 Hey, good afternoon. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this new session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. So can anyone please lead us in prayer? Let's go ahead. Any of us can please lead in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this beautiful day and for the class we are about to have. God, I just gave Pastor Paul into your hands. Be with him and guide him throughout the session. And God, as we are listening, help us to open our mind and heart and listen to each and every word that he says clearly. So we can put that into action and glorify your kingdom. I pray for all my classmates who are listening. I pray for the classmates who are on the way. God, we just pray for good wifi connection throughout the sessions. And help us to learn a little more about you, get a little more closer in our relationship with you. Be with us and guide us in Jesus name and prayer. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jeffy. Alright, everyone can hear me okay? My voice may be a little bit low. I hope it's alright. Yes, Pastor, we can hear you. Alright. What about the others? Can you hear me alright? Voice is okay? Pastor, we are hearing you. Awesome. Alright. So last week we looked at personal vision and purpose and we established the fact that God has made us for a purpose. And as we journey along trying to understand that purpose, the foundation is very important, which means what we build on. And we looked at last week, last time that the foundation, even in a natural when you look at a building, the foundation is the most important thing. It goes deep. It goes down. It needs to be strong. Only then the building will stand. And our foundation, what we build on is very important. So we looked at some of the things that we must be clear about is certain non-negotiables, how we treat people, how we treat money, our character, our integrity, honesty, dealing with situations. All of this will build a good foundation. Then we also looked at developing a life plan. It could be a one-year plan, five-year, 10-year, whatever the plan is, but develop a plan. Because a life plan is connected to the person, the place and the purpose that God wants us to be. Then we looked at Abraham. God wanted him to be the father of many nations, saying that a place that he will inherit will be a land flowing with milk and honey. And the purpose was to be a blessing to many, many generations ahead. So the same way, when we make a life plan, we can probably jot down or make a note of what is the person that God wants me to be? What is the place or where a geographical location that God wants you to move to? And then the purpose. What is the purpose of me doing what I'm doing? That was chapter one. Let's get into chapter two. Chapter two, we'll talk about career plan. Now, many of us, maybe in a season where we've already started our career, many of us maybe planning to start our career. Or maybe some of us are getting ready to retire. But we decide on our destination even before the journey begins. So before a building is built, there is somebody, there's an architect who creates a blueprint for that building. Here's how it's going to look. Here are the columns. This is the area. This is how it's going to be. This is the square feet for each place, everything. Now, having a life plan is a starting point in our journey. Now, your life plan maybe, it's a big picture. Sometimes we ask young people, what do you want to become? They say, I want to be an entrepreneur and I want my business to go global. So it's wonderful. Those are life plans. Now, as we understand our life plans, God will begin to groom us or grow us into the person that he wants us to be. He will also direct us to the place that he wants us to be or places that he wants us to go. And then we look at the purpose that he can fulfill in and to our lives. So a life plan contains or has several areas, spiritual life, personal life, health, education, profession, family, finances, ministry, all of this include in a life plan. And so today we just look at how we can go about creating a life plan. And why is it important now? See, for example, if you feel that God has called you to be a doctor, now you know that there's a certain course that you have to take. And you know that that course is going to be five or six years. And then we also know that, okay, after that, there are need to be done. So in why we have a life plan, it's a starting point, but to see it in fulfillment, we have to work towards it. So know your grace, your gifts and your skills. Let's read this verse of Romans chapter 12 verse six to eight. Yes, any one of us can read it's in your notes Romans 12, six to eight. Romans chapter 12 verse six to eight. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve. If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Yes, thank you, Jaffina. So God has, what does the verse say there? There are different gifts in accordance to the grace that God has given us. So God has graced and gifted each one of us. Right now, I always say this, it's like a railway track. If you've seen a railway track, I'm sure all of us have. They go together, they're parallel to each other. So they got your grace and there's gifting. Right? So if we feel that God has given us the grace to be a worship leader, just an example, right? Worship leader is a gift in us. You know that, okay, musically I can do well. God also gives us the grace to fulfill or the empowering to express that gift in our lives. Right? So it is doing something meaningful and impactful for people, for God's kingdom. Right? Gifts are abilities that we discover and skills are abilities that we acknowledge we develop and gain through learning. Through learning, through training, through discipline. Right? So we have our gifts. Right? We have God's given grace and then we have skills which we have to develop on. I think a perfect example would be that of a musician. Right? There's a gift inside. Okay. I know I can sing. And musically, for example, right, maybe you know there's this young boy who knows musically I have a gift. Right? Now, God gives him the grace in that gift. Just because God gives the grace doesn't mean that we just sit about saying, okay, God's grace is on me. I'll go and play the guitar or play the instrument and sing. No. We need to grow in the skills. Right? There's training, there's discipline, there's practice, there's all these things involved. And then as we are growing in our gifting, we realize that, you know, 10 years back, the gift is still there. But the grace has increased, the skill level has increased. And that's what we want to do. Right? God has not called us to just, you know, have a gift and not use it. That's not the reason why he has given us gifts. As we faithfully operate in our areas of grace, exercise our gifts and skills, we grow in this. Grace can increase, gifts can mature and skills can develop. Right? And we know this, right? Grace can increase in every area of our life. Gifts can mature. Right? So for example, if there is somebody who is a teacher, right? And they begin, you know, they just join the teaching profession. I'm sure the initial years, he or she is going to be very wavery and, you know, nervous or probably, you know, go through a difficult time initially. Why? Is the gift there? Yes. But it's something that they're doing the first time. But when you look at a teacher, maybe who's taught for 30 years, we can easily make out the difference. We can see that the grace has increased, the gifts has increased, the skills, the competency has increased. And so over time, even as we exercise our gifts, exercise the grace that God has given to us, God begins to develop us. Now, this can also be applied to prayer through our reading of the word. Right? So you could be somebody who's in the workplace or workplace professional. You can develop these even in your prayer life, in your personal time with God. Right? And I always say this, you know, people always ask me, what time do you wake up? What time do you pray? How do you pray? So one of the things I always say is start small. Start small. So if it is, if it's something, if you feel that you can pray for 20 minutes, start small. Right? And then you build from there. Because the mistake that I made was, I thought, I said to myself, oh man, now I'm become a believer. So I'm going to pray for one hour every day in the morning. So I woke up. By the time it was five minutes, I fell asleep. And then I woke up probably after one hour. And I realized, hey, I slept the whole time. Why? Because I wanted to do something, but I did not set realistic goals. Right? So I had to change my whole approach. I said, okay, let's make it 15 minutes of prayer. So that was something doable, right? And 15 minutes of worship. So 30 minutes. And then over time, because of God's grace, because that, you know, we are pushing us, exercising our gifts and grace that God has given us, God begins to help us. And then soon you'll realize half an hour is not enough. Then you'll realize one hour is not enough. Then you extend your time of prayer and, you know, personal time with God. And all of this can be applied in every area of our life. You may be a businessman. You may be somebody who is in the corporate sector. You may be in government. You may be teaching at schools. You may be at college. You may be a student. You may be even a housewife. Right? And all that we do, God gives us grace. God gives us the ability to grow. Right? So there's, in your notes, you can see there, there's a column there. What are some areas you are drawn to inclined towards and passionate about? You can write them down. If you'd like gifts and skills, what are areas where you are knowledgeable about and what are some things you do well. So you can take some time to write them down. Right? Please feel free to stop me at any time. If you have any questions, any thoughts you'd like to share also, please do stop. Right? Next point is explore opportunities. Get inputs and draw up a plan. Explore opportunities. Get input and draw up a plan. Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 14. Yes, any one of us can please read. Proverbs 11 and verse 14. It's on your notes. Proverbs chapter 11 verse 14, where there is no council, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Thank you. Thank you, Divya. Where there is no council, people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there's safety. Now, we live in a day and age where we have a lot of opportunities. Those are open in every single opportunity. Whoever thought, I was talking to a friend of mine, whoever thought that YouTube can be a career. Whoever thought that football or soccer, the nation like ours in India especially, could be a career. So things are changing. But even as things change, we need to explore opportunities. So some of the things that we need to explore, change, we need to explore opportunities. So some of the things that we can do is to leverage our grace, our gifts and our skills. Now, we leverage them not