, he, she's persuasive because she goes on
to say, I need you to heal my daughter.
We see her begging Jesus, would you look down?
And Jesus says, let the children eat 1st and then it'll be given
to the dogs more or less to say there are others who have to be
fed who probably are within my own tribe.
And then it'll come down to you. But look at her persuasion.
Look at she didn't want to move. She said even the children drop
crumbs which the dog can eat. And God knew that she was
desperate. She was desperate in his
presence. And so today, even with that
context in mind, we'll see that Jesus says your faith has been
rewarded and, you know, liberates her daughter from that
oppression that she's been caught in.
The story continues on. And this is the main part of our
passage, which I wanted to speak out specifically because I
believe God is wanting to open our ears.
God is wanting to release a bound tongue today.
So Mark 7 was 31 to 37. And this is what it says in NIV.
Jesus heals a deaf and a mute man.
Then Jesus left the vicinity of Diet and went through Sidon,
down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of Decophilus.
There's some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could
hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.
After he took him aside away from the crowd, Jesus put his
fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the
man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with
a deep sigh and said to him, FFA TA, which means be opened.
At this the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened,
and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell
anyone, but the more he did so, the more they kept talking about
it. People were overwhelmed with
amazement. He has done everything well,
they said. He even makes the deaf here and
the mute speak. There are three things that I
want us to take from this. We see in the 1st, in the
sycophilician mother, she approached Jesus.
That was a sense of desperation. In the second story, we see that
he, the people around, brought a deaf and mute man to Jesus.
And so even as we look at this Kingdom life, I want us to give
this opportunity for each and every one of us.
For those of you who are watching, but for most of you
who are listening, I want to give you this opportunity.
How are we responding towards Jesus?
So the first thing I want us to make a note of is we move
towards Jesus because he's approachable.
We move towards Jesus because he's approachable.
Today, a lot of us are trying to move towards a particular place.
If I have to ask you if for those of you are working, you
might have a career path where you're like, you know what, I
need to do this, this, this so I can move forward.
For those of you who probably are young working adults and
you're like wanting to settle down and you know, you've,
you've come to a point in life where you know what things are
looking good. Now I can settle down and you
have a trajectory in which you're going, but in our own
lives, very lives, whatever stage we are in from, you know,
a person who's alert enough to make decisions, a young kid
who's able to do that, a college going kid all the way to a
grandparent. Are we moving towards Jesus
because he's approachable? Because today a lot of us are
moving towards those who can be an intermediately between US and
Jesus. There's always that.
You know what, I don't think I can go there, but Jesus saying I
came down here to earth. I lay down my life just for you
so you can approach me, you can talk to me.
You don't have to be eloquent. You don't have to know how to
speak. You can just be there and talk
how you want and he's willing to listen.
Jesus alone is the answer. We see in two instances they
move towards Jesus. There is a sense of desperation.
There is a sense of urgency. He is wanting us to come to Him.
I don't want to be where I am today.
I want deliverance. I want healing.
I want restoration. I want God to work in and
through me. I move towards Jesus.
Probably you're going through some sickness.
Probably you're going. You, you, you want that
breakthrough in that marriage, Move towards Jesus.
Don't move. Move towards, you know, as much
as you're moving towards a counselor and your husband or
your wife or your spouse, or don't move towards your parents
and you move towards Jesus because he alone can heal and
set you free. Why do we move towards Jesus?
Because there's no discrimination from him.
He's not going to look at your status and say you can't
approach me now. He's not going to look at you
and say, oh, you didn't do 1-2 and three, I can't talk to you
now. He won't say.
He is willing to meet with us. He is willing to see us.
Why do I, why do I emphasize this?
Because we move with everything that we are captive to the one
who can liberate us. The Kingdom life is one of
liberation. The Kingdom life is 1 where we
are set free. The Kingdom life is 1 where we
are not bound. And so today I would ask you,
can we move to that place? It's not a sense of freedom.
You are free. You know, I was born, brought up
in Dubai. And so you're living as an expat
in this country. You live by the laws of the
land. There is no sense of ultimate
freedom. You have freedom, but there are
only certain things you can do, certain things you can't do
because you're in another land. But the minute you come into
your home country, you know, this is mine country.
I am free here, democracy is here.
And so you live knowing that you're free.
And so today in your Kingdom life, are you living as a
citizen or are you living as an immigrant?
Because if you're living as an immigrant, you need to move to
that place of getting that citizenship from he's
approachable. Move to him, Talk to him, talk
to him, talk your heart out to him.
