March 19, 2023 - Guest Speaker Stephen Kuruvilla

To introduce. Steven any of you guys may know Steven cuz our church has been partnering with him for how many five years now. Five years and he's doing amazing work here in this city and and we thought it was just a great opportunity. Many of you know that we take time to pray for the different Ministries that we partner with and it is great that if you can put a face to the people, right? And so this is Steven, we're going to invite him to come today and let's just give him a warm welcome.

Okay, great.

Thank you. Good morning, it's good to be here with you. Spring is almost here. You say Amen to that. All right, well it's good to be back here. I think the last time I was here at King, The Way Church was it was I think it was 2018. The last time we were here. So many of you probably don't have met me. So I'll just take a few minutes to introduce myself and a little bit about the work that we do. So my my my wife was raised here in Edmonton but I'm from the US and a we moved here to Edmonton about bonao time flies.

Pension of, are we good?

Okay, so you moved here, 10 years ago, with the intention of planting a church. I was looking close to the University of Alberta to reach people who are very much distance from price in that area. But we live about 30 minutes or so. North of here on the north side of the city, has anyone here from the north side of the city? Oh, okay. To people. In the few years that we've been living up there. We noticed very, very rapid changes in the community where we lived years ago when ice to do campus ministry ice to take teams of my students four consecutive years to the Middle East. And I started noticing large numbers of refugee families, from the Middle East, moving into our community, and it was unavoidable. Every few weeks I was noticing large numbers of of families and usually large families with, with several children, moving into our community and my wife, and I we begin to pray in our home just every week for this growing Community. I was noticing in my kids schools in in the mall where we go to, and just just in our neighborhood as a as a whole, just a very rapid growth of mainly people from Syria but also from other nations in the Middle East, just Growing very quickly. And so we started praying for our neighbors or people in our community and one thing led to the other and I began to befriend a few Refugee families. I wasn't sure what to expect most of most of the people from this community, almost everyone from this community is from an Islamic background and and when I say Islam, it can it can mess around with us. Thank you.

