 Okay, okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to BC 209, our course on Holiness. I've just turned on the recording. Thank you for joining the class today. Let's take a moment to pray and then we will get started. May I request somebody to please unmute your mic and pray with the class and then we can start. Pastor, can I pray? Go ahead. Go ahead. Let's pray. Our Grace is Heavenly Father. We thank you for this beautiful time and moment, Father God, that you have provided for us, Lord Jesus. This time we praise your Master. We worship you, Jesus, with our whole heart. And Father, we pray this time, Lord, as we are going to learn your word about holiness, Father God. We ask you more grace, more understanding, more knowledge, and more revelation, Father God, in our life. To Lord Jesus, go in a deeper way into your holiness, Father God. Your word says, Lord Jesus, for bodily exercise, profitable a little, but godliness is profitable for all things. Father, we pray that Lord Jesus, as we are learning about your holiness, Father God, help us to Lord Jesus to work and grow in our godliness, Father God, so that we can be profitable, Father God, what you have prepared for each one of us, Lord. We pray that Lord Jesus, for each students, Father God, we pray for the, as Pastor Lord, we submit all into your mighty hand, Jesus. And we ask this prayer in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. I've been asked. Okay. Good morning, everyone. Once again, welcome to the class. We are joining into our discovery of the holiness of God, and not only understanding or discovering how holy God is and, you know, how the holiness of God covers everything, who God is and everything about him, but also we're learning, you know, how to have that holiness reproduced in us and revealed through us so that people can see the holiness of God in our lives. We are making that journey. We started talking on Monday about personal holiness, and we were dealing more, more with the practical questions that come up in our minds in connection with holiness. When I say in our minds, not only us, but the church in general, when we're talking about the holiness of God, and so we are kind of answering those questions as we go along talking about personal holiness. So I'm just going to quickly review this particular chapter. It's a little long chapter, but we try to cover several aspects about personal holiness. So we are now in chapter five, personal holiness, which we started on Monday. I will just quickly review a few things, and then we will move forward. So we first wanted to talk about the difference holiness, personal holiness makes in the life of the believer. And of course, in connection to that, there are some common questions. You know, one is, why should a believer live a holy life if the believer is already saved and all the sins, all sins are already paid for and already forgiven? We said, well, we must understand that sin affects our relationship or fellowship with God. Sin gives the enemy access, you know, into our lives. It's like an open door, continuing sin, and sin also affects our ministry. Now, we do see examples of this. I mean, last class, there was a question on, you know, can we give scriptural examples of sin affecting ministry? And at that time, I was trying to think. And we mentioned a few new testament examples, but you also see this in the Old Testament. And, you know, you can think of, you know, just different examples. One very serious one, of course, would be with Moses when he disobeyed God. He couldn't even enter into the land of promise. You know, he couldn't go now. I understand that these are Old Testament examples, but I'm just saying that the effect of sin affecting ministry or the call of God, you know, you see it in both testaments. We see that in Moses' life. We see that in Saul's life. He was anointed as king, but when he started drifting away, you know, bad crippled what God wanted to do through his life. You can also think about Gihazi, Elisha servant. I mean, he was positioned to be, you know, literally the next prophet, Elijah, Elisha, and Gihazi must could have been the next prophet in line, you know, to carry the mantle. But he got taken away. And instead of receiving the anointing from Elisha, he lost everything, lost everything. So there are such examples in both cases, in both testaments. We also, you know, said, okay, let's understand the difference between righteousness and holiness. And righteousness is given to us as a gift. Holiness is developed in us through the work of God, you know, by his spirit. And why is that important? Because we said here that, okay, I think we went on. So, so holiness is us walking in, walking set apart for God and walking living that consecrated life. Righteousness is God giving to us that right standing. But we also said that righteousness has the other aspect of it, which is living right. So not only do we right standing before God, we also have to live right before God. Then we talked about the rewards of personal holiness, you know, if we have already been blessed with everything by personal holiness. What else, what does holiness bring into our lives? So we were talking about this. And we said that holiness is key to being part of him, you know, and we looked at John 13, the Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. And it was more than just an example. He was cleansing. We said, look, you have to be clean to be a part of me. And so that means he's telling us that our closeness