Tell him not this, he knows everything, but he wants you to
ask. Move towards him.
A lot of us are having that intermediary, whoever that
intermediate is. For some of us are parents,
spouse. For some of us it's another
pastor. For some of us, it's just
YouTube because that's where we get everything out of.
For some of us, it's our Instagram post.
For some of us, it can be the very mentors that God's brought
into our life and we've started holding them as the filter.
No, you need to approach God. You should always cross check
what they're saying and what you're hearing are true.
That's when growth happens. Jesus promises a life of
freedom, not just physically but spiritually.
And today the Kingdom life first starts with spiritual liberation
before it happens physically. You know, in John there's this
beautiful passage where he writes about the Great Shepherd.
And for too long we've, you know, probably thought, you
know, he'll run after that one. You know, he'll run after the
one. But the problem is in the
Kingdom life, when we have Jesus as a great shepherd, when he is
a shepherd and he's leading us, we all go towards where he's
leading. If he's leading us to the
pasture on the left, we go there.
If he's leading us to the pasture on the right, we go
there. The one that moves away and is
roaming somewhere else, that's his job, not my job.
And so every time they're thinking, you know, oh, the
church didn't come behind me. Oh, the leadership didn't come
behind me. Oh, the people who I was talking
to in church didn't check up on me.
Move towards Jesus because Jesus wants you alone to talk to him
because that's where he talks. That's where he teaches.
John chapter 10 verses 25 to 30 says Jesus answer, I did tell
you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's
name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are
not my sheep. Let's see John 10 verse 27.
This says my sheep listen to my voice.
I know them and they follow me. It says you're my sheep.
Verse 28 I give them eternal life and they shall never
perish. No one will snatch them out of
my hand. My Father who has given them to
me is greater than all. No one's can snatch them out of
my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.
I love this statement in verse 30 because this is a picture of
what Trinity looks like for those of you who still question,
oh, Jesus is lower than the Father God.
No, they all together are one. That is the great mystery.
That is where faith is exercised.
And so today I want to challenge you.
Would you move to the Great Shepherd?
Would you move to Jesus, who is the one who's seated on the
throne and who is the Kingdom? Let's not move towards people.
Let's not move towards of the the, the the men of God or the
women of God who we think they will be the intermediary.
The reason why I'm emphasizing this is if we are not careful,
we will suddenly have different people standing on different
pedestals. People are people.
We are all image bearers. We're all been created, we're in
the image of God and we're all the same.
But God is God, Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God.
So look to him for everything. Why do we move to him?
Because as much as he's approachable, there's no waiting
time, there's no appointment every time.
He's no, you don't have to, you know, use an influential person,
put in a word, nothing you can go specifically to him.
So today, if you're going through guilt and shame and
you're struggling to break away from it, go to him, approach him
because he wants to give you freedom.
For those of you who've you know, who've been struggling to
keep your eyes between you and your spouse and you're making
your marriage, you know, really difficult, you're unable to move
to him because he's willing to work with you.
He's willing to work alongside with you.
He'll tell you what to do next. A lot of times we don't want to
do what the word of God says and move towards him.
Rather, you want to do everything outside.
This will give us the guardrail so that we'll sustain us through
our breakthrough. This very word of God will
sustain us. It'll keep us on track.
It'll keep us to go back to him. Say Lord I need your strength
today. I've told it many times Lord, my
my, my, my self-control is bad today.
I just binge eat. I need your strength today Lord,
I need your strength today because I I'm unable to overcome
this. I need you Lord today.
Give me strength to keep myself busy, else my idle mind is
wandering. So today, what can we do?
We draw near to Him. Why do we draw near to Him?
Because He is cleared the way for us.
Long before, when Israel had to approach the Holy of Holies,
there was only one person who could do that.
He had to prepare himself, you know, cleanse himself entirely.
There was an entire process that was involved and only one could
enter that presence. But God would meet with them.
But today when Jesus came down, when he died, when the whale
toe, we all have access. And that's what Hebrews chapter
10 says in verse 19 to 23. He says in verse 21.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to
enter the most Holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and
living way opened for us through the curtain that is His body,
and since we have a great priest over the House of God, let us
draw to God with the sincere heart and with full assurance
that faith brings. Having our hearts sprinkled to
cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our
bodies washed with pure water, let us hold unswervingly to the
hope he profess for he who promised his faithful.
So today, I don't know what is causing you to to move away from
Jesus or take a step back, but I want you to draw to Jesus.
Don't. Let's not be those Christians
who are drawing to Jesus, drawing to his church, drawing
to his people only during New York, Easter, Good Friday, and
Christmas. Let's do it to him every Sunday.