When I say the word Islam, there might be different attitudes of feelings that arise within your heart as, as Christians. And so, I wasn't sure what to expect, what up, but what I found is, when I started entering into their homes, I started finding people who are very afraid, or very lonely, who had been through quite a bit of trauma, coming to this nation, most of my families have experienced loss in very very serious ways. Like many of them have lost loved ones in the Civil War, many of them. All of them have lost their livelihoods, their homes, everything that they knew in life has been completely destroyed today. The nation of Syria, just saying it to you, is is heartbreaking for me. The nation of Syria is in Ruins, and it's been added just in the last few weeks with the earthquake that happened in turkey in a little bit in Syria. It's a nation in Ruins and it's not, it's not getting better. And these are people just like you and me created in the image of God. They have come a long way to the I'll have to say is an American a very cold Nation living in here and they didn't know anyone, they didn't know how to navigate life so I started to help them practically to navigate life in here in Canada. Now, just some years later we are privileged to serve hundreds of these people. Many of them who we consider to be like family, many of their children called me. Uncle and we serve them, we love them and we are on a journey of with many of them towards price and so I'll have to honestly tell you there's nothing else that I would rather be doing with my life than what we're doing right now here in the city. And so a couple of our immediate goals in the next few years. As we want to see a disciple-making community among the Arab Refugee community in in North Edmonton. And then we are on the front end and beginning to train full-time workers for every Urban Centre of Canada to serve this growing. All across the city. It's a very rapidly growing to community all across this country that's something that when I say the word missions, I know this that when I say the word missions, very often. We, as Believers, we correlate that with getting into a plane and going overseas, but I want you to understand the mission field has come to us here in Canada, right in our doorstep. It's right in our neighborhoods. Can you say Amen to that? I want to thank you was at church. I know that there are some of you who pray for us and your prayers are invaluable. And as Pastor Sean said that, that you was a church, I've been partnering with us really since the beginning that we started this ministry. So I want to say thank you for doing that. I want to just dive into a message this morning that I felt like I should share with you and Hoping that I have found in in ministering to the Arab Community. Again, most of whom come from an Islamic background. Many of them enjoy having dialogue. They actually, they're not like many Canadians. They actually enjoy having conversations about faith and there are many questions that they actually have about the Christian faith are things that they've been told. And there are particularly three areas that Christian should be aware of and be educated about in in regards to answering some of the main questions that Muslims might asked you. And those three questions are number one, the whole concept of Jesus being the Son of God, Jesus being the Son of God. Number to the whole concept of us beat believe that Jesus is God. And number three, the whole concept of the Trinity. So Jesus being the Son of God, the whole idea of Jesus being Divine, not just a man or not just And then the number three, the doctrine that we believe in what we called the doctrine of the Trinity. These are three areas that you as a follower of Christ, not just to dialogue with an individual that might come across your path in the bus or at the mall to ask you a question. But for your own spiritual formation, these are three areas that you as a follower of Christ should learn what the Bible actually says about these. So that you can, it is important for our own growth as followers of Christ. But also to give a respectful and and biblically formed respectful answer to people that ask these very questions to ask, I'll tell you what I have learned over the years When I was a pastor and as I've taught classes at Vanguard College here, which is our Bible College, and in a class that I have fought in several churches, here over the last few years. What I've learned is there a very, very, very few Christians who have an actually biblically biblically formed. Answer to that. First question of Jesus, being the Son of God, what in the world are we talking about? When we say that Jesus is the son of. I found that very few. Believers have a clear understanding of what the Bible actually says. And it's only adding to the misinformation misunderstanding and put on this important doctrine that we say we believe but I'm not going to be talking about that today. Maybe you can do that on your own but I've also found that third statement there. The whole concept of the doctrine of the Trinity is something that we, as Believers need to get a more biblically informed answer for in our lives, not just to answer someone's question. I'd like to ask you this morning, if someone were to ask you, to explain what the doctrine of the Trinity actually means what exactly would you tell them? It's so we're going to we're going to dive into this over the next little while. And just, and look into this, a little just, some aspects of the doctrine of the trinity in the next little while. And so I have I have found that many Believers. Even though we say, we believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, it's some in impracticality most Believers are Jesus, only Chris. And I don't know if that makes sense to you. When I say, Jesus only is we have a bit more clarity about who Jesus is. In fact I have found it when many Believers pray. We pray to Jesus, do you do that? 90% of your prayer life is to Jesus. I've heard people who pray to Jesus and then they conclude their prayers with in Jesus name. It doesn't really make that much sense, only pray to Jesus. And then we conclude it in Jesus name. Jesus taught us to pray to the father. He taught us to pray to the heavenly father in Jesus name. And he didn't just say that you was just for the sake of giving us something else to do. There are important feel logical reasons why Jesus told us that we have to pray to our Heavenly Father in his name. Now is it wrong to pray to Jesus? No, because he's got, is it wrong to pray to the Holy Spirit? No, does not because he's got to but but the manner in which Jesus taught us the standard in, which we are to pray, according to a Jesus thought, is we are to pray to our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus. And it in, there are reasons why it's important to be a logical reason for why Jesus taught us to pray that way. Are you are you all still here and you say? Amen, or say, I'm here or something.

Can we talk about the doctrine of the Trinity? It's not just something that we say that we believe, but but has no actual practical appropriation or used in our lives. Ford of like, when you add paprika to a dish, that you make sort of adds a little bit of color, but it has really no flavoring out of my asthma flavor to what you make. I'm from India. So the spices that I add to my dishes, it at some length to it, and that's some real flavor. So paprika, really doesn't do the job for me. And as a little bit of coloring to, it doesn't really make a difference. Is that what we appropriate as a whole concept of God being father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Or is it just like an ornament? We throwing her Christmas tree, but it actually has no effect and how we live our day-to-day lives. I want to talk about that with you in his outstanding book, delighting in the trinity. How does a little bit of?

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In his outstanding book, delighting in the Trinity. Michael Reeves says, the Trinity is the governing Center of all Christian belief, the truth that shapes and beautiful eyes all others. The Trinity is a cockpit of all Christian thinking in the athanasian Creed which was an important doctrinal statement, early on in church history, there's a statement that says and the Catholic and is not referring to the Roman Catholic Church. When it says Catholic, there is referring to Orthodox Christian Theology and the Catholic faith is this that we worship, God and Trinity, and Trinity in unity, according to the screed. The doctrine of the Trinity is the central doctrine of the Christian faith. Is that the way you looked at it, One more quote and the next slide.

And this was this is a quote from the stand G who I believe was a Christian scholar. He passed away some years ago. But one of the statements that he makes is of the various aspects of our Christian understanding of God, perhaps none is as difficult to grasp, the concept of God is Triune. In fact, what sets Christianity apart from the other religion religious Traditions is the confession at the one. God is father, son and spirit. No, teaching lies at the center of Christian theology. If not the Christian faith itself as does the doctrine of the Trinity? And so these, these folks that I just read to you, it it's these. These, these statements are saying that the doctrine of the Trinity is not just an ornament me throw on something, make no actual difference in your life is actually Central to our Christian faith. And it makes a huge difference in our lives. So exactly. What is the doctrine of the trinity?

