 Okay, good morning, everyone. Welcome to the course BC 2009 on Holiness. Thank you for joining the course. We're going to the class today. We're going to pray and then to spend some time in the world, continuing our study here on Holiness. Can I please request somebody to unmute your mic and pray with us as a class before we get started? Anybody please? You want to pray? Let's have to call out somebody's name. You like pray, Pastor? Okay, go ahead. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful time that you've given us, Father Lord, to draw nearer to you, Father, to learn the truths of your word, Father Lord, to really comprehend, Lord, how holy you are, Father Lord, and how we need a lot to reflect it in our lives, Father Lord, so that, Lord, many, many people, Lord, around us, Father, wherever you have placed us, Father Lord, people would be drawn to you, Father Lord. You pray, Lord, help us lead such exemplary lives, Father. We need your grace, Lord. We need the empowering Lord and the acuping of the Holy Spirit, Lord, at this time, especially committing past rashes into your loving hands, Father Lord, may you speak through Him, Father Lord, may every word, Father, that is spoken, a Lord enriches, Lord nourishes, Father, and help us, Lord, that we put these things into a practice, Father Lord, all these things. We pray in the name of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Thank you. All right. Good morning once again. We're just going to quickly review what we did last week and move forward here. And now, of course, on holiness. I'm going to go ahead and share PDF. We have been working through this chapter, chapter five on why person holiness and, you know, if you just put it in a question-answer format, and we've been answering some of these questions all in relation to, you know, why personal holiness is important for us as believers. So we've looked at the difference personal holiness makes, the life of the believer, understanding the difference between righteousness and holiness that God has given us righteousness, but righteousness also means that we walk in right before God. We talked about the rewards of personal holiness. It's important for us to have that closeness with the Lord, to possess our possessions, brings benefit and everything. And it's important to being a vessel of honour. And then, and walking in spiritual authority. And it's key to being Christlike. And we talked about these seven different attributes we supposed to keep adding to our faith. What about if we sin? Well, we learned that sin doesn't change our relationship, our place of belonging, but it does affect our place of fellowship with God. And so, we therefore, you know, need to confess and, you know, and God is faithful to cleanse that and restore that place of friendship and relationship with God. Let me see. There's a question here. Okay. It's only a good morning. Sorry. I thought there was a question. All right. Going back to PDF. Then we were talking about this one last week. You know, what about the externals? You know, the styles of clothes and all of that. And I was just sharing my perspective on all of this as a summary of what we're seeing in God's Word. And then we left it kind of, what to say, in a hurried way because we didn't have too much time. But in essence, what I was trying to communicate is that we know God really, you know, looks at the heart. And when it comes to the externals, well, you know, how people, how, you know, we, the clothes we wear and how we do ourselves up and etc. You know, there is diversity in our expressions, you know, because we are all from different parts of the world. We shouldn't be too judgmental or be judging of each other in these things. We need to dwell together with understanding and, you know, and don't judge each other because there is going to be differences in these things. But the essence is, let us all portray Godliness, you know, how we try to dress or what clothes we wear or, you know, what choices we make. Okay. It's up to us what you eat and what you don't eat. But let's portray Christ. Let's portray Godliness in all of these things. But let's not be judgmental of each other. So that's kind of where we left, you know, over here. I just want to pause and see if anybody has any questions related to that. Usually it's a very debatable issue. We have a lot of people expressing their points of view. So are there any questions, you know, when it comes to holiness and externals, you know, like what you eat and what you wear? Are we all okay that we have a basic guideline? The basic guideline is look at the heart. In the external, you know, you make up your mind, you make your choice. But just make sure that it is godly. And let us not judge each other and fight with each other about each other about these. You know, that's kind of, you know, how we approach it. At a personal level, if you ask me personally, then personally, yeah, I do try to keep my standards high. And we try to, you know, require high standards from those who work with us in the ministry here. But then if other people don't want to embrace that same standard, it's