Let's do it to him every week. The beautiful thing is Monday to
Saturday I get to move closely with Jesus, talk to him, hear
from his word, and Sunday I come to, I get to come into his
presence with other people rejoicing and thanking God and
hearing and confirming what he's been speaking to me.
That's what the Christian body is.
That's what the Christian life is.
So today I want to ask you, can we make an honest effort to draw
to God? Probably we've drawn away from
God because of certain circumstances.
Probably life happened for I under.
I get to hear people who've gone through grief and they say, why
would God allow? Why would God take this person?
God knows when they're perfect time here on earth ended, but
when he takes them, they go into His hand, the very one who
created. They are in the safe hands.
And God wants us to push through.
God wants us to move through that grief.
God wants us to learn and be a beacon of hope and light so that
we'll be able to tell people that God has great purpose in
and through us in this journey. And so today, don't allow
circumstances for those of you who've gone through trying times
of probably sickness or probably, it could be probably
you, you, you're starting to see, you know, areas in your
life where abuse and the after effects of abuse are starting to
come out or probably neglect and things that you have battled
with in your childhood and your college.
And you're thinking, you know what, life has been hard.
Go to Jesus. He will remove that guilt.
He will remove that heavy load because he says, come to me,
because when we come to him, he's willing to take off that
heavy. My yoke is easy and my burden is
light is what he says. So I would ask you, would you
move towards that incidence? Probably or things or the the
the way the world projects about Jesus is throwing him in a bad
light. And you're like, you know what?
I don't trust in him Holy. If you don't trust in him at
all, you can't expect anything at all from him.
So I would encourage you move towards make that effort.
He is God, he was God who became man and he rose again from the
dead and he's still God. He's alive.
He's wanting to meet with us. The second thing we see from
this entire passage, we intently listen to what Jesus has to say
and we do what he says. Jesus model of operation was
very simple. You know when he met with
people, when you read the entire 4 gospels, when he met with
people, he met with them face to face.
He talked with them one-on-one, He addressed one-on-one.
He met Zacchaeus, Nicodemus, every 12 disciples that he
talked to, everyone that encountered healing, everyone
that encountered deliverance was met face to face.
There was something when they saw his face.
So today we can approach Jesus. We need to seek His face and not
His hand. We need to seek His face because
the minute we lock our eyes with His face, He is starting to
speak to us. And when He speaks to us, we
need to do what He says. We need to do what He says.
Your reasoning, reason with Jesus, your questions, question
with Jesus, your heartaches. Ask Him and He will answer.
And Mark writes this and Mark is a one of the writers who wrote
for a for a non Jewish audience. And so when you see him right,
you can see that he is writing and pointing out elements where
there is clear indication that Jesus came down for all.
So don't, don't let things of this world plague you and cause
you to think, you know what? Jesus won't talk to me.
He created everyone. If he can talk to that person
who follows Jesus, he can also talk to me because I am a
follower of Jesus by faith and I'm living it out and I'm asking
God, God, speak to me. I want to see you face to face.
Intently listen because he wants to tell mistress he's not going
to be holding a placard. He's not going to be sending you
DMS. He's going to be intently
wanting to speak to you, which means when you listen, you also
do what he says. A lot of us come today thinking,
you know what, I listen to Jesus, but I'll see if it's
comfortable for me to do. God did not give us the Great
Commission to do it out of a place of comfort.
God gave us the Great Commission do it as a commandment.
We do it through it all. We do it in the lack, in the
plenty. We do it through whatever
situation we are going through. No sickness has walked away from
Jesus. No one who's approached Jesus
with sickness has just walked away feeling sick.
They came in, they were healed, they met with Jesus, they were
liberated, they met with Jesus, they got their questions
answered. They met with Jesus.
Their old lifestyle immediately changed and they gave back all
that they stole. We see from the life of
Zacchaeus, but there's an interesting story in Mark
chapter 10, verses 17 to 31 about a rich young ruler who
came to Jesus. And when he comes, he says God,
he says, good teacher, I want to, you know, I want to inherit
eternal life. And Jesus says, why do you call
me good? You don't even know me, so why
do you call me good? Do you want any good answers
from me? You see the underlying thing.
If you're coming to a person to ask something, putting
adjectives before that doesn't make sense.
And so Jesus goes on to say, keep the commandments, do not
murder, do not commit utility, do not steal, do not bear false
witness on your father, mother. And he's bold enough to say, I
do everything, but let's read Mark 10 verse 21.