only for monetary rewards, but to see how we can better ourselves and improve ourselves. And basically, we want to improve and better ourselves to glorify God in our lives. So it's not only about, okay, I want to better myself, double what I'm earning. That's part of it. But the key thought should be improving myself, bettering myself because of God's grace and gifts for my life. And I want to give glory to God in my life. So some of the things that we do is, for example, as a church, what we do is we always look for opportunities to minister. So when we go into over the last month or so, we looked at opportunities to get into IT companies. So initially we used to go to IT companies and IT hubs around Bangalore and do a lot of carols and a lot of outreaches, college outreaches. We used to go to apartments and try to reach out there as well. So look for opportunities. See where doors can be opened. And as you look for these opportunities, get input from people. So for example, there's a door open. You feel that, okay, God is calling you to move to another country. Say it's a country you've been thinking about and you need to move to another country. Now, get input. So you talk to your friends. You talk to people who you know, talk to agencies, find out what it is, what you must do. It's not like God is saying, oh, I need to go to another country. I need to go to another country. So I just go apply for my visa and just go. There's this lot of input that's required. There's a lot of preparation involved. You need to draw up a plan. So how do I do this? You sit back. You think you write them down. Get input from people who have probably traveled already. You know, especially in church. We have a lot of folks, young youth people who come and they ask us, you know, do you think it's good to go abroad at this time? What must I do? The first thing we say is, prayerfully draw up your plans. Get input from people. Talk to agencies. Talk to people. You know, never being a hurry. You know, sometimes because God speaks to us very clearly and they're at a hurry. Right? They just want to get it done. So that's not how God works. God expects us to use wisdom and prepare ourselves. So get to know what is out there. Read. Research online. Talk to people who are experienced or even look at people who have volunteered in different organizations. Talk to them. And get input. Right? So whether it is moving to another country, whether it is, it could be something as simple as buying a home. Right? It's a big deal, right? So get input. Look at opportunities. Ask God, God, what should I do? Because it's your drawing up a life plan. Right? And when you do these things and you surrender them to God, that is where you see, you know, the right decisions being taken. Right? Look at Proverbs 15-22. It says, without counsel, plans go awry. But in the multitude of councils, they are established. Proverbs 19-20. Listen to counsel and receive instruction that you may be wise in your latter days. Right? And, you know, one of the things as fast as many people come and talk to us, they share things with us. And there's this one person, this happened many, many years back. He was sharing with me. He wanted to start a business. Right? So he prayed and he felt that, okay, God is going to help him in that business. So he quit his monthly, his job, where he would get a monthly pay. And he began to try to start a business. But soon over time, he, you know, he spent all the money that he had saved, which was not too much, but he spent all his money. And eventually, because the business was already started and running, he resorted to selling his home. Because he was what he did. He sold his home and began living in a rented house. Right? Now the business took some time. Right? It was three, four years down the line. But he was seeped in debt. Right? He had no roof. His wife and his children had no roof under their head. They couldn't even afford to pay their rent. And they sold their own home and it was a mess. Right? And, you know, he spoke to us. It's literally weeping and crying saying, I don't know what went wrong. Right? But it's not during this time, you can't say, you know what, you didn't ask. You didn't take your time. You didn't, you know, pray properly or you didn't, you know, these are the wrong things that say, but it was very, it was very sad to see. That sometimes without counsel, we make decisions, they go already. And they, they, they can really destroy or break down a good future. So what are we trying to say? You can always look for opportunities, get input, drop a plan, take time and prepare. I love what Elijah did. It makes so much sense. And it's so practical. God told Elijah, it's going to rain. But he went and prayed. Right? He knew the result, but he still went and prayed. And seven times he did that and only in the seventh time, you know, there were signs of rain. So sometimes God will open opportunities, open doors, and we have everything at the input. We have already drawn up a plan. Sometimes God can make us wait. Right? He can make us say, okay, wait, there's still a preparation. Hold on. Don't step into that yet. So while you're sometimes we are not able to identify the stages and transitions that we are making, but always identify this current stage you're in. The current stage you're in. So maybe, you know, I always tell the Bible call to students, especially those who are on campus, don't waste time. Don't waste time. Because these two years or three years will go really fast. And I remember as a Bible