okay. We don't judge them. And I think, for example, we don't drink, we don't smoke, no alcohol, no tobacco, none of those kinds of things. But then there would be other people for them, okay, drinking something is fine, and they may even smoke and whatever, you know, that's their standard, it's their choice. I'm not going to judge them. But you know, this is what we will maintain for and we have valid reasons to do that. So that's kind of how we approach it. I don't want to be condemning and judging other people or fighting with other people about these things. You know, if somebody feels they want to do it, that's their choice. But we maintain our standards and go on. Is that okay? Do you have any questions on that? Any? Okay, go ahead. Hi, Pastor, thank you. So this is, I'm not sure whether this is regarding externals, but there are even among Christians, right, if you follow a kind of physical exercise, which, you know, nowadays, we do not know what all it encompasses, like what all in spiritual sense, if it, it has an impact on you, because we have no idea. So in those areas, like, they might seem good, you know, but how do we discern that? Is it going to affect you in any way? I hope I made it clear. I'm especially talking about like yoga, such things. Yeah. So, you know, so there are, let's say, there are these forms of exercise, just like yoga, tai chi, and some other Eastern exercises and all of that, which have their roots in, in a religious tradition, right? They have their roots in a religious tradition. So we need to be careful. So here's, and here's this, again, I'm sharing my perspective or, you know, what we as at ABC say, he said, look, you want to do exercise, do exercise, or you want to stretch, you stretch, you know, but try to keep it separate from exercises that have a, have a root in a religious tradition. So example, yoga, tai chi, or that, you know, other forms of exercises that have a root in a religious tradition. Stay away. I mean, you may do similar kind of stretching and, you know, so on. You may stretch your muscles and so on. In a similar way, but it's not connected to that tradition. And that's opposition. And we say, okay, stay away from that. But now I do know that there are Christians, believers, who would instead say, they would say, you know, I do yoga, or I do tai chi, or I do certain other forms of exercises, which, you know, are connected with, which we know have roots in a religious background, religious tradition, their believers who say they do that. Now, they also have an explanation saying, I just do the exercise, but I don't do the religious part of it. I'm not going to argue with them. I'm not going to fight with them. Okay, just leave it at that. But our position is, do whatever exercise you want without, you know, being doing something that has its own religious tradition. So it's okay, yoga. No, you know, don't go into that. But do, you know, do your stretching or whatever, you're running your aerobics or your whatever you want to it. Yeah. That's our position. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Besta. Okay. All right. Anita says, because of climatic illness, anyone takes wine as a medicine, is it wrong? No. Right. So Anita's question is, if they take wine as medicine, is it wrong? No, we won't judge them because the Bible tells us not to get drunk with the wine, right? So the drunkenness is the problem. If you take wine as medicine or, you know, it's just taking wine itself is not the sin. The sin is in drunkenness. So that's the issue. So we won't judge anybody who takes wine as for medicinal value. Yeah. Elisha's question, could you explain Mark 715 in relation to holiness? Okay, let's go to Mark 715. Okay. Mark 715. There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him with the things which come out to fill these other things that defile a man, right? Yeah. So Elisha, I think we looked at this in the context of Matthew 12. So if you, if you also look into Matthew 12 and I'm looking specifically verse 34 to 37, it's a parallel text where Jesus, you know, is saying, is talking about these things. And the thing is this, you know, what enters the man is talking about the food we eat. That's not what's going to destroy us. But the things that come out, meaning the things that proceed from the heart, those are the things that destroy it because out of the heart proceed, you know, the evil, the things that man does, it comes out of the heart. So that's what destroys or defiles the man. So Jesus is basically contrasting food we eat physically versus the pots, the things that come out of a heart, which then affect the things that come to the heart, which are different than our thoughts or actions. The other one that destroyed the man. So the contrast is between these two. Is that okay, Elisha? So we have to keep our heart pure and that will enable us to walk in holiness for heart is pure. Okay. Christopher's question, vegetarianism, veganism, kosher are these wrong to adopt? No, they're not wrong. Like we saw in Romans 14, Paul describes, you know, some people want to eat vegetables, some people want to eat meat, basically