Doctrine of the Trinity, Trinity, the trench area Doctrine can be summarized into three statements, and each of these, all of these statements have to be true at the same time for it to be a biblically sound, understanding of what the Bible actually teaches about the Trinity. So, the first statement is that there is one. So we believe that there is one God number to God is three. Distinct persons who is one God but God is three distinct persons revealed as father, Son. And Holy Spirit. The father is not the Sun or the spirit and the fun is not the spirit. There are three distinct persons under one but he is one God. And then, the third statement is that each is fully God. So the father is fully God. The sun is fully God and the spirit is fully God. And when we took the one, we talked about the doctrine of the Trinity, it's not that the father is one third of God. And the son is one third of God and God, the father is fully God. The sun is fully got so it's not one third plus one third plus one third equals one. It's one plus one plus one equals 1 and when you look at all three of these statements, the caveat is that. All three of these statements have to be true at the same time for it to be an accurate picture of how the the Bible for trays this doctrine of the Trinity of the word Trinity is not in the Bible, but it's very clearly shown in in the Bible. For example, I'm sure that many of us have heard analogies describing with the doctrine of the Trinity is. Yes. I think the the most popular one that I've heard ever since I was in Sunday, school is the whole analogy of H2O. So, God is like H2O in one for his ice or he's water, or he is gas. And the problem is, that's a Harris. That's not actually what the Bible teaches about the Stockton. Because the second statement, there is that God is three, distinct persons. Not just three modes of the same person. He has three distinct person. And that's actually one of the, one of the most well-known heresies early on in church history called modal is another famous. Well-known analogy is the whole concept of God being like an egg and how many of you love eggs? I need my eggs every morning. But describing God is an egg. It's it's, it's also a heretical views that the whole concept of the egg shell and the egg yolk and the egg white all together. Makes one egg that that, that fall short of the third state, that they are where it where were talking about God, the father being one. Third of. That's not what the doctrine of the Trinity says, in the Bible, the Bible talks about the fact that God, the father has fully. And God, the holy spirit is fully God. And so, the reason why I just mentioned those two well-known analogies, is we need to have a biblically informed of you because among my Muslim people that I serve and love, there's a great deal of of misunderstanding and misinformation about what it is that we believe. And also in the body of Christ, there's a great deal of misunderstanding and and falling short of what this book teaches about, what this important Doctrine actually says. But I didn't come here today to just give you a theology lesson, don't the doctrine of the Trinity make any difference in our lives. In the in this book, The Deep things of God, written by a man named Fred Sanders, he makes the statement, he says the doctrine of God's Triune nature affects everything regarding how we approach the gospel it leads to a more whole relationship with God and really, the doctrine of the Trinity affects how we approach the Bible and Christian Life as a whole and gives us a more robust appropriation of the worth of the Triune God in our lives. When we asked, whether actually makes a difference in our day-to-day life. Absolutely. Yes. It affects everything about our Christian Life. It affects every aspect of our worldview. It affects everything about how we pray it, affects everything about how we witnessed two people in. It affects everything about how we serve in God's kingdom, it affects everything How does it do that? I'd like to begin this morning by reading just one verse of scripture and Does can change the to the next slide?

I want to focus just just over the next few minutes on this one versus scripture and they will go somewhere else. But I want to read the, the last verse in the letter of 2nd Corinthians, how, how Paul close this letter in this one verse in 2nd Corinthians. 13:14 it says May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the love of God and I add I added their, the father and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all in this one verse which is the benediction or closing blessing in the letter of 2nd Corinthians. We see one important aspect of how to appropriate the worth of each person in the godhead to our lives. In each person of the godhead. We see one up fundamental aspect of how to appropriate their unique work into our lives. As followers of Christ. When we took, when we talked about God, the son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We approach the appropriate is Grace into our lives. When we talk about God, the Father, we appropriate the love his love into our lives which is so important. And then we talked about the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, we appropriate Fellowship for communion with him. And really, these are such incredible aspect. Grace of the Lord Jesus about. Love of God, the father and communion with the Holy Spirit who lives, right? Inside of us and who is with us, always before they see what Jesus said and you really abused muser. Muser teachings to be made on on each one of these, which we don't have time to do this morning, but I want to focus on that second aspect over our remaining time of appropriating. The love of God, the Father into our lives appropriate, his love of God, the father. And so I want to turn. I want to look in into Ephesians chapter 3 and I don't know if we're we're all one internet are on our iPhones or if we still have Bibles today. And I know how things have changed in the last 20 years in our multimedia world. But in Ephesians chapter 3, at 1, to read a prayer that Paul praise there. And then we're going to just use a few aspects of the praise in. And what we're going to be talking about until I'm talking about the love of God. Father. Okay.