call student, you know, I spent all my time, I wouldn't take lunch breaks. I didn't want any lunch break and all of them in my class would be like, how can you not take a break? I just wanted to learn because I knew that I'm not going to get this time again. It was a two year course that I did. And then my lunch break, I'll be looking at the book or, you know, after lunch hours, even in my 10 minute tea break, sometimes we're reading something or the other do something. The reason was, it's not a brag or the boast, but the reason was I wanted to, I knew that because I was a working professional, I knew that this time that I had is very precious. So understand the season that you're living in right now. You may be in a stage where you're working for a company, but deep down in your heart, you know you're going to start your own business, but understand, okay, right now I'm here. I'm going to do my best here, but one day God will transition me out from here to start my own business. Life is lived in seasons and these transitions are very important. They move you from one season to the next season. And we must understand and try to recognize with season we have it. There was a time when I was a student and I recognize, okay, I'm a student, but this time of being a student is not going to be there for a long time. It's just two years. And sure enough, after my diploma, I got into the staff at APC and it's not like I can sit the whole day and read the word of God, the other things to do looking after the church. And so this is a season, but that two years was very important. So we need to recognize the season we are living in. Do what needs to be done in the season that you are in. Prepare for the next season. I think I've shared this many a times. I always knew that when I was in the Bible course, I always knew, okay, man, one day I'm going to be preaching. So how do I prepare? So I would sit in, you know, choose words, right? So for example, grace, I would make a whole sermon on that or prepare, you know, choose people in the Bible, right? So Old Testament, I choose two people. New Testament, two people. I'm beginning to just write a whole sermon on there. So I began to prepare. Then what I would do is I would stand in front of the mirror and preach the whole sermon. And so many times I realized it's five pages, but I finished it in five minutes. I thought, oh, this is not happening. I need to have a sermon that will go into at least 40, 45 minutes. So add more content, prepare well the way we speak, the way we, you know, hand gestures, all of these things, right? It is very, very important. And it was a good practice, right? And so I remember early 2012 when Pastor said, can you go and preach? Now I had only preached in front of the mirror. All of a sudden I'm preaching in front of people. It was very difficult. But I thank God for those two years that helped me through and helped me. Of course, God's grace was there, God enabled us, but that two years is important. See a question from Divya. If one doesn't have much counsel in our vicinity or at our disposal, what is the best possible way apart from seeking God's will and praying? Okay. So yeah, that's a good question, Divya. So if there is not much counsel available so if there is no in-person counsel, meaning a person who you can talk to, I think books are very, I'm sure books will have plenty of, you know, counsel that you can get from books. And now with online, so there's a lot of, you know, if you look at YouTube, you have how to, you know, plan a startup or how to build a startup. You have so much of information, how to start ministries. Now, you know, for example, now there's this preacher.com. You have the paid service where you can go there and they help you to prepare sermons. They have sermonscentral.com. So I think even online, there's plenty of material. Right. So apart from seeking God's will, sorry, apart from praying and seeking God's will, as you do that, and you, you know, you can also go online and do your research, God will minister to you. God can lead you and tell you what to do. You can just say, okay, do this. Like a word can come so strong and a conviction so strong, you'll know that this is what God wants me to do. So yes, it's always nice to have people, you know, and people who are experienced and experienced to talk to you. But I think in a world that we are in now, internet has made the world a smaller space. So we can just go online, Google. You know, I was talking to a cousin of mine. She's, I think 11 years old and she was playing the violin. She was playing so well. I said, oh, how did you, how did you know, when do you go for classes during the weekdays or weekends? She said, no, I learned everything online. She's on her's, I don't know, I think of fifth or sixth grade. She learned the whole thing online. She never stepped out of her house for classes. So if you see things have changed so much what we were doing 10 years back or 15 years back, we can just do it at home right now. So I hope that answers your question. Yeah. But keep praying, right? Because if you keep going online and looking at all these YouTube videos and Google and all of that, sometimes you may get overwhelmed. How are people doing it? Why am I not able to do it or there's so much to be done. Sometimes you may get overwhelmed. So always do these things carefully so God can minister to you. It becomes an encouragement getting bogged down and getting stressed out and all of that. Right. Keep in mind that life is lived in seasons and