the essence of Romans 14 is let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. So, you know, people can decide whatever diet that is good for them to stay healthy or whatever they prefer. And we don't judge each other on the food we eat. It's something that each one is persuaded. Okay. And it doesn't make somebody more holy or less holy. It's your choice. Yeah. And it's like he says in Romans 14, it's before God. It's between you and God that we just make sure that you don't offend somebody else. Like don't do it to offend somebody. Be sensitive to that. That's it. Okay. All right. So, you know, let's leave. So, with that, we kind of leave this whole big area aside on holiness and externals. If we have a little have understanding on, you know, God is looking at the heart in in the practice of these in these matters, each one has freedom to choose. Let's not judge each other. Let's not fight with each other on these matters. Because, you know, around the world, culturally, there are varied views on this. Okay. The important thing is that everything every choice we make, ultimately, express Christlikeness. Like so with that, we move forward and don't judge other people, you know, for the choices they make in the externals, the clothes they may wear or things like that. Let's move. We will move forward now. Okay. Let me go ahead and share. So, some other things, you know, basically, again, this, this, I guess these kind of questions come from young people. You know, what am I am laughed at for living holy? So, when we are pursuing personal holiness, of course, people around us are going to think, you know, think you're crazy, think these guys are gone overboard in their faith. But that's when we remember, look, even if people mock us for choosing to be holy, to walk in integrity, to walk in honesty, and sometimes it can even happen in the workplace, you know, in the workplace where you choose holiness, you choose righteousness, you choose integrity. People will mock us and think, you know, think we're weird. But that's when we remember, you know, our honor comes from God, that when we honor him, he will honor us. He said, you know, those who honor me, I will honor for Samuel 2 and verse 30. So, we are honoring God by choosing holiness and God will honor us. And we are seeking the honor that comes only from God. So, in choosing to walk in holiness, that's our motivation. God, I want to honor you. And I'd rather have the honor that you put on my life than, you know, just the applause of people. And here's an example in John 12, where the Pharisees, you know, they didn't want to identify themselves with Jesus, the ones who believed, because it says they love the praises of men more than the praises of God. And we don't want to be like that. We want to be, we want to identify with what we believe. We want to live it out. And it doesn't matter if people mock us. And secondly, your conduct will speak into the lives of people, you know, nobody can, can discredit the power of a life that is lived well. Nobody can discredit it. They may try to, you know, do their mud slinging, they may try to do their character assassination, they may try all kinds of things. But in the end, a life that is lived well, a life that is lived in honor of God will outlast all these things that people try to do. Right. So your righteous conduct will speak into their lives. And Peter writes, he says, you know, as sojourners and pilgrims, we abstain from fleshly lust, that war against the soul, and we have our conduct among the Gentiles. We keep it honorable. What will happen? They may speak against us as evil doers, but they will, you know, on the day of visitation, when God visits them, when they have their encounter with God, they will glorify God for the good works that they have seen in our lives. So ultimately, the life that's lived well is going to glorify God and it's going to speak to them, the very people who may speak against us as evil doers, that life is going to speak to them. Right. So we know that our righteous conduct will speak into their lives. And Jesus told us, you know, we are salt, we are light. We just have to keep being salt and keep being light and let people see our good works, let them see the life we live and glorify our Father in heaven. So we just stay the course, even if we are mocked at or choosing holiness. Okay. Lastly, I think it's towards the end of this chapter. Sometimes when we talk about holiness, the default position for most people is a complete sense of unworthy, there's guilt and shame before God. But we must understand that God doesn't want us to live in that. And of course, we all start there. That means we come before God as condemned, unworthy, guilty sinners. But that's not the place God wants us to be. He wants us to be in a place where we embrace His gift of righteousness, peace with God, and a sense of sonship. So we no longer behave as Romans 8 1617 says, we no longer behave as slaves. But we cry out our Father as sons and daughters. So we need to move from this place of unworthiness, guilt and shame, and being a sinner to being in this place of having a sense of