And Jesus looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack
one thing, go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and
you'll have treasures in heaven. And come follow me to certain by
the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great
possessions. And Jesus looked around and said
to his disciples, how difficult it'll be for those who have
wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.
And the disciples were amazed at this was.
But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to
enter the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
Kingdom of God. And so today we see he intently
came to listen to Jesus, but he didn't want to do what Jesus
asked him to do. He was comfortable as long as
Jesus mentioned some of the things he was doing.
The check boxes are all checked, but there was that one which
said all of the above, which included giving up his
possessions. And so today, if you and I are
wanting that breakthrough, if you and I are wanting that one
thing that God promised from Jesus, He's asking us, are you
willing to let go of what I'm asking you to let go of?
And for a lot of us, it's that control.
It's that control because our hope is in that, our, our
functionality is happening in that, our rest is in that.
But Jesus saying, no, it has to be on me and not on anything
else. Jesus wants us to move towards
him. And as he intently speaks, as we
intently listen, are we willing to do what he says?
I want to ask you, have you given up the things Jesus has
asked you to give up on? You know, we are so quick to
give up, to cut dairy, to cut white bread, to cut everything,
knowing that that will do something good for us.
Even though we don't have control over health, we don't
have control over the diseases of this world.
We don't have control over the environment, the very bubble
that we live and think, oh, if I can give this up, you know, I
can control this part. I want to challenge you today,
Church. Would we intently listen to
Jesus and do what he says? I heard a person speak the other
day and tell me and Tina, you know what, before getting
married, I need to do a genetic testing of my spouse to know
what all sicknesses that person will bring in.
And got us thinking and and we said, you know what, you're
going to be alarmed that you're just not going to have one or
two. You're going to have 10, but
knowing that, what kind of a quality of life are you going to
live? You can have every precaution
possible. You see the world, people are
putting money after billions, after millions to age slow to
make sure that they don't, their body doesn't age.
You can do everything, but what happens to your soul?
Have you lived the life that Jesus has called you to live?
The life He holds the whole world in His hands, which means
you and I can only do so much. A lot of us are going into this
preservative mode. Every preservative mode has an
expiry date. Move into the safe hands of
Jesus. A lot of you want your wombs to
be open. Move towards Jesus intently.
Ask God, what do you want me to do?
What is that one area in my life that I've not given control over
to you? A lot of you want increase in
your job, increase in the in your financial situation.
Move to God and ask God, what is it that I am choosing to listen
but not doing what you say. Most of you are looking.
You know what blood There's been no breakthrough in my life.
You're just unable to make that faith step, go to and ask God,
what is that one big doubt that is causing me to stand back and
not participate in the faith journey that you're calling me
to do today. We, we can camouflage all that
you're going going through. We all can see, you know what
I'm following Jesus. We, we have a set of criterias
that we think, oh, you know what?
I need to do this, this, this, Oh, I can, I need to get on the
stage. I need to do this, the stage, it
can only be a small elevation in front of people, but in front of
God, it's a far bigger microscope that he's going to
look at a heart intention. Is this why you got on stage?
You know, the one verse that scares me when I look into the
Bible is the one where he'll say, you know what?
You did all this in my name and I don't know who you are.
Your name doesn't even come and feature in this book.
So today our heart matters. Why we do matters and the only
reason why I think I'm unable to do what Jesus is wanting me to
do is because I think I know better.
And the Kingdom life is not one where we live knowing we know
better than the King. The Kingdom life is 1 where we
live in surrender saying God you know everything and I'm coming
behind you. The very thing we struggle to
let go because we lose control will be the one which drives us
away from Jesus. And before we know it, we will
be further away from where Jesus is.
We won't be able to see him face to face anymore because the
things that He's calling us to give up will be far bigger.
A lot of us are stuck in the very fact that, you know what?
I gave my life to Jesus. I made this.
But after that, we have no stories to that because we've
stopped pursuing Him. We think it's a demotion move.
God is a God of the hills and the valleys.
A lot of us want the valley moment.
A lot of us want the hill moment.
We are unable to handle It will go through ups and downs.
That's the Christian life. That's the Christian life.
One of the beautiful things that happens when we meet him face to
face, when we see Jesus face to face, when we partake of his
presence face to face is surrender.
Surrender is our stance. Surrender.
Mark 10 verses 20 to 31. I'm reading the message version.
This is right after the rich young ruler and this right after
that you'll see Peter says, Peter tried another angle.
We left everything and followed you.
Jesus said, mark my words, no one who sacrifices house,
brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, land, whatever
because of me and the message will lose out.