recognize those seasons. Work hard in those seasons. Do what needs to be done. Prepare yourself. The right time there will be a transition or transition and God will help you with that transition phase. Right. So get started. Pray, listen and step out. Right. Problems 13 forces the soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. Right. Look at that. The soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing, only keeps desiring and the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. Sometimes preparatory work of praying and listening to God are planning or that you know never get started. Meaning in a sense we have a big plan. We have a big idea but the preparatory work is not done. If you just desire plan or dream and don't act upon it you will accomplish nothing. That's so true. I think all of us know this. The preparatory work is very important. God has a plan for you. God has something that you know you want to do. Pray about it. Listen to God. Now I want to be careful. If God is calling you to start a ministry for example it's not that we sit at home and pray the whole day and say I'm doing the preparatory work. Okay. That is important. Listening also is important. It was the last step. Step out. The mistake I made was I became a believer. I said oh man I want to start preaching so I spent hours in my room praying hours read God's word very good. Is it important? Very important. But you know what happened? I wouldn't go out. I didn't realize that I didn't want to talk to people. I just wanted to be in the room praying talking to God. I mean it sounds good praying always, worship it was a wonderful season. God would literally speak into my spirit and I knew it was God. Sometimes I would open scriptures in God just bring those words to life into my spirit. Or on the flip side I couldn't communicate with people I didn't want to be around people I preferred only being alone why because for almost one year I'm only sitting in my room and praying I realized ministry is about people I need to be with people I need to minister to people I'm not doing ministry to myself I thank God for giving me for the grace and the wisdom and I remember reading the book of Acts and every time I read it I saw that they went out they went to places they went and minister and then the great apostle Paul went out ministering to people all the apostles from the early church and I realized hey I need to step out I can't be sitting here was I doing something wrong? No it was a wonderful holy very righteous thing I'm doing but I also need to listen I need to step out if I just desire something a plan and I don't do anything about it the people will accomplish nothing you've got to step out you've got to work on that plan start developing the skills required not for those to be opened this is a wonderful thing right Proverbs 16 in verse 1 the preparations of the heart belong to man but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord the preparations of the heart belong to man but the answer of the tongue belong is from the Lord even as we prepare basically what we're doing is we're putting that preparation into the feet of our Lord Jesus and saying God this is what I've planned this is what I have prepared now you open the right doors at the right time for me I may go knocking sometimes the door won't be open help me not to be discouraged sometimes the door may open but at the right distance should I go into that door or not as I'm saying this I was reminded of this and happen in I don't know if I've shared this example but it's happened in I think in 2015 or 15 15 I think there was this I'm gonna say the name Older Roberts University had come to Bangalore if I've used this example, but if I have, forgive me. I just thought this is the best example that I can use. They had come to our church and they wanted to do, you know, just to talk about Oroor Roberts University and that Sunday I was I was scheduled to lead the worship and I was leading, I was leading worship at Central Church and they had come there and as I was, as we finished the worship, finished the whole service, we went around and the Bible College administrator, right, came up the principle basically of the Bible College came to me and said, Paul, you and your family can come to the US and do your three years course free of cost, free stay, free accommodation, free 100% scholarship and that time my son was, my first son was only probably about six months older. So he looked very nice, but at that moment, it looks nice, right, everything is looked after 100% concession, free accommodation, you get your degree and then she also said that we'll help you to get your green card and all of that, you can do your master's and you can also look at opportunities of serving in the university itself, I'm sure there will be opportunities there. You look wonderful, wonderful opportunity, but at that moment, I should be talking to you, I felt like the Holy Spirit saying, no, it's not, there was no peace at all when she asked me, was it good? Very good. So at that moment, right there, I told her, no, I'm not interested in serving. Thank you so much for the opportunity, but I'm not interested that she was so surprised, why? She said, no, God's called me to be here. God wants me here. There's still much to learn and she was really surprised. She said, it's wonderful that you know, you know what you're going to do. So sometimes doors open, we need to choose, we need to understand because some doors are very nice, but we need the wisdom of God