righteousness and sonship for God. But many believers have not made that shift. So the moment we start talking about holiness, it immediately brings the sense of guilt and shame and condemnation and worthiness. And so for most believers, the moment the subject of holiness is mentioned, Oh, God, I'm so sinful. I'm so unworthy. You're so holy. That is true. But if you're being washed in the blood, he has made you holy. And he wants you to embrace that. He calls you a saint. He calls you a holy one. And he wants you to relate to him from that place of being holy. So we need to overcome, we need to move from this place of guilt, shame and condemnation to learn to live as a believer in this place of God has sanctified me. God has made me fit to relate to him, even as I pursue a life of holiness. So we need to move from that. You know, so we need to, of course, we if there is sin, we need to confess and receive cleansing. I'm not saying pretend there is no sin. We receive cleansing for sin, and we embrace the God's gift of God's gift of righteousness. And we say, God, thank you that in Christ, I have been justified, I have been justified. I have peace with God. So God is not judging me condemning me. You know, now he's, he's made me righteous. He's brought me into peace. And I stand in a place of grace for God. And so I'm holy without blame before him in love. And so I relate to him from that place, not from a place of sin and condemnation, but from a place of being holy. So this change, you make it once for all. And that's how you relate to God, and learn to reject these thoughts of condemnation, guilt, shame, accusation. So just because we talk about holiness, don't get into that default, that place of guilt, shame and condemnation. No, holiness is something we, he has made us holy. And so we will walk free from guilt, shame and condemnation as we relate to God. Okay, so, you know, and any time the accuser of our presence, the devil is very faithful to bring accusation, condemnation, and when he accuses us in our minds with those thoughts, well, we overcome him by the blood of the lamp, we declare what the blood of the lamp has done for us that with the blood of the lamp has sanctified us and made us holy unto our God. So learn to reject those thoughts of condemnation and shame when we talk about holiness, right? And we will look at this in depth in our next section. But the fact is that as we live right, as we walk in holiness before God, we must keep in mind that there is discipline involved. So there is discipline, the loving correction that God brings into our lives. But there is also discipline that that we bring ourselves under in order to walk in holiness. So holiness is developed in us through training and discipline. So it's that is involved and we can't deny it. And as the scriptures teach us very clearly about this, about those personal disciplines in order to walk in holiness. And so towards the end of this chapter, I just mentioned some things. So Persecurrent is 927. Paul says, you know, I discipline my body and bring it into subjection. Who is I? That's the person on the inside. What's the body? That's the outside. So the person on the inside is disciplining, keeping in subjection the body so that he says, I don't want to become disqualified. Look, I've told others how to walk this path. I need to discipline myself to walk this path. So this discipline involved me doing my part in walking in holiness. Okay, we present ourselves approved to God. So on the one hand, God has already approved us, meaning he's already made us righteous. But on the other hand, we are diligent to present ourselves approved to God. So that's our part. That's the discipline we develop in our lives. And as we will be seen, you know, in Second Timothy, we cleanse ourselves from whatever is dishonorable. So whatever is displeasing to God, we do our part to get that out of our lives to cleanse ourselves from whatever is dishonorable. And through the word of God, we are equipped, we are thoroughly equipped. God's word is given to us to equip us. So this is the discipline part. So the death holiness require discipline. Yes. Does it believe and live need to live a life of discipline in order to walk in holiness? Yes. So that's our part. And that's what we're going to get into the next section is how do I walk this life so that I can discipline myself to walk in holiness. So God gives us the grace we need. But then we bring our discipline in to bear on this. Okay. Now, there are things that will destroy personal holiness, right? We must be aware of it, especially so that the real question here is, you know, when you know of Godly people, they lived a holy life for a good length of time. And then they trip up, you know, and the fall and especially if they are Christian leaders, and they're in a place of great influence and they fall into sin. It is quite devastating because it affects so many people. So many others are in who have been influenced by their life in ministry, get affected. So why does this happen? Or how could be, you know, what are things we need to be aware of to make sure these things don't happen to