to him is determined by the cleansing, sanctifying work that he does in our lives. We talked about the fact that holiness is key to possessing our possessions. That means to walking in our inheritance, what belongs to us. And this is where we stopped. You know, we said that just as bodily exercise benefits the physical body, or our training in holiness benefits our spirit, spiritual person. So there is benefit that comes through that training to the spiritual well-being of our person. So it is true that we are in Christ and we are justified and all of that. But this godliness, this training in holiness, or our spiritual well-being, it brings benefit which cannot be received any other way. So holiness is profitable. It strengthens our spiritual person. So we're going to go more forward from here as we are talking about personal holiness. Why is personal holiness important? Or why is it important to have this holiness developed in us, to be trained in holiness, to grow in holiness, or to perfect holiness and the fear of God in our lives? Well, another reason is because it's a key to being a vessel of honor. So we want to be vessels of honor. We want to be, we could use the word instruments that God uses. We want to be prepared and be channels of the work of God. An important part of that preparation is holiness. And this is what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2 versus 19 to 21. Could somebody please read this for us? 2 Timothy 2, 19 to 21, please. 2 Timothy 2 was 19 to 21. Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having the seed. The Lord knows those who are His and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel of vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So we have seen these verses before and the Apostle Paul is, you know, he's, he's, he's starting to get across to us. I mean, he's actually writing to Timothy and of course he's communicating to Timothy. But it's also what he's telling us as, you know, what the Spirit of God is speaking to us. And he's, he's looking at Timothy. You want to be a vessel God that God uses a little earlier. He has said Timothy, you know, rightly divide the word so that you can be a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, who is approved by God. So that's one part, handle the word of God very carefully. But then he continues here in that chapter and he says, there's one more thing you need to know if you want to be a vessel that God uses. And then he is trying to paint a picture. He says, you know, think about a house and this is God's house. And there is a solid foundation for this house, the house of God. And that foundation has this inscription or that foundation is built on this, these truths. What is it? What are they? First, God knows those who belong to him. I mean, you know, he, he, we can't fool them. We can't cheat him. Either we belong to him or we don't belong to him. That's one thing. Secondly, the second truth is everyone who names the name of Christ must depart from iniquity. I mean, he says, this is the foundation of which God builds his house. You know, there is no two ways about this. God knows those who belong to him. There's no fooling God in that. And he says, you know, if you name the name of Christ, you have to depart from sin. You have to, you can't play with sin, gotta depart. And then he says, just like in a very, in a big house, in a great house, there are all kinds of utensils, utensils that are made of different materials. Some are golden silver, some are wooden clay. And some are used for noble purposes. Some are used for just general purpose, you know, maybe as trash cans and whatever, you know, just used for whatever. So he's just giving painting a picture. And he says, if you want to be a vessel like that, like the golden vessel, the silver vessel, if you want to be a vessel that is that is used for honorable work, then he says, we have to cleanse ourselves from whatever is dishonorable for whatever is iniquity, that's the latter. And if we cleanse ourselves, if anyone cleanses himself, so this is something we have to do, right? So what God is going to do, God is going to help us to do it. He's going to empower us to do it. He has given us his word, he's given us the Holy Spirit, and he's going to discipline us, he's going to work in us. But it's something that we desire to do. So if anyone cleanses himself, then he's going to be a vessel of honor. He's going to be set apart. So the word sanctified can also be replaced by the word holy. It's the same Greek word. So he's going to be a vessel of honor, holy and useful for the master. So holiness or holiness or sanctification is part of being a vessel that God can use, right? If you want to be a useful vessel, if you want to be a vessel that is ready for every good work that God has called us to do, sanctification or being holy is part of that. We can't exclude that from being a vessel that God will work through. Now all of us desire to be vessels of honor. We want to be vessels that God will work through powerfully that God will use for his kingdom, for his glory. So we must understand sanctification, holiness is part of that process. And this is a huge motivation actually. It's a huge motivation for us to cleanse ourselves, to keep ourselves clean. Why? You want to be a vessel that God can use. You want to be a vessel that God can work through to bless others. You want to be a vessel that God can use to complete every good work that he has appointed for your life. And so holiness