to choose the right door, right? If an opportunity comes to your door without you having to knock, sometimes that's wonderful, but just remember it may not happen every time, right? Then as you go through the knocking process, do your best to prepare, right? Preparation belongs to man and it is our responsibility, lead the results up to God, right? Joshua and Caleb had to go to the promised land. They prepared themselves, right? What did they do? They formed teams, they moved, they did all of that around the wall. They went seven times around the wall. They did all of that, but the outcome is what the Lord did it, right? The Lord brought the walls down. So don't get discouraged if the first door you knock on does not open. Reminded of this, John Wesley, we know a great preacher of 40,000 odd summons he has preached. When he was in college, he was rejected as a speaker, right? They wouldn't allow him to go and speak on stage and he was rejected. They made fun of his speaking style. They made fun of the way he would stand and speak. John Wesley is known to have a very, he was eloquent, but he was very fast in his speech, right? He was rejected as a preacher, but there's nobody else who has preached 40,000 summons, right? So Matthew 7.7 and 8 says, Ask him if he will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened for everyone who asks and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, it will be opened. So even as you drop your plan, your praying, you're developing your skills, you're doing all of this, here's the thing. Don't be discouraged. Expect the unusual favor of God to be upon you, right? You may be preparing, you're faithfully preparing, you're waiting, you're learning, you're improving your skills. Sometimes you may get tired, but expect the unusual favor of God. Look at this, in Genesis 39 verse 21 about Joseph, everything went wrong for Joseph, but all of a sudden things changed. Genesis 39 and verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and he gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. The prison keeper was favorable to him and the prison keeper later went on and told the Pharaoh, I know somebody who's going to, who can tell you your dream and interpret it as well. So expect unusual favor from God. There can be times when people will, you may feel that, hey, who's going to choose me, but God can speak in a people's lives, speak in the situations where you will be called in front or you will be recognized for what you are doing. There are plenty of places in the Old Testament where God's favor on people's lives saw them do the impossible. Peter, fearful, denied Jesus three times, went on to lead the church in Jerusalem, unschooled. Divine favor is an endowment from God released upon a person and that person has the influence to access people, places and things. Unusual opportunities will come forward, but unusual, you know, God will recognize it and God will tell people, you give this opportunity to this person. I've seen it in my life, right? God just giving opportunities. You do it and I keep thinking to myself, God, am I equipped enough? Sometimes I, even now I ask the question, God, am I equipped enough? It makes me, it helps me to push for more. God, if you're giving me more opportunities, greater the opportunities, greater the preparation, the skills that I have to develop myself, right? So you look at Daniel, you look at Joseph Nehemiah. Nehemiah is another brilliant story, right? He asked the same people who destroyed the walls of Jerusalem and the gates that were burned, they themselves provided for everything. What favor was that? Right? Sometimes when we have favor, it opens unusual doors which nobody can close, nobody can close, right? There's this one person that I knew of, and I know of, he was saying, many years back, he was saying, he was part of our church and he was saying he wanted, he desired to go to Canada. Very humble boy, very humble, very hardworking, always serving in church and he desired to go to Canada and look for opportunities. Okay, let me answer this question from Divya. Are expecting and looking for opportunities for oneself, selfish or biblical? It's biblical. It's definitely biblical. Looking for opportunities is nothing wrong, right? It's nothing wrong to look for opportunities. You look at Apostle Paul, he looked for opportunities where he could preach. He looked for opportunities where he could go and minister to people. Have you ever wondered, I was reading, when you read the book of Romans, towards the end of the book, end of the letter, he says, greet people who meet in Caesar's household. So people have become believers in Caesar's household. So probably Paul has got an opportunity to go into Caesar's household, I don't know, and minister to the people there. Look at, when he goes into Greece, Athens, and that whole Mars Hill sermon, he looked for an opportunity and he got the opportunity and he took that opportunity. Now, of course, that is in ministry, maybe in other things. If there are opportunities probably in the workplace, what if you get an opportunity to become a managing director, right now you're a manager, you get an opportunity to become a managing director in another company, right? It's not selfish, probably God is, you finish this phase of being a manager, you've been faithful there and God has opened a door and you're just walking into that door. So it is definitely not selfish at all. So as you look for opportunities, again, if we do everything out of this mindset of prayer or