us, right? So that they don't destroy a life of personal holiness. So you've built a life of personal holiness maybe for many years, decades, and then suddenly something happens that all of that is gone. It's all destroyed. What could be some reasons? What are some things we have to be careful about? One is hypocrisy, right? So what happens is, and sometimes unknowingly, we become hypocritical in our walk of faith. What does that mean? It means we tell ourselves, look, as long as I look good before people, as long as people have a good impression of me, as long as I'm able to say the right things in front of others, it's okay. And especially this is especially true for people who have reached a certain certain stature before man in this virtual life, because a reputation has been built around them also and so is a very massive person of, you know, great integrity is a person of whatever, honesty, etc. So that reputation is around them. And so now the tendency is to start compromising because they're leveraging or they're depending on reputation that has been built instead of an honest life for God day to day. So a good life, a life of holiness for many decades starts giving place to a hypocritical life where we are now moving on reputation, but we're compromising privately. In a way that, you know, we're saying as long as people think I'm okay, fine, as long as people, you know, accept me or, you know, applaud me. So in private, since take place, in public reputation has been built already, people think everything is going fine. So that's hypocrisy. And that at some point is going to break. It's going to give way. So the simple solution to that is, I must be true to myself. Now, we can put practical safeguards and I will mention those, you know, but if a person wants to cheat, he can cheat anything. There are only two people you can never cheat. You can never cheat God and you can never cheat yourself. But everybody else you can cheat. So even the practical safeguards could be circumvented. If somebody wants to do it. So the simple, the bottom line is, I need to be true to myself, I need to be true to God. These are two people I can never cheat. And if I hold myself accountable to God and to myself, I can avoid hypocrisy. Secondly, worldliness, you know, so what happens is we begin to conform to the world's pattern standards and pressures. Yeah. And we seek to be a friend of the world. And this is where there is a very fine line, very fine line. And because we often justify worldliness by saying, I need to be relevant. And I need to connect with people. But in the process of being relevant in the process of connecting with people, sometimes we, you know, where is the line between becoming a friend of the world and being a friend of God? You know, so we have to be careful. And the best person to judge that of course is yourself. To make sure that the real reason why you're doing something is as stated that I want to read somebody I want to be relevant. And it's not that I'm compromising on my friendship with God and becoming a friend of the world. That's something very, you know, it's a fine line. It's not easy to discern. But what happens? We begin to, you know, accommodate that and then failure happens. Example. And again, I am using Christian leadership in this, in this context because we see these things happen. You know, so imagine, you know, a person has been living a godly life and you know, he's got this, you know, he's built a wonderful ministry and all of that. But at some point, celebrity status kicks in. That means he's now reached a stage where he's a celebrity. So example, in the early days of ministry he would stay, he was happy if he was put up in somebody's house. He would stay in somebody's house or he would stay in a small hotel. But now he's reached a stage where he stays only in a five-star or seven-star hotel. Well, he's a celebrity now. He's a Christian celebrity. So he no longer stays in anybody's home or he no longer stays in a small hotel. He has to stay in a five-star hotel or a seven-star hotel. And then he wants all the things that come with it. Now, this is the same man who maybe 10 years ago was living differently. He's preaching the same message. But now in the world or in the Christian world, his status has gone up. So the quick question is this. Does he necessarily need a five-star hotel? Does he necessarily need to, you know, have all those things? Or is it because of celebrity status? And where does the celebrity status end? Because this man says, well, the celebrities of this world also have other things. They fly in their private jets. They have ABCMD. So I am a celebrity. So I should have those same things. Now, I'm talking about a Christian preacher. Right? He's gone up in a celebrity status. And so then they start doing those things. And I'm not making these stuff. This is what happened. So this is what's been happening. And so the question is why is this shift happening? Is this a friendship of the world or is it really friendship with God? And sad to say, the Christian world accommodates these things. And I remember when we were organizing a conference in