They'll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes,
brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land, but also in
troubles and then the bonus of eternal life.
This is once again the great reversal.
Many who are first will end up last and the last first.
You know, the beautiful thing about family is family is
family. A lot of us are trying to
preserve, you know, the very people that we care about,
father, mother, children, give them to God.
You know, one of the beautiful things that I love doing as a
church leader is dedicating babies.
You know, the, the beautiful thing is because God's trusted a
man and a woman, a father and a mother with a child, he's
trusted them for a season because after that, they'll make
life choices on their own. They'll make decisions on their
own. And it's in that trusting period
what we allow them to be shaped by.
And a lot of us today are trying to do so many things in a more
controlled way of saying, you know, this is right, that is
wrong, trying to create experiences.
You know, I always thought, you know, when growing up, my
parents always thought that, oh, this is how we brought them up
is a way they thought. But then when we went out, we,
we, we explored so many other things.
We were, the entire world was open to us in terms of
information, in terms of everything that we were getting
to see and do. And ultimately in life, we all
make our own choices. You make your own choice.
You're in charge of your own choice.
You need to live by the choices you make.
And so there's this beautiful thing that God wants us to take
control of, and that's free will.
And that's where he's saying if you personally make a choice to
give up, give up is not let go. Giving up is to sing God.
I don't hold them in that stage. None of them have a stage.
All of them, all of us are on level ground.
It's you we're pursuing. We're not pursuing land.
We're not pursuing our finances. We're not pursuing
relationships. We're pursuing you.
And out of that overflow, as we do that, as we fulfil the Great
Commission, as we do the life that God's called us to live,
God will enlarge everything. He'll enlarge it.
He'll make relationships function well.
He'll move people's hearts. He'll work our finances.
A lot of times we are striving so much to work our finances,
but he's saying, if you give it up for me, I'll work it for you.
And I honestly want God to work out the finances because he does
it beautifully. He gives me more than enough.
He's not a debtor. He's blessed me and I choose to
bless His name. So today if we spend time with
Him alone and if we intently are listening to what He wants us to
do, can we do it? And the one big burden that we
see that happens when we face with this is our free will.
Everything bows down to Him. Everything bows down to Him, but
the very free will opposes him because somewhere we think we
know Brent today I want to challenge each and everyone of
you. Is your free will causing you to
miss that very through? Is your free will causing you to
miss that miracle in your life? She was willing to let go the
Cyrophenician woman mother was willing to let go everything and
saying Jesus, even if you put the crumbs, it's enough.
That's where her faiths to that, that's where the faith to death.
It was one of surrender. She surrendered her surrendered
herself to Jesus there over there in that spot.
And that's what attracted that's what gave her her desperation.
The very thing that came from the pit of her belly was Lord,
even those crumbs are enough. And so today I want to ask you,
everything bows down before Jesus.
Everything, everything created bows down before Jesus. the IT
says the earth, the land, the water, the birds, the fish, but
only we have this gift of free will and Jesus saying, would you
trust me and bow down Today a lot of us are holding on to
these images saying, God, you know what you don't know?
I know better than you, but then you also like God.
How can I expect a breakthrough He will come through.
I had a friend tell me recently when their family went through a
hard time. Why is God doing this?
Is God even real? God is real.
Just because he didn't do it doesn't mean he he.
He doesn't have to prove anything to you.
If He kept proving to you, the world will be a different place,
your life would be different. But will you choose?
Because there's a struggle between free will and my
surrender. And I want to ask you, a
surrendered life in the Kingdom is one which will allow God to
work in and through US. The surrendered life is 1 where
we'll be able to say, God, do anything that you want, do
anything that you will, because it's all for your glory.
How many of us have walked away today because the decision that
you're asked to make was hard? Can we wait on him?
Can we wait on him so that he can come through?
The third thing, as we move towards Jesus because he's
approachable, as we intently are wanting to listen to Jesus and
do what he says. There's something that God wants
us to open up and release. And even as I titled it, E&T, be
opened, be released. We let Jesus open our ears and
release our mouths. You know the beautiful story
about this deaf and dumb man who came was people brought him.
Jesus looked at him, looked at him face to face, and when he
saw him, he did something. He took spit, put it on his.
He put his fingers into his ear, unplugged it.
He took spit and then, you know, mixed it and then applied it on
his mouth, and he was able to hear clearly and he was able to
speak plainly. And this is a prophecy which
Jesus fulfilled of Isaiah 35. And when we read this, we see
this is what God is calling His captive people to experience.
Let's read that Isaiah 35 verses one to seven.