And I'm reading from again Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 through 19. It says for this reason, I kneel before the father from whom his whole family in heaven and on Earth derives its name Skipping, skipping halfway into verse 17 here and I pray that you being rooted and established in love. May have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Right now. And in my opinion, this prayer that Paul praise here along with the prayer he prays in chapter 1 of the fusions are among some of the most powerful prayers in the entire Bible there. Among some of the most powerful person. In fact, I pray, I pray these two pairs and a fusion chapter 3, and a fusion, 1:8 him almost every day for myself. For my family for people around me, I pray this prayer because it is such a deep and profound prayer. And so when Paul phrase this, he begins by saying that he kneels before the father from whom his whole family in heaven and on Earth derives, its name other translation, say that he kneeled before the father from whom all fatherhood derives? Its the whole concept of fatherhood or the whole concept of family derives from God the Father And in the word that use their is the word Petra and from which we get the word father, and it means that again, that the whole concept of family, the whole concept of fatherhood did not originate by some clever human being, who invented the whole structure of family. The whole concept of fatherhood did not originate with some clever human being in the ancient near East sometime, who invented fatherhood the whole concept of family in fatherhood according to this first originated and derive from God the Father. All right? So that the whole concept of family over the last two decades is under severe attack and there are reasons for that but the concept of fatherhood and family it originates from God himself in the Old Testament, we knew God's name, as Yahweh. That's how God revealed his name in the Old Testament. That was his proper name. It was Yahweh but his name was further clarified in the New Testament yahweh's name was further class, Fight in the New Testament as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that has how he is revealed his name to us. And the second person, second person of the Trinity, the son his name has been further clarified as Jesus or Yeshua. That is how he has revealed his name more clarified in the New Testament. And again I'm going to say it again. The concept of fatherhood and Human family was derived from God himself and there are healthy and necessary reasons for that. Today in our society, There is a wholesale attack on fatherhood. There's a wholesale attack. There is a wholesale spiritual attack today in our society on man. It's like, it's like, it's, it's nauseatingly evil to be a man today. A manly met. In fact, I'm not much of a TV Watcher, but some of the common television programs today. They portray men either as spineless losers who can't hold down a job, who can't leave their families or at the Other Extreme men are portrayed at the other team as abusive aggressive violent. People also testing manhood in a negative light. Very few places, are we giving beget being given positive models of what it means to be a man? I mean, over the last, I hope this is not getting that political on you. I'm not trying to be, but one of the nastiest things that you can be in society. Today is a white heterosexual call Katie Whitehead or sexual Man who actually leads his family and has some biblical Valley. Looks like that you like the spawn of the devil in today's society. If you have standards as a man and and I believe that the source of the attack is demonic, there's a demonic attack because once you take men out, it it causes the family structure to begin to dissolve, which were seeing happened in our society. Today when I go in the US, when I used to minister to inner-city young people, minority young people who were very troubled infinite. They were, they were having trouble with the law that they couldn't behave in society. I found that the root cause of their problem was that they didn't have fathers in the watch. That's what it came down to it. They had absent fathers, they had they had men who impregnated women, but really weren't fathers and their lives and that is what the root cause of their behave. Your old dysfunction in their life, in the 90s in inner-city evangelist named Doug Stringer. He used to always say this, that fatherlessness is the number one problem in inner-city youth, but it's not just a problem for inner-city youth today, a physician and professor at the University of Quebec named Hubert while low. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name. Properly Hubert will. He's a physician and professor in a study that he did years ago, he said frequent absence of the father or masculine models for young male. Children seems to explain certain behavioral difficulties connected with men's affirmation of their sexual identity. The late Pastor Myles. Munroe said the male m a l e. E, the male is the key to building strong and injuring. Social infrastructure, stable families Saints fight. He's insecure Nation. And I, when I say that, I'm not trying to downplay the importance of women and mothers. I think we understand already the importance of mothers in, in the family structure between important, to understand the importance of Father. Do we really understand that end? And I also want to underscore when I talk about this, I'm not trying to preach a message of condemnation if you're in a situation where you don't have a father or a man in the house. Able to raise up, spiritual fathers, even in situations where there isn't a physical father and that is so important for the health. You know, there's only some things that men can do in a home and I know that is a father myself. There's dirt one of the one of the reasons why kids need men in their lives, is men are able to put down some healthy boundaries so that children don't learn to grow up to be entitled, people in our society, which is a wholesale problem in our society today, it's an issue of the role of men in children's life. I don't know if I've made you all fuming angry already, but I have a ways to go in my message. But that's the importance of of having fathers and there's a there's a spiritual attack on the whole concept of manhood and Father's today which is resulting in a wholesale, identity crisis. And this identity crisis in our society is only going to get worse in the years ahead as the whole concept of family marriage. Exedra is being more and more blurred is going to be more and more confusion and a wholesale, identity crisis, in Our up-and-coming Generations, in our nation here in Canada. But one of the points of Paul's prayer to the father's to the father, to our Heavenly. Father, for the followers of Christ in Ephesus is a bit. They would be able to experience within the family of Believers, how wide and long and high. And deep is the love of Christ. In other words that they would be able to experience the immensity of God's love for them, which is beyond knowledge, which means that it is beyond the mind to grasp, it doesn't make sense to the human mind. When we talked about the immensity of the love of God, the Father for each one. In 1st John 3:1. There's an amazing verse that says how great is the love. The father has lavished upon us. When you lavish someone upon, when you lavish something upon someone we're not being cheap about it. It says how great is the love? The father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. There's an erroneous understanding in our society today that and even in the church that every human is a child of God just by by, by way of birth into this world that we are children of God. That's not actually what the Bible says. The Bible says that we are created in the image of God, that image has been marred. But when we are born into this world, we are born as spiritual, orphan alienated from God and back, Romans chapter 8, says that we are born natural enemies of God because we are not able in our human nature to submit and obey his wall. That's what the Bible says. We are born a spiritual orphan alienated from them, but God still love. And God, who is so rich in Mercy? He has so lavished, his love upon us, that while we were still Sinners, he has done. What was necessary to bring us out of spiritual or vent hood and into his family to adopt us as its own children. That is the immensity of the love that God has showed one of us, The Story Goes,