Delhi, and I'm not saying this is a shame, anybody. I'm just saying that, look, these are first-hand experiences. And I think this was back in 2012, if I remember the year correctly. We were part of a team of people, part of the ministry where we were organizing a big, big youth gathering, youth conference in Delhi. We had rented one of the big stadiums there. We had over 12,000 youth gathered of 12,000. Yeah, I think it was more than 12,000 youth. They come together from more than 14 states from North India. And the stadium was packed. It was just amazing time. And of course, it was a Friday thing. We had all the leading speakers come in from different parts of India to come and do different sessions and all of that. Now, all of us were staying in a certain place. It was a very basic accommodation. And so when we were contacting the speakers, we said, look, you know, this is where all of us are staying. And this is where we will give you accommodation. And, you know, each speaker had one session. In some cases, we would give them two sessions to do. And we were doing it. And I remember, you know, we contacted a pastor, you know, in one of our cities. And his demand was, I will come, but I will not stay in that place where everybody else is staying. I need, at a minimum, a five star hotel with 24 seven room service and a gym. And he's coming for one night to speak in one service. You know, I'm like, what is this? And, you know, you're not caring about these 12,000 youths that have been gathered together from 14 different states and they come here to, and you know, you're more concerned about, I need, this is what I need if you want me to come and speak to them. Then I told, as I just said, you know, the person was highly communication. I said, you send him back a reply saying, we don't need him. If he wants to come, he has to stay here. If he wants to make his own arrangements and pay for his own expense to stay in that, you know, whatever place he wants, he's fine. But this is what we will give. He didn't come. You know, and I'm saying, you know, this is first-hand experience. So we get into the celebrity mindset and we think we deserve these things. But we have to be careful. You know, thank God, you know, this man of God is doing well and he's still in the ministry now. I'm not saying he fell, but I'm just saying this, this was the experience and and so on. So I like this, you know, it's so prevalent in the Christian world that there's this shift. I'm not saying we shouldn't honor people. You know, if you want to honor somebody, if you will legally offer something and sometimes when we bring people, we put them in a good hotel, we want them to stay comfortably. But we offer that to them because we can afford it. And you know, it's also a matter of convenience. But it's not because we're compromising or want to be friends of the world. So just explaining that because we have to be careful in this area. Strife is another thing that helps us, that makes us compromise holiness. It leads us away from our place of holiness because out of strife we do things that can't, that are contrary to holiness. So sometimes we see that happen among Christian leaders or giving, you know, priority to natural desires and so on. Okay. So I just outlined these four things. Be careful that compromise, it is a compromise holiness, hypocrisy, warliness, strife, priority to natural desires, like he saw. For his own natural desire, he chose to give up something spiritual, his spiritual birthright. So let me try to finish this so that next week we can get into our next section. So three areas, the last of the flesh, having to do with, you know, sexuality, food, sleep, et cetera. The rest of the eyes, having to do with our imaginations, attractions, deceptions. The pride of life, thinking about money, influence, control, exaggeration, celebrity status, all these things. The Bible warns us, you know, be careful, but this is not of the father, it's of the world. So these are things we have to fight against and we're going to talk about this in the next section. How do we successfully wage our war against these things? Because these are the things that will pull us down and make us compromise our walk of holiness. How do we fight these things? That's in our next section. And as part of our discipline to practice holiness and perfect holiness in our lives, we must learn to live with reverence, to live with the fear of God, live with vigilance, and always be alert. Don't take holiness for granted. Don't take your own spiritual life for granted. Live with boundaries. That means never trust yourself, never trust your flesh. That's what we mean. You know, many times we think, oh I'm fine, so spiritual. Yeah, the moment we think we are so spiritual, our flesh will pull us down. So we need to have boundaries set up. Live with transparency. That means let people see you for who you really are. And so there's got to be transparency with you, with your spouse, with ministry team, and let them see you. Don't have to hide and live with humility. That means you be accountable to the people you're serving. Don't think you're above them