is part of it, right? Holiness is also key to walking in spiritual authority. Now many times when we quote James 4-7, we usually tend to quote, you know, resist the devil and even flee from you, which is true. But that's prefixed by submit to God, right? So he says you submit to God, resist the devil. So that submission to God obviously means that I walk in alignment with him, that I walk in, I walk yielded to him, which is I have to walk in holiness. So I can't go there trying to resist the devil. If I personally am not submitted to God, because authority flows through submission, right? God's authority is released through those who are submitted to him and those who are yielded to him. So holiness therefore is key to walking in authority over the devil, practically. Now we know we have authority because you know, God has given us the name of Jesus. Now we are in Christ and we are redeemed and we are children of God and all of that. So that authority belongs to us. But practically when we want to walk in that authority, we must be in this position, submit to God. When we are in that position, we are able to exercise spiritual authority. Another important part of holiness is that holiness is really the expression of Christ's likeness in our lives. So when we look at what Peter wrote, could somebody read 2 Peter chapter 1, 3 to 9? It's a long passage, but it's useful to just look at this passage closely. Could somebody read that for us, please? Shall I read it first? Yeah, go ahead. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 to 9 says, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love, for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Amen. So if you just follow the train of thought here, what the Holy Spirit is telling us through Peter says, look, God by his divine power, he's already given to us everything that we need for life and godliness. I mean, God has already given to you and me whatever we need to live this life and to live godliness, to live in holiness. He's already given it to us through the very through the simple fact that we know the one who's called us to glory and virtue. Just the fact that you know him, you know Jesus Christ. God by his divine power has given to you and me everything we need for this life and godliness, to live a godly life. He's given it to us. And he's given to us great and precious promises so that we are partakers of his divine nature. We are partakers of the very nature of God, the holiness of God. We are partakers of that and because of that we escape the corruption. This is the moral decay. So we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust, ungodly desires. So really as a believer, this is our state. We've got everything we need to live godly. We are partakers of the divine nature and we can live a life free from the corruption of the moral degradation that's in the world because of evil disasters. We don't have to be tainted by that. We don't have to be affected by it. It is around us. It may try to come upon us because we're in the world living around, you know, but we don't have to be. But then God has given everything. He's given us his power. He's given us wonderful promises. We are partakers of the divine nature. Therefore, we know he's given to us everything we need to live this life and to live in godliness and we can escape the corruption that is in the world. We don't have to be corrupted by it. But here's a practical sign. He says make every effort giving all diligence. That means now this is our part. God's done his part to enable us to live a holy life. Now here's what we do. We must give all diligence. For this very reason, I mean, God has done all of this so let it motivate us to give, you know, be very diligent to our faith. So you, we have faith in Jesus. Wonderful. But add it to your faith. That means continue to grow in these things. And you look at, look at what he tells us. He says, you know, virtue, knowledge, look at this self control, right? Or, and then look at, I'm just highlighting a few things here. Godliness. So he's saying, look, to faith, we need to be adding these other aspects of virtue and not knowledge and self control and endurance and godliness and kindness and love. You know, you add these things, keep growing in these things, right? That means these are the things that are going to help us practically live this life of godliness, living in the divine nature, escaping the corruption in the world. So this is the practical working out of that. And so you add to your faith the virtue, virtue's character that the, the attributes, the character of God, the virtue, knowledge, self control, perseverance, godliness, you add these things. And if these things are bound, that means they are in us in an increasing, growing, abounding way. What'll happen? We will be very fruitful. So I'm just putting it in the positives. We will be, we won't be barren or unfruitful. We will be very fruitful in our knowledge of Christ. But if we don't do that, our lives, our spiritual lives are going to be barren or unfruitful. They're going to be very productive in our spiritual lives. And we're going to be like somebody who's blind. We can't see where we're going, spiritually speaking, if we don't do this. So God's done his part, but then we do our part. This is our part. And if you do this, we're going to be fruitful in the knowledge of our Jesus, of our Lord Jesus. We're going to be, you know, the fact that we know Christ is going to bear fruit in our lives and Christ's