Of a child, a young girl in India in in, in, in in very small village in the outskirts of a city distance from any major city in the Village area of Northern India and her family. And that entire Community was struggling to survive, their, they struggled financially, they didn't have enough food and her father struggled to do, you know, menial tasks and and jobs to scrounge enough food to feed a family and it wasn't very successful. They were they were on the borderline starving and that's when A well-dressed lady from the major city of Bombay came to their Village and said we can promise work or your daughter. Just need to travel to the big city with me and and she'll be able to make enough money to support herself and send money back to support your family. And even though this the child, the girl did not want to go with us. Ranger the father forced the girl to go because they had no other way of survival and what happened as what happens often in. These kinds of situations is that this girl was brought to the largest city of India, the city of Bombay now for Boom by and she was forced into the sex industry and she became a slave. And and for years she was used and abused by horrible men and she was, she was used as a sex toy. She was beaten. She was horribly used for a few years until she finally was too weak and she was too sick to be of any use to them and so they threw her out into the street and so this she was still a young teenager at the time and she became a beggar in the streets of Bombay and she was living in a lie. She would, she would go through garbage, trying to find scraps of food and one night, she was in an alley. It was a cold night of pool night. It doesn't get too cold. But it was a cool night and she was crying herself as she usually did, starving trying to find some sleep, under some garbage. And that's when a wealthy couple was walking on the street going to a restaurant to get dinner. And this couple was, they were they happened to be a very Godly Christian couples successful businessman and they heard her cries coming from the couch and in the man stopped, he said, I hear someone's noise there, and Bombay is now, there's no shortage of Beggars and Bombay, by the way. But he said, I hear someone's fries and, and they walked into this, filthy alley in the dark and they, and they saw, this is incredibly excited. This emaciated child smelly dirty like a, she look disgusting. But this man, he has, he had compassion on her and he, he picked her up. He picked this dirty child up in his arms, with his wife. He took her to his car. They forgot about dinner at the restaurant, you put Turn into his car. They drove this child to their large home in the suburbs outside of the city on the outskirts of the city. And they bathed her, they put warm new clothes on her and they gave her a hot meal. The first meal that she had me years and then they brought her upstairs to her own bedroom and they let her sleep. It was the first night of rest that she had in years and they gave her medicine as well. And is as a days of the weeks passed. And she started to recover her health. One day, they took her to an office in the city and they signed papers changing her last name in adopting her enter their own family, not just a person living in their home matches. The person they gave handouts to, she was now a part of their family, their own child and this girl was she couldn't believe what they were doing. She was she said, why why are you doing this for me? And they said, it's nothing to do with what you have done for us. It's because we love you. And that, that story X, many, many times over is what God did for each. One of us, we were spiritual orphans. We were out into the cold. We were under the power of the devil, no freedom in our lives, and that's when he sent his own son to come into this world. To take the curse that you and I are tearing upon himself the weekend before you can stop there. He gave us adoption papers in the form of his holy spirit to live inside of us to say that you are now. My child, you cannot pray to me as your father in the name of my son. Jesus, that's what Jesus said. That's what our trinitarian God has done for us in his love works and you say, Amen. There are there are important ways.