that they cannot ask you questions. They cannot hold you accountable. Now you live with humility. So if you live like this, we can overcome those things that pull us down, that destroy holiness. So this is what we're going to get into in our next section, which is, sorry, we will have, our next section is on repentance. I mean, talk a little bit about repentance. And then after that we talk about overcoming. How do we overcome the flesh and these things that will pull us down? Practically get into that, the discipline side of holiness. Okay. Now I will pause here so that we have some time for questions. Elisha, Noah was a righteous man. Yet he got drunk with wine. How should we treat holy men who fall at some point in the spiritual journey? Okay, that's an interesting question. So and we will point back to what happened in Noah's case. So Noah's a very righteous man and I think this is Genesis the ninth chapter. Let me just have a look at it. I think let's say Genesis nine. Let me point out that scripture. Yeah, so what happened in Noah's case? And I'm referencing Genesis nine and verse 23. Okay, so you see, he don't know why Noah got drunk. He don't know why. Genesis nine and verse 20 says, you know, this was after the flood. Noah planted a vineyard and he drank of the wine. This is Genesis nine 21 and was drunk. Now I don't know if this was accidental or deliberate. We don't know, meaning I'm just imagining. I'm just using my imagination. It's not in the Bible, but just imagine, you know, Noah was planting a vineyard. He got all the grapes and he was so excited. He had a lot of wine and things fermented over time and he didn't know about it and then so it could have been an accidental thing, right? That he drank, it fermented, he drank too much of it and he became drunk. We don't know, right? So to that extent we can be forgiving of Noah. But anyway, he got drunk and he became naked in his stent. But the reaction of his sons could give us an indication of what we should do, right? There is Ham who saw the nakedness of his father and then even told his brothers. So again, we don't know how he communicated it to his brothers, but again, using imagination, he may have spoken condescendingly, he may have spoken demeaningly about his father's, hey, what happened? You know, father's lying naked. But then the other two sons, Shem and Jaffer, they thought of something very honorable. It says in verse 23, they took a garment and they walked backwards. That means they didn't turn, they didn't even look at their father's nakedness. They walked backwards and they covered the father's nakedness. And I think this is very poignant. This is very, very touching. One son would see the nakedness and go and tell all the others. Two sons will say, I'll take a covering. I will walk backwards and I will cover my father's nakedness. So in answer to Elisha's question, we should be like Shem and Jaffer. That means not to cover sin, but to cover nakedness. That means sin has to be addressed, but avoid destroying the person, avoid putting the person to shame. And that's what Shem and Shem and Jaffer did. So when a man of God sins, sin has to be addressed. Galatians 6 verse 1 and 2 tells us to restore that person. But don't put the person to shame. Don't destroy him. Cover his shame. Deal with the sin. Is that okay Elisha? Okay pastor, please follow up. Practically, how do you, how do you deal with the sin and then the nakedness of the sinner? Practically. How do you distinguish the sin, deal with the sin and at the same instance cover the nakedness of the sinner? Okay, yeah. So I may have shared this before, but I don't know, but that's it. You know, in our own ministry at ABC, there have been situations and I'll just mention one. So this happened many years ago. We sent one of our people. He was a young man. He was single. He was, he worked with us here and we love him dearly and we sent him to start a church in another part of our country. So he went and you know, and we usually help them start the church. So I actually went there, did the inaugural service and we got a place and you know, everything. So he went there, he did the groundwork, found a place, all this wee thing. And this was just within less than two years after he started. So I forget the actual duration, but it was very early and I suddenly got a call from that city. Somebody else called. They said, you know, hey, this is what happened. This young man had a sexual relationship with one of the girls who was coming there. She's pregnant. He's told her to have an abortion and I was shocked. All right. And my heart was broken. I, you know, this was such a fine young man, but for whatever reason this happened. So I immediately took the flight, went to the city, met him and you know, I said, see, this has happened. We don't have anybody else now that we could put in place to run the church. Let's close the church. We don't want this to continue. We want you to come back to Bangalore and spend time with us. You know, and you know, so I had to get the people and without any shame, you know, we said, okay, all of you are here. The people had gathered in because