likeness is going to be expressed. The life of Christ is going to be expressed. So growing in virtue, self-control, godliness, that's the practical working out of, you know, partaking of the divine nature of godliness. It's worked out in our lives in this manner. And Christ's likeness is seen through our lives in a very practical way. Now, another question that's commonly asked when it comes to personal holiness is, look, you know, we know we all do wrong things and we end up sinning. What do we do? Does it mean that we immediately become unholy? Right? Now, the reason I put this question here intentionally is because in some circles there is teaching that, well, when you sin, you don't need to, you know, you don't need to repent because God doesn't see your sin because you are hidden in Christ and, you know, your sins were already forgiven and your sin is not a real sin, all those kinds of things, you know, which I think is also untrue because a sin is a sin. If even a believer can commit sin, and sin affects a relationship with God in the New Testament, a lot of it which is obviously written to believers addresses sin in the life of a believer and how somebody can overlook all of that and come up with that kind of a teaching is very absurd. But the fact is that kind of teaching has become very popular in certain parts of the Christian church. And so intensely I put this here because it's very clear to in Scripture that, you know, sin, it doesn't change our position in Christ or our standing before God, but it does affect relationship. And that's where I think the confusion is, you know, you're mixing up the two or you're not clearly distinguishing the two. There is something about us being in Christ which is not going to change just because of a sin or one wrongdoing that somebody commits, but that sin does affect our relationship with God and it has to be confessed. It has to, you know, we need to get right in our relationship with God. And a simple example that we can think of is a child, you know, a child. If a child does something that the parent said don't do, the child doesn't seize being a child, but the child has been disobedient. You cannot deny that. You cannot, you know, mix the two. You know, one aspect is disobedience. The other aspect is belonging. The belonging doesn't change. The child is still the child of the parent, but the child has been disobedient. You can't overlook the disobedience just because the child belongs to the parent. The parent is not going to do that. The parent is going to address it with a child and say, Hey, I told you not to do it. You did it. Now here's the correction I want to give you, right? And the child needs to say, I'm sorry. I acknowledge the wrongdoing. Now that's just an example. And in a similar way, in our walk with God, the Bible, the New Testament is absolutely clear on this, that as believers, if we do wrong, it is called sin. There is no such thing as holy sin. Or there is no such thing as unseen sin. Sin is sin. God sees it. It has to be confessed. It has to be repented of. And we have to walk right before God. You know, if anything, I mean, they just, you can point out so many examples in the New Testament. And simply if you just look at, you know, revelations up to two and three when Jesus is speaking to the seven churches to all of them, except for the church in Philadelphia. So six of the churches, he tells them, he corrects them for something. And he tells them that they have to fix something. They had to repent of something. They're speaking to the church, which is believers. Right? And he says, you need to repent. You need to get something right. You know, so to say that a believer doesn't need to repent, to say that a believer's sin is not seen by God, or a believer's sin is hidden in Christ, or to say a believer's sin, you know, is not a real sin. All of these things are absurd teachings, which is not backed up by the New Testament. Right? So we need to be very clear that when we sin, our position in Christ doesn't change, our belonging to God doesn't change, but it is disobedience. And we need to acknowledge our sin before God and get right before God. Now, of course, I know these are Old Testament scriptures, but nonetheless, they are true as far as what sin does in, in relation to God. Right? That our sin is before us. And we need to acknowledge our transgressions. If we carry iniquity in our heart, it's going to affect our relationship with God. And if we cover our sins, it's not going to prosper. We need to confess and forsake them. Let me just cover a few more practical things here in terms of personal holiness. So in the light of personal holiness, you know, here's this other big issue. Which is, how important are externals? You know, and then it comes down to, you know, what can I wear? You know, what kind of clothes you're supposed to wear? Can you have jewelry? Can you drink alcohol? Can you not drink alcohol? Can you smoke cigarette? Can you not smoke cigarette? You know, all these questions. Now, you know, what I want to say is this, that when it comes down to these externals, understand that believers around the world have different perspective on the same thing. For example, in India, you normally wouldn't expect anybody to come to church in wearing shorts. I mean, generally, I'm speaking. But if you're in the, in a western country to go to church, wearing shorts is nothing, nobody considers that as wrong. You know, especially during summertime, it may be hot and people will