For us to reporting to the prayer in Ephesians chapter 3. It says that we need to know an experience. This love in order to grow in proper spiritual health, as followers of Christ so that we can be filled to the measure of the fullness of God, if we don't know the unconditional love of God for us. We are not going to grow up as healthy Believers if we don't know the unconditional love of God for our lives. We are going to grow up to be a rigid. Legalistic. Unhealthy followers followers of Christ, it is essential for us to know and to experience deep within the unconditional love of God for us for us to grow up in a healthy way. Sometimes I get these is called people coming to my front door and now they know where I live so they don't show up too much. But there are a few calls to come around my door. And when I look at them, my heart. I always try to take the time if I'm home to talk with him for a few minutes before they run away. For me but when I look at them my heart Grieves because they don't know the love of God. They're doing this because someone is putting a whip on their backs and they have to meet a quota of the number of houses they have to go to to meet to get some Merit. That's not the way the Loveland. That's what happens to many Believers and Fries because they don't know the love of God there's there's no one forcing you to do anything when you know God's love for us you you do work for him out of your love and returning for him to towards him. And that's where you're going to find your niche in the body of Christ. And that is where you're going to Bear the most fruit for his glory. Open. Are you guys hearing me? And so I want to share with you very quickly three ways in which we can appropriate. And I'm not going to spend too much time on these but three ways in which we can appropriate the love of God in our life. Number one, and you can switch lives number one.

The love of God, heals us from past and present rejection. In Psalm 27:10, it says, David David who had been through many trials? Many challenges. He right, though, my father and mother forsake me. Oh, Lord, you will receive ye the Lord moves. We've all experienced rejection from others in our lives. And it doesn't really matter if a stranger reject us, but it's most painful when someone who is close to us a family member or close friend when they reject us, that's when the pain is most severe. And there might be areas of your lives. Were you when you get when you experience real rejection, that can stay with you for years, that that, that and that, that rejection that you're tearing your life, affect your relationship, with others, going forward. Because you are, you are a wounded person and you're going to start keep on wounding, other people around you. When you experience the love of God, that he has for you, when you expressed his love for you, when you experience the Embrace of your heavenly, father, that rejection is able to be healed and made. I'll be honest with you. Since we're talking about fatherhood my kids get on my nerves. Okay, I'll be honest with you, there's a special Grace needed for parenting in the times we're living in, but even when my kids annoy me to the last, Level of patience. I try my level best. Like what I did with my daughter last night as the last thing at night when she was going to bed. I went to her room and said, you know, when you, when you disobey me, I'm going to disappoint you. That's my role, but I want you to know, I still love you and I gave her a hug. I want her to always know, regardless of how, how rebellious they might behave and annoying. That might get, they need to know regarding its business foundational. And when we experience the love of God, the Father for us. When we experienced his Embrace, he is able to heal the areas of rejection that we've been carrying. Your ears make us more full Okay. Going on related to that, the second way to appropriate the love of God. The love of God makes a full as people whole and there's this amazing passage which I meditate on this passage quite often over the last couple of years. I've been meditating on this passage it's you probably have read this before many of you but in first John chapter 4 it says in this way love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in La Quinta. Do you say there is no fear in love. I'll come on, say it say it one more time, like acting like you ate breakfast. Say there is no fear in love, they will more time. There is no fear in love, you know, in many and many Church circles, even though the word of faith movement has received a bad rap, for the word of faith, be recalled, the word of faith movement. The name it claim it blabbit rabbit group even though the word of faith movement has received the bad rap in many as many segments of the body of Christ. And I know that there are some extreme areas of the word of faith. I want you to know that there is power in confessing the word of God with your mouth. I am I have two full pages in this is not the Bible. I used to read every day on my own and my Bible at my Bible that I used to read. Everything is completely coming apart, but I still love that Bible. Pain in the front of the Bible, I have two full-time pages of scriptures that I confessed everyday. I confess it because the enemy's voice needs to be silenced and what he's trying to declare over my life and my family. I need to declare the word of God. There is power in confessing scripture pride, in your life, see the change that is going to make in your thinking that mindset. The way you come across people confess the word of God is powerful to speak it out loud. And so, this verse here says this passage going on, it says, there is no fear in love, but perfect. Love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. The word Holiness when we talked about the whole concept of Holiness. I know that very often. We think of abstaining from sin living a life. That's a part of Holiness, but the word Holiness, the root of the word. Holy is the word, whole whole. That means that the more holy we become the more whole We are Becoming as people from all the holes in the effects of sin that we all have been born into this world in the effects of living, in this sinful world of sin cursed world, the effect. The more we are became to be coming. Holy, we are being made Warhol as God always intended for us to be to walk in His image created, in His image of a walk is in Silence of mine and victory. That has all this to do with what it means to walk in holiness. And when we talked about when we one of the aspects, one of the signs that a person is not full as a person is, if they're operating and living in fear, if you are, if you are making decisions based out of fear, if you're living in fear, I, I know that there's so many believers who are continually tormented by fear when they are on their own. I want you to know that isn't evidence, that number one, there is demonic activity in your life because there are aspects of your life that I've not come under the control in the lordship of Christ. There are aspects that you are not made holy because when you are made whole board, more you are delivered from Fear, the kingdom of God, never operates in the realm of fear and torment. That is that is the other Kingdom that thrives on fear. That's why I never recommend people watching horror movies because it opens the door to Terror and fear. Never do that. The Kingdom of Light is a kingdom of peace and righteousness. There's joy, there's never been the kingdom of God. God never operates in the realm of fear. And when if you're, if you're living with fear in your life, if it's time I would I would encourage you to to bring areas of your life that you're not surrendering and ask the Lord to invade those lives and be made whole in those areas by the love of God. Once we are perfected in the love of God, we do not fear. There's a soundless of mine that we enjoy living and you say Amen. We appropriate the love of God into our lives, to be made whole.