The desert and the parched land will be glad.
The wilderness will rejoice in blossom like the crocus.
It will burst into bloom. It will rejoice greatly and
shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be
given to it. The splendor of Carmel and
Sharon. They will see the glory of the
Lord, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the feeble hand,
steady the knees that give way. Say to those who with fearful
hearts be strong. Do not fear.
Your God will come. He will come with vengeance,
with divine retribution. He will come to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blindly open, and the ears of
the deaf unstopped. Today God is wanting a spiritual
ears to be opened, a spiritual mouths to be unbound.
What? What do I mean by that?
Because in the physical we are so governed by what we see, we
what we hear and what we talk predominantly.
We are so governed by what we see and what we hear.
But our spirit man has to be in tune with what we are hearing
and what we are declaring. You know, I didn't mention
earlier that, you know, you were staying in Dubai when growing up
and, you know, our apartment was next to a mosque and next to
that was a convenience store. And so as you used to walk by.
And so every time you walk by, the mosque has five times of
prayer. And just because you're in the
vicinity growing up, you know from age 1 onwards you're there
going up and down till age 12, you're listening to it every day
and. Invariably because you're
listening to it. Within a period of time, I was
able to remember the prayer and I could have been recited if
need be. No one taught it to me, no one
told me this is how it has to be sent, purely just by listening.
And I realized as I was reading this, our years have to be tuned
to the Holy Spirit, else we miss out what God's wanting us to do
in this season, in this life. Today, a lot of us are waiting
here for so many things in our life to happen.
So many dreams have been given. A lot of us say, you know what?
When I was praying, this person came and encouraged me with this
word. This person came and told me
this. All that is good.
But what are your spiritual years listening?
Have you clogged it up by logic? Have you clogged it up with
reasoning? Have you clogged it up so much
that everything is just a mind talk that's happening
internally? And are you speaking in
disbelief? Faith will be activated when we
speak, yes, But what we listen to matters because many a times
when Jesus is intently talking to us and when we are called to
do something, it's this and this that causes us to do it.
And many a times when this is bound, when your ears are
blocked, when my tongue is bound, the enemy has control.
The enemy has control through logic, through reasoning,
through our mind talk. And that is where fear sets in.
That's when anxiety sets in. That's when things because it's,
it's, it's within and and everything comes into a place
where, OK, if this situation is not under my control, I don't
think I can handle it. But God's saying, no, you need
to move to that place, trusting me, the enemy is out there to
spiritually bind us. AW Toza.
In the book The Knowledge of the Holy says this faith must
precede all effort to understand.
Reflection upon revealed truth naturally follows the advent of
faith. But faith comes first to the
hearing ear, not to the coggetting mind, not to the mind
that keeps continuously thinking and thinking through it.
And a lot of us today are wanting to fill our intellectual
minds with so much that we miss out on the simplicity of the
faith that is required to follow Jesus and do as he called us to
do. In Mark 733 to 35, we see.
And he took him aside, away from the crowd.
Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears, and then he spit and
touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven with a
deep sigh and said, ifatha, which means be opened.
And today I want to ask you church, can we allow Jesus to do
the same thing and say Fatah be opened?
Lord, say that one word so that it will be opened.
Say that one word so that I know and I can hear your voice.
What are some of the things that is causing us to silence Him and
listen and allow the enemy to have a foothold?
Allow your faith to rise up, move towards him, see him face
to face. No one left.
His presence changed. I'm reminded of John the
Baptist, Father Zechariah, when he stood in his presence and
when he had disbelief, God just shut him up.
He said, you know what, no point telling you anything.
Get out the Angel. Shut him up.
And so today if you're standing face to face with Jason, you're
having disbelief and you're and and I want to challenge each and
everyone of you listening because a lot of you are making
decisions for life after A cause and effect.
You know, you thought, OK, this will be good, but then you see
the bad effects of it. Then you want to change.
Why don't we trust God before we go down that step?
A lot of you know, when I talk to parents who bring their kids
to Sunday school, they're like, you know what?
I'm bringing my kids to Sunday school because they started
learning shlokas in the school. They started learning this in
school. They started learning yoga in
school. And I, I, and I'm scared that
they won't know about Christianity.
The very essence of the fact that if you as a parent, and if
you as parents cannot live out the Christ called life in your
own lives, your children won't be able to live it out.
A lot of us are thinking, you know, that two hour of Sunday
school will do the work, but the remaining hours that they spend
at home is what the environment matters.