wear shorts and come to church. Whereas if you do that in India, or maybe even any Asian country, I'm not sure about Singapore and Malaysia, but you know, there may be, they do wear shorts to church, but generally in India, I'm just saying our Asian country, it's like you don't do that when you go to church, you dress properly. Or, you know, so what I want to say is that, you know, people look at the same thing very differently in different parts of the world. So we just have to be accommodating to that, you know. That's one thing that I keep in mind. Secondly, you know, about makeup and jewelry, you know, people look at it in different ways. And there are certain parts of the Christian church that believe that you should not wear any makeup or should not wear any jewelry. You should not use any deodorant or any alcohol based products. You know, so you can't use perfume or spray or things that have alcohol as a base. And, you know, they go to that extreme. And then there's others who don't mind. You know, you want to wear makeup, it's up to you. You want to wear jewelry, it's up to you. You know, so, and these are all believers. These are all good people, right? Just that their perspectives on these things are different. Same thing with alcohol. You know, there are believers and even Christian leaders and parts of the Christian church where, you know, for them drinking wine or even some other forms of alcohol is like just normal. They have it almost every day with lunch. You know, so if you especially, let's say, you go to Ireland and all that, they're, you know, drinking, yeah, whatever, some alcoholic beverage is almost like drinking coke in other parts of the world. They don't think, they don't think very much of it. And then that becomes also part of the church culture. And so they do that. Whereas, you know, for example, in our own case here as a church, we have, as a church, our position is zero alcohol, no alcohol. And we have our reasons for it. But then we also have to be mindful that there are other believers and other believers in other parts of the world who see that whole thing very differently, right? Now, I said all that just so that, you know, we, when it comes to these external things, we shouldn't get too judgmental about each other on this, right? But what does the Bible say? Now, what is God telling us in the Word of God when it comes to externals? Well, first of all, we know that God doesn't look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart. So what's most important? Most important is what's in the heart? You know, where is your heart before God? You know, that's, that's, that's really what God is looking at, right? So even our emphasis should be, you know, what's the, where's the heart of this person? That's the first thing. Secondly, God has given us some instruction concerning these matters. And what has he told us, right? So some of the passages we could look at is, okay, you know, he said, don't emphasize the outward adorning. He didn't say, don't do it. He just said, don't emphasize that. Focus on the hidden person of the heart, which means that, you know, it's up to you, you know, how you want to arrange your head or what you want to wear. It's okay. But the focus is on the matter of the heart. Secondly, that was 1 Peter 3126, then we also understand from 1 Timothy 289 that God says, you know, emphasize godliness. You know, what you should focus on is the expression of godliness. Don't worry, don't focus too much on the outward clothing now. So that's entirely up to you, your choice, you know, whether it's your, what do you wear and how you want to braid your hair and what do you want, that's up to you. But the focus should be on godliness with good works. So that's another instruction. A third instruction that we can bring about is this is from Romans 14, verse one to 12. Basically, you know, he says, look, don't get into disputes over doubtful things. Don't fight about things that are open, doubtful, you know, don't fight. For example, some believer may say, hey, I'm just giving example, and it does happen in some parts of the world. Some believers say, well, the Bible never said, don't smoke. So they smoke. So there are parts of the world where the pastor, he will preach his Sunday morning service, come outside and he'll smoke a cigar. They don't think twice about it. For them, it's okay. Whatever, you know. Now, do I have a right to say you're going to go to hell because you smoke? No. All I can tell him is it's bad for your health. Your body's God's temple. And you know that, you know, smoking a cigarette or smoking a cigar is not good for your body. And your body has God's temple. So therefore, you should reconsider what you're doing. But if he feels he says, Oh, I don't mind. You know, should I judge him in it? No, let's not fight about it. You know, he's answerable to God for that. And maybe he'll end up in heaven, but he'll get there quicker than somebody else. Maybe, you know, we don't know. So the point is this. Some, you know, some like in Romans 14, Paul is saying some may eat everything. Some may eat only vegetables. So if you eat everything, don't judge the person only eats vegetables. Some, you know, may consider one day more important. The other others may look at every day the same way. Okay, let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. Right. And whatever you do, do it to hasn't to the Lord, you know, if your heart is right before God, hey, that's all that matters. Right. Because we're all