Number three, the love of God gives us a sense of identity. The town that I grew up in, I grew up close to close to New York City and the town that I grew up in for most of my childhood was a very peaceful Town. It was very diverse. There was different sections of different ethnic groups, but it was a very peaceful Town. However, when I do the summer before I entered High School, everything changed, there was a, there was a horrible incident than a preferred where a police officer for their was he was, he was shocked, he was, he was in a bad moment and he happened to shoot a young man who is black and I believe that that event open the floodgates of demonic activity. In our town was never the same after that. That's when I entered into high school by high school was a war zone. There were fights, horrible gang fights. And so much pressure that I never experienced before. In fact, I hated going to school, I hated going to high school because everyday was like it was like a war internally and externally in what I experienced and most of the people that I called friends in high school were actually, not friends, they just look for ways to use you to get their needs met. There were a couple of true friends but the one security that I had in my life, those years in high school was that I will be able to come back home at the end of the day. My family wasn't perfect. My parents were, perfect. My brother's definitely were not perfect, but But I knew that when I came home, at the end of the day, there was a, there was a net with Safety and Security in my small phone. Because my identity was rooted in my home in my family, and that gave me a secure blanket of security. And safety that I'm always going to be able to come back to my staple gun until recent times. If, if you go to any nation in the world, If you introduce yourself to someone like a stranger on the street, they wouldn't tell you that. They might say, my name is such and such and then they wouldn't say my job is such and such today. When you introduce yourself to someone the first very first, one of the first things are going to say, after saying, your name is, I am an engineer or I'm a teacher or whatever because our identity is now rooted in in what we do. But if you until recent times, if you go to really any other country, when you introduce yourself to someone, they'll say my name is Benson such-and-such. My father is such and such their identity is rooted in their diets. And there's a security of identity in knowing who your father is and once we are secure in our identity, as children of God, adopted into his family that sense of identity and become an anchor for your life. Regardless of what anyone is saying about you, regardless of what accusations are being thrown about you against your mind, that that identity, that you have now was an adopted child about in his family. You know, the Bible talks about the fact and Romans 8:16 and says the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are now God's children. We are not God's children, you are now. If you have open the door of your heart to Christ, you are now a child of God. And now you can call him Abba Father in 1st Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 38 says, it is because of him that you are in Christ. Jesus, is because of God, the father that you are now in Christ Jesus. And he is our cutie has become for us wisdom from God. That is our righteousness. He is our Holiness. He is our Redemption. Just read Paul's letters and see how many times. He says in Christ Jesus. Our identity, our identity now is that we are in Christ Jesus and you say Amen. And that could become the anchor of your life knowing that you are now a child of God. One more thought and then I'm going to close today. You can you can change the slides. In Luke chapter 15 of the Sun. It actually Luke chapter 15. There were three power poles that you can change the slide. Guys and Luke chapter 15. There are three stories of Jesus says in that chapter in each one of the stories, something is lost and then something is found in the first story. It is a it's a coin that is lost and is found in the second story. Is a sheet that has lost and is found. But in the first story, the most powerful story there, it's not a coin or sheep has lost its a son, but it's okay. And in that story, The younger son. While his father was still living ask for his inheritance, he asked his father to give him his inheritance and the father brokenhearted, gave the inheritance to both the sun and the older brother. You see this son was basically wishing that his father was dead and requesting his inheritance while his father was still living and in that Middle Eastern culture. This brought great shame on this father's name. In his community, you have to understand Middle Eastern cultures and the culture that I come from in India. The whole culture is it is driven by an honor shame. That means that people don't make decisions based on always on what they want is based on what their communities expectations are for them Springs AppleOne. My Syrian families