If all they hear is reasoning, if all they hear is logic, if
all they hear is faith not being spoken, that's what they'll
believe. But if they hear, God will come
through. And when we rejoice when he
comes through, that's when they'll realize Jesus is worth
believing. Psalm 34 verses 1 to say 3 says
this, I will extol the Lord at all times.
His praise will be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord.
Let the afflicted here and rejoice, glorify the Lord with
me. Let us exalt his name together.
In fact, when you read through that and when you go to verse 8,
a lot of us know. And this verse, it says taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one whom takes
refuge in him. As I told two weeks back, this
is a generation which thinks food tastes good by watching and
not tasting. And a lot of you today have been
watching Jesus and I have not tasted.
And I'm thinking this Christian life is not for me.
Don't make a judgement like that.
Just because someone can make a food item look good on, on
Instagram, on all these things, don't think it tastes good.
A lot of people think cakes look good, but the minute you touch
that cake and if there's fondness, it tastes bad.
So today, whatever your idea of Christianity is, if you've just
seen it and you've judged it, you've not known Christ at all.
But if you've tasted him, if you're, if you had his praise on
your lips, if you were guided by his Holy Spirit into every
situation of your life and if you came out with Thanksgiving,
giving glory to his name, you will be able to witness that
Jesus is God. The psalmist is encouraging us
to taste him, experience him a heart 1/2 hearted surrender is
half hearted experience. So the more I start tasting of
Jesus goodness in my life of Jesus praise and I start singing
it out. And what is praise?
Praise is surrender saying God, you come and do this.
All I can do is just stand here and just say thank you Jesus.
A lot of us struggle to lift hands in church.
A lot of us struggle to lift hands.
It's a, it's a human posture where we are seeing God.
Honestly, I can't, I want to be in control.
I can't surrender. I challenge you start with
physically lifting your hands and seeing Lord.
I surrender. I surrender my wife.
I surrender my children. I surrender my job, I surrender
my parents. I surrender everything.
Do as you will. Psalm 40 versus 6 to 8 sacrifice
and offering you did not desire. But my years you have opened
burnt offerings and sin offering you did not require.
Then I said, here I am, I've come.
It is written about me in the scroll.
I desire to do your will. My God, Your law is within my
heart. The beautiful thing is a lot of
you are thinking, you know what? I'll come to church, I'll give
my tithes, I'll give my offerings, I'll do a check box,
and I'll go. But God's saying I don't want
your sacrifice. I don't want you thinking that
you're doing me a favor by giving me something.
No, I want your ears. I want your heart where we'll do
what I'm calling you to do. You'll desire to do my will.
Satan wants to take us away. He will distract us.
He will distract us, but I'm wanting you to move to a place
where you'll be able to trust. The problem is when we allow our
ears and our mouth to be shut, we stop hearing from God.
We stop giving Him praise, We stop receiving his
encouragement, We stop giving thanks to him.
And Jesus is saying, I want to set you free today.
If Fatah open up. And so today's church, I would
ask you, would you open up? Would you allow God to open your
ears? Would you allow God to open your
tongue? In Matthew chapter 13 we see
Jesus tells that I'm talking in parables and he goes on to talk
from a passage in which he quotes Isaiah and and this is
what it says in From Worst 13 onwards.
This is why I speak to them in parables.
Those seeing, they do not see, though hearing, they do not hear
or understand. In them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah. You will ever hearing, but never
understanding. You'll be ever seen but never
perceiving. For this people's heart has
become calloused. They hardly hear their ears.
They have closed their eyes, otherwise they might see with
their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their
hearts and turn. And I would heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, because they see, your ears
because they hear. But truly I tell you, many
prophets and righteous people long to see what you see but did
not see it, and to hear what you did not hear.
This imagine every prophet, minor prophet, major prophet who
wrote about Jesus coming, the Messiah coming, the Redeemer
coming, the Lord will gather his people back into Jerusalem would
have wanted to see it happen. And Jesus is telling that many
would have given up so many things to be here to see this
today. Can our eyes be open?
Can our ears be open? Can our mouth be loosened up
from the clutches so that we'll be able to praise Him and give
Him thanks? So today I would ask you,
church, can your ears be open? Because can your mouth be
released so that you can testify to God?
This Kingdom life is A2 fold where we listen and we speak.
We call on Him and He speaks. We are listening.
We testify about Him, we tell Him about his goodness, we
praise, we give Him praise. A lot of you are coming into
church without being in a position of praising God.
You think, you know what, I'm living in the 90s and I Can't
Sing these songs. God is worthy of our praise
every day. His mercies are new every
morning. If you withheld it, if you
withheld God's praise, He will withheld His blessing.