living to the Lord. Okay. So in these doubtful things, how long should your hair be? Okay. So there are some men who have long hair. Some may know a short hair. That's not fight about that. Leave it. You know, what clothing and you know, so the point here I want to get across is when it comes to external things, keep in mind that people in different parts of the world have different perspectives on the same thing. You know, what we in one part of the world think as unacceptable in other parts of the world, it may be okay. Like I said, you know, wearing shorts to church. Yeah, it's, it's, it's different. So we focus on what the scriptures teach us, the scriptures teach us God is looking at the heart. So where is this person's heart? Second, the scriptures are teaching us to pursue holiness from the heart. Focus on that. Yeah, guiding principles should be godliness with good works in other matters. You know, don't judge the other person if they choose to do something that's different in things where the Bible is explicitly saying something is sin, then we call it sin. There are no two ways about it. But in things that the Bible does not explicitly state like, okay, do you want to eat meat? You want to eat vegetables? Some people may consider certain meats as not acceptable. Some people may eat certain meats. Okay, that's up to you. You decide. Okay, and let us not judge each other on those kinds of things. Okay, so leave it open. Let every man be fully persuaded of his mind and be answerable to God over those matters. But where the Bible is explicitly clear saying something is sin, then we have to call it sin. Okay, so other than that, we shouldn't judge other people on these externals. I know this can be a very debatable topic, but let me pause here and see if there are any questions on this. Yeah, are you all with me so far? Any questions on this external thing? I mean, I know we can have lots of questions on that. Okay, let's see. I see Paul, Samuel's comment sanitizers. Yeah, I don't know what they did with sanitizers. Anyway, okay, Anita's comment is Paul said, do not be a reason for the fall of your brother. Yeah. So how do we, Romans 14, Paul tells us to be mindful about our brother. We don't want to be a stumbling block, but that's in the brother's presence. So example, if there's a person who doesn't mind who drinks alcoholic beverages, example, and he comes into a presence of another brother who doesn't, I mean, and especially the context is a weaker brother, meaning he's a new two brother to the faith. Okay. So then you'll be sensitive to the other brother. In that, a lot where that other brother is, you don't drink that alcohol beverage. Yeah. And, you know, and this is just, we have time, but, you know, okay, never mind. So, so, you know, you just be sensitive, you know, to the other person and therefore hold back on your liberty so that you don't offend a brother who's new in the faith, who's a weaker brother, don't offend that person. And, you know, you refrain from exercising your freedom for their sake. So that kind of sensitivity is what is needed. And, and so we have to be careful. All right. All right. Now I see a couple of hands raised. I see Kennedy's comment as well. So let's try to take these. They'd be a go ahead, then Sri Kumar, and then I'll come to Kennedy. Go ahead. You've got five minutes. Yeah. Yeah, master. My question was regarding 2nd Peter 1, 3 to 9, where it says add to your faith, virtue, to your virtue knowledge. So all those things listed out there, in a practical sense, how can we, you know, apply it? How do we, what do we do about it in a practical sense? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So we, so we have to grow. We have to grow in all of those areas. And let me just give you a link. So, you know, so basically we did a servant called Seven Spices. Link, if you go to our church website, it's there. So this was a long time ago. I don't know, many, many years ago. We did a sermon series called Seven Spices. Basically, it's the seven things that Peter lists, which we have to add to our faith. And so we kind of did a series on, okay, you know, how practically what do each of those seven things that seven, we just call it spices, but seven ingredients that Peter tells us we need to add to our faith and how do we do it, why is it important? So if you have time, you're welcome to listen to the sermon series. You can just download the MP3 or just look at the sermon notes. But practically, yeah, you know, you study each one of those seven ingredients as you add to your faith so that you can be fruitful in your life. Okay. All right, Sri Kumar. And then let's try to finish Kennedy's before we go. Thank you, Master. You almost clarified the thing. I just want to know a few things. Like, many times, you know, I used to listen to these messages where the people say that the people who smokes or they have tattoos or drinks, that actually makes the body unholy. So, as you said that, as Jesus said, that unholiness comes out from the heart. Is that the right statement when we say to the people that drinking alcohol makes you unholy or having a tattoo on your body and, you know, smoking makes you unholy? Is that the right way of telling to the people? That's my question, Master. Thank you. So, let's look at it, you know, about tattoos or about somebody who's smoking or somebody who's drinking, say, wine or some alcoholic beverage. I personally would not go and tell that person because you have tattoos or because you