right now, their oldest daughter that attend children, but the oldest daughter has been into a previous marriage if she's she's brought she's just 25 years old. But she's had two previous marriages, and in both of those marriages, her husband's both husbands were her rent, horrible men in the first husband, literally with abused her and he threw her out of the house while she was in, while she was in Lebanon, through out of the house. She's still she's she's very wounded by these two experiences but even though she's not in a good place health wise or parents who are friends of mine the father and the mother are very close friends of mine. But they are pressuring her to get married again. Why even though she doesn't want to get married because she's not at a place of trusting. Anyone yet they are trying to pressure her to get married because they have been terribly ashamed in their Community because of what's happened to her even though it wasn't her fault, they're still pressure. That's the kind of culture. Very often, it is it's driven by shame. This father is father and Luke chapter 15. Even though he is not the one who did this, this horrific decision, it was his son's decision. This brought tremendous, shame on him and his community, okay? And this son and and the right decision that this father should make it this point, the accepted decision should be to disown his son forever. That's the right decision to do me. If his if his son ever has the gall to show up at his house ever. Again, he should just say, I don't know. You, you have nothing to do with me, you're not welcome here. That is the right. Accepted decision for him to make in that situation in that culture because of the shame, the sun has brought on And this son, what he did with his inheritance is he went with distant land, where he wasted all of it, through unwise, living and partying and he ended up feeding pigs as a living, which is the most nauseating way of trying to earn a living in the Jewish culture, feeding pigs. You know, it's, it's the most, it's like, it's like, if you have a job cleaning, toilets, in gas stations with a used toothbrush, something even worse than that is what the mindset for him to be having a job. If anything. But it says there, that one day he came to his senses And he said I'm going to go back home, I'm going to go back home. And I'm going to beg my father to never accept me as a son, but just allow me to be a servant in this house because even as servants have enough to eat and I'm starving to death. So he he went back home. Not sure how his father was going to respond, you know, in that culture and in the culture that I come from a child will never dishonor their father or else, you know, the kinds of things again. I'm not trying to offend anyone but the kinds of things I see kids doing today. Oh my goodness, if I tried to pull this nonsense with my dad, I would I would still be I would still be remembering that the punishments involved. Okay. And I understand the time and change but you would never dishonor your father in that culture. And jiri was, he came back home and it says that his father saw him while he was still a long way off. And he ran to his son, he embraced his smelly son, He didn't even give his son the chance to apologize. He he brought him home. He put a new robe on him. He said, Put a Ring on his finger and he said, let's chill, a fat and tablet. Throw a party because this my son who was lost is now found. We need to understand something about this decision of this father The decision that the father made to bring allow his son back home brought even greater shame upon his own name in his community. Are you guys brought even greater shame on his name? Every time he would walk down the street to the to the marketplace. People would whisper about him and say, that's the punk. That's the, that's the guy who allowed that sleazy son back in his home, don't even talk. It brought great shame on his name, but the love of this father, for his son was willing to sacrifice his name because he was willing to undergo and experience shame because he loved his son so much and that's exactly what the unconditional love. You see, God, the Father sent his son into this world, to is it says in the Bible that if a person is hung on a tree, their curse their trips. And when Jesus hung up on that cross, he allowed the curse that the supposed to come on us to come upon him so that the curse can be broken off of our lives, for the, we can be redeemed that we could be forgiven and we can be brought his family. He was willing to be hung on that cross naked for you and me. And his love for you is so vast. So immense that he was willing to undergo shame for just for us to be brought back into his family, one of the ways that we can show our kids the greatest love when they're, when they're not listening to everything, we say to Bear their hurts and still be really possessed a lot. That's that's one of the evidences that we truly love and that's what God the father than I would like for you all to Just Close Your Eyes please. And