mindset of glorifying God, that is more than enough. So you know that your foundation, that's why we look at chapter one, the foundation. So whether I start a business, whether I'm in a working professional or become a businessman or maybe the top head of a business company or maybe your top entrepreneur, but what is the foundation? The foundation is God, helped me to glorify you in my life, to honor you in my life, to give you the first place in my life. So when we have these non-negotiables, you know, you can go ahead and just reach to the highest places that God has, right? Daniel is a wonderful example, right? He came into the king's palace as just maybe as those, you know, to help out in the team there. But God gave him grace, God gave him favor. He didn't say, no, no, don't make me governor, I don't want to become governor. He took that opportunity and became the governor. And then the favor was so good that Darius came and said, you only be governor because I heard that when you were governor, everything went well. So there's nothing wrong in that, right? But look at Daniel. He didn't say, oh, now I'm going high up. So then I'll have to bow down to these idols, no. You know, when he was thrown into the limestone, he was an old man. He was not a young man assuring these movies and all. He was an old man. And he had passed two kings already, right? But in his mind and his heart, he knew God is first, whether he's governor or whether he's the king, God is first, right? Right. Rosalind asking any man of God to use can also be considered as biblical. Asking any man of God to use. Can you ask the question, Rosalind? Is it okay if you can ask the question? Pastor, can I, not I, but just an example, can somebody ask any man of God if you can give me an opportunity or like for me also to preach or to serve? Like asking any man of God rather than praying about it. Okay. Yeah. So see, it's not wrong. But what happens is, maybe that's not the right time. Right? The moment we ask and say, I want, I want this opportunity, sometimes they may give it to you. Right? And maybe that's not the right time. Maybe it's the right time as well. We never know. But I feel, I feel, right? This is a, personally, this is what I feel, right? That when God gives the opportunity, there's more honor in that. When God opens the door rather than we asking, when God opens the door, there's more honor in that. There's more favor, there's more grace in that because God knows that you're ready, right? That you're ready to do this. Right? One of the example is, I'll just take another few minutes, please. You know, I'm very, I'm very afraid of, you know, not afraid, but I get nervous in front of a camera, recording and all of these things. So it was, it's not my cup of tea. It's not something I can preach in front of people or the camera. So I knew that that's one of my weaknesses. But I had to overcome it. I had to say, okay, God, if what if I get an opportunity, I can't be scared. I need to overcome it. And so I didn't get the opportunity immediately because only after about 10 years of, you know, serving in the church, I got the opportunity, 10 years. I never asked for it. Right? But 10, 12 years old. Only then I got the opportunity. And when I got the opportunity also, it was still a little bit nerve-racking, but I knew that, okay, God has put me here. God has given me this opportunity. So I must take it and I must use it for his glory. So Rosalind, to answer your question, not wrong to ask, but always wait because God knows when is the best time you can to launch you out. Right? Wonderful. So we'll stop here and then we'll pick up on Monday. Let me just make a note. He stopped at, okay. Yeah, expect unusual favor. All right. Yes, Divya, go ahead. Just a very small question, Pastor. I just wanted to curious to know when you were doing the Bible college, were you working as well? No. So I was working in the corporate sector for about three years and I really wanted to join the Bible college. So I think I was sharing with John as well when he had come to Bangalore recently last week for the conference that, you know, I knew that, okay, if I'm a Bible course student, there's no income. So for about two years, I saved up money, I saved up for my fees, I saved up for everything that I needed. And I knew that if I'm doing my course for two years in college, in Bible college, I know there was no source of income. So I didn't want to be dependent on my parents or anyone else. So throughout the two years that I was at Bible college, I had enough funds to pay for my fees, pay for my food and whatever extra things that need to be done. So again, that was a preparation that I had to do. And I'm glad I did it because I didn't have to depend on anyone. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you Professor. That's amazing. Thank you. Let's just quickly pray and we close. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for enabling us to learn and I pray God that even as we draw out our plans and purposes, we thank you for your grace, your gifting in each of our lives, we pray God that you will continue to empower us, strengthen us, to fulfill every purpose that you have for us Lord. And we're excited for what you're teaching us, what you're putting in us, Lord, and we pray that you will use us for your glory. We thank you and praise you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much everyone. Have a great week ahead. I'll see you on Monday. God bless. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you.