smoke or because you drink. You are unholy before God. I personally don't like either of those three things. Personally, I don't like, but I'm not going to go and tell that person that makes you unholy. For example, if a person had tattoos and then he became a believer, there's, you know, it's going to be a very difficult thing for him to get rid of those tattoos. It's already there, you know. Doesn't mean he's going to be unholy the rest of his life or what if he gets a tattoo of a cross or a Bible verse, you know, on his body, whatever. But what we can't tell them is, look, these things in some way, and now we can't say that too much about tattoos because nowadays, you know, they have, they've perfected the art, meaning there are less chances of getting it wrong. But at least definitely for cigarette and alcohol, we can say, see, for cigarette smoking, yeah, it is bad for your body. And your body is God's temple. So we can, we can definitely bring that to their attention, right, that you're actually doing something that is detrimental to your physical body. Same thing with alcohol, you know, and alcohol, we can't say it for everything. For instance, you know, somebody drinks wine, they could argue and there's, you know, okay, wine is not damaging to your somebody's body necessarily. And so they could argue the other way. But so it's not right for us to tell somebody that makes you unholy. Right. Why does it make, why is it bad in the eyes of God is, is what we should be able to address. So in the case of, so I will respond to Kennedy's, you know, why not judge this like something yet they open the doors for the enemy. So, so that is, and I know the time times up, but let me just say this. So in terms of alcohol, why is it that we at APC our position is zero alcohol? Why? Simply because well, they're not, you know, the Bible doesn't say don't drink alcohol. The Bible says, don't get drunk. But what our, our approach or our response to these kinds of things is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 12, and he repeated that in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, I think it's verse 21, where he said, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of anything. So that means things that may be lawful may not be profitable. Things that may be lawful may become controlled things. And so that's our approach, you know, okay, maybe it's okay to drink alcohol, but is it beneficial? And does it have the potential to control you? Definitely. So, you know, so that's our response that is therefore don't even have an open door, right? Don't even do at all, lest in a time of weakness or in a time of intense pressure, that becomes something that controls you. So that's our approach. So we're not condemning people who do, but we are saying, look, our position is no civil for this reason, we're explaining our position. So, you know, I'm not going to judge, you know, somebody who, you know, this happened several years ago, somebody recommended a preacher to come, was coming from the USA said, can you have him preach in your church? This was through a friend. So I said, yeah, yeah, okay, fine. So once was coming to preach. And then I told our media team, you know, okay, just, you know, so once was coming, we have to make an announcement. Please do it. So they went online. And then they found that online, he had put videos of himself and his big seller where he had all these wine bottles and all these things. And then they came back to me. So, you know, this is a preacher was coming to preach at APC. And I was, I was, I didn't know what to do because I had already said, yes. And now he has all these videos online, him sitting in a wine cellar in his house in the US and he's preaching and teaching the Word of God and all that. So I had to send an email to him. I said, see, in India, people look at this in a very negative way. So please, at least can you take down the videos while you come to preach? Because if anybody does a Google search on you and they find these videos, it's okay for you in America. But here in India, it's not acceptable. You know, so the first time he was kind enough to, you know, take down those videos and all that. So everything went smooth. But the second time any was going to coming, I just said, no, sorry, because, you know, I don't want to put him in an awkward spot and don't want us to be an awkward spot. You know, so those kinds of things are a little difficult, just the different cultures and the way you look, people look at it. Okay, time is up and I'll already take it more time from this. Thank you. Okay, let's just close. I don't want to hold you back from your next class. Can somebody just please pray a quick prayer in this massage? We will continue this next week. Go ahead. Mangi, why don't you pray and send us please? Thank you, sir. Okay, let's pray. Holy Father, we thank you, Lord. We thank you for your holiness, Lord, even though you are holy, you are mighty, you are separate from us, yet you still love us, Lord, in our witness and in our failure. And we praise you that you will help us to work in your holiness, Lord, and not focus on it. There's nothing but let our heart be focused on you, Lord. We pray all this, all this, Father, in the mighty name of our Lord Christ, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you, everyone. Sorry for rushing. We can discuss more on this next class. Okay, a quick break and please set to your next class. Thank you. God bless. Enjoy the rest of your week. Bye now.