As simple as that. The minute you start bringing
praise, genuine heart, cry with your heart towards Him, all that
God has to do is sing. I'm here, I'm listening, I will
do it. And so today I would ask you,
can we start speaking in faith, hearing the right things as
Elijah heard the right whisper as he was standing there and
waiting to hear. Today you and I are witnesses,
witnesses. And you know, I'm reminded of
that story where Peter and John went to pray and then they were
caught by the sand hindrance. They said, don't do this.
And Peter says, and for us, we cannot help Speaking of what we
have seen and heard. And so today a lot of us will be
in this position of just speaking out because we've heard
God and God saying, do it with all your heart because you've
seen me face to face, no intentions, Just do what I'm
commanding you to do in line with his word so that you'll be
able to do and fulfill the Great Commission that He's called you
and me to do. And one of the beautiful things
is when we start living out this way, people will know who Jesus
is. You know, if you read in Mark
Chapter 7 verse 24 and then Mark 73637, Jesus told people who are
getting healed, you know what? Don't go out and say, but they
all just came. They came around Jesus in verse
3637 it says, and Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the
more he charged them the most zealously they proclaimed it and
they were astonished beyond measure, saying he has done all
things well. He even makes a deaf hear and
the mute speak. So today, what is God wanting to
do in your life? He's wanting to experience it so
you can witness about it. He wants you to see it.
He wants you to pursue him so that you can experience it right
from him. You can, you will experience
everything from him, the breakthrough from him, his
blessings from him, his provision from him, his strength
from Him. And then you'll be able to
witness it and you'll point them all back to Jesus.
You'll point them all back to Jesus.
And so today I just want to ask you, church, will we move
towards Jesus because he's approachable.
He's not a human person who has 2030 bodyguards.
He's approachable, you call on him and he'll hear you wherever
you're at. So today, whether you're in a
paying guest, in your hostel, wherever you're at, he's willing
to listen. He's willing to listen intently.
We intently listen to Jesus and we have to do what he says.
And the third thing is let Jesus open our ears and loosen our
mouths so that we'll be able to testify about him and we'll be
able to give him the glory and give him all the honor if Fatah
be opened. And so today at church, I just
want to ask you if you can all as an act of surrender, lift
your hands wherever you're at and say, Lord, I'm here waiting
in your presence as I heard this word, as people approached you,
I'm approaching you today. This is me, all of me.
Lord, I pray, I put aside logic, I put aside my reasoning, I put
aside my experiences, I put aside what people have told, and
I've come into your presence because I want to taste and see,
I want to taste you. Lord Jesus, I want you to be the
Lord and Savior of our lives. And Lord, so even right now, I
invite you into the very homes, into the very places and the
very hearts that are listening to this, that your presence
would come in. Lord Jesus, I pray that we
wouldn't contend with you, Lord Jesus, with our free will, but
rather we would surrender ourselves holy to you so that
we'll be able to experience the gospel made alive in US.
Holy Spirit, would you breathe a fresh wind into each and every
heart right now that they'll be able to experience you.
Strengthen them, be with them, We thank you, Lord, go before
us. Lord Jesus, I pray that in
everything we'll be able to give glory and honor to your name,
Lord Jesus. I pray, Lord, as people are
being healed spiritually, I pray and ask Lord, the physical
healing will follow. Lord Jesus.
I pray that Lord, they will be intently able to see and hear
and will be able to speak and give thanks and praise to you so
that you alone will be glorified.
No one else. You alone will be honored no one
else. You alone will be able to take
your rightful place and no one else.
Lord, be glorified. We give you all the glory and
honor because you're the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and
the end. We worship you, Lord, we worship
you. Be glorified and honor and most
holy name we pray, Amen. Amen.
So Church, I charge you that even as you go out this week, go
out in boldness. Go out knowing that Jesus is
approachable. Go out knowing that He intently
wants to talk to you and He wants you to do what He's
telling you to do. And 3rd, I ask and pray that
spiritual ears will be open. Your mouth would be able to
declare him. Spiritual mouth will be able to
declare and witness about him so that we'll be able to fulfill
the great admission. Jesus wants to release us into
the calling that He's calling us to do.
So I declare Fatah be opened. I pray let not Satan come in any
form and take control that we'll be alert.
Our minds will be alert, our heart will be alert, and we'll
be able to fulfill and run this race well so that we'll be able
to give glory and honor to its name.
Pray that you have a blessed day.
God bless you. Thanks for listening to this
message. We hope you were blessed to hear
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Remember, whoever finds Jesus finds life.