it's early in the ministry, just one or two years since it started. We said, you know, please, you know, please go to a church where you can go. And we didn't say the reason only, only let's say the person who called me, that lady, the lady who, with whom this young man was involved, just three people knew the actual reason. So we didn't, you know, publicize it, but we said we have to close the church. We told the people to go to another church. And so, as a disciplinary action, we took him out of the ministry. Now, the girl had, the other lady, she had gone and already had an abortion and then she disappeared. So we really couldn't trace her. I couldn't get a chance to speak to her. If possible, I would have met her and, you know, tried to help her, but she just disappeared. So I had no option. Couldn't meet her, couldn't help her. But at least this young man, he said, you know, this is not the end of your life, but we need to address it. So we brought him back to Bangalore. I said, you know, you just stay with us for one year and just take some time to de-strengthen, to recover. You know, because this has happened and we can't deny it. And so, you know, he was with us for one year. He didn't do ministry, but he was part of everything that was going on, part of the services worship. And, okay, so we protected him. Nobody knew, nobody knew other than maybe one other pastor here in Bangalore could know what had happened. So we protected him. He didn't expose the shame, but we were dealing with the sin, what had happened, the wrong thing that happened. And then, after one year, we released him back to the ministry. And today, he is actually leading a church overseas, you know, and he's doing very well. He's been honored. And, you know, he's pastoring his marriage. He has a child and he's pastoring the church. He's doing wonderful work. But so here's a simple example. I don't know, I shouldn't call it a simple example, but a serious example where we had to address the situation, try to help the people who were affected, and yet do it all without putting shame and condemnation and restore the person so that they could go back into the call, I mean, do what God called them to do. And that's what they're doing today. Right? Now, that's one example. But in some cases, it doesn't always end up good. It ends up bad because people are unrepentant. And if they're unrepentant, they're not willing to accept they're wrong, we can't help them further. And that also has happened. Then we just release them. It's okay. You're on your own. You don't want to receive help. You don't want to acknowledge that what is wrong is wrong. Then we can't do anything more. We just release them. So both happens. Is that okay, Laisha? Yes. Yes, Pastor. I would like to refer as to Matthew chapter 1 verse 19. I think that is under scripture that really supports what Pastor you just shared with us. How Joseph decided to treat Mary when he realized that she has gotten pregnant. Thank you. Thank you very much, Pastor. Anything else? Any other questions before we dismiss? Okay. So, this kind of, you know, complete our first section where we talked about the holiness of God. Now we're going to go into another side where it's okay, our side. How do we live this out? How do we live holy? How do we live victoriously? And that's what we're going to start looking into from next week. We'll talk a little bit about repentance and then we talk about overcoming. You know, and the focus would be on overcoming these three things that pull us down, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of love, practically. How do we do that? Okay. So, let's wrap up. So, I see a question, Hebrews 12 verse 5. And can we pick it up next week on Wednesday? Yeah, on our class. Just remind me, please, and we will answer that. Just put it up in the very beginning of the class so we can address it. Okay? Okay, Pastor. Thank you. Yes. Let's close and pray. Somebody could pray and then we will dismiss. Pastor, can I pray? Go ahead, Elisa, please. Our most gracious and everlasting Father, we thank you. We bless your holy name for this opportunity to encounter you by these teachings. We bless you for the lives of our pastor. We bless you for the lives of our colleagues. And we bless you for the understanding and the enlightenment you have brought to our hearts and our soul by your work. Father, we pray that whatever grace that we need, whatever weaknesses that is in us, that sometimes influences us not to be holy. We pray that you grant us the grace to be righteous and holy men in the name of Jesus. Father, we continue to seek you in our weakness. We seek you in our feelings. We pray that you strengthen our hands and strengthen our feet, strengthen our minds and our souls and our conscience to consciously live righteous life in the mighty name of Jesus. We bless you for amen as and we bless you for blessing us today in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you everyone. God bless you. Until the rest of the day, I'll see you tomorrow. God bless. Thank you pastor. God bless. God bless you. Bye now. God bless everyone. Have a good day. Bye now.