 All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to a new day, a new session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. Louis, would you mind leading us in prayer, please? Okay, so good morning. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you for such an awesome day today. Thank you that we have come to the speech of that altar to learn how to speak up. Most of the time we pray that the Word through here will lead a better foundation for the future of generations to come. To thank you that this Word to God will not just be one knowledge, but be a testimony of our faith in God and therefore will commit ourselves, our heart, our teacher which is in your hands. I will say it for the spirit to rest upon everyone's heart and then be established in this truth and all of His righteousness in Jesus' name, your praise. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Louis. All right. So yesterday we moved into chapter 13. We talked on leadership and some of the important points we saw was that Jesus himself says if the blind are leading the blind, they both are going to fall into a ditch. And so as leaders, it's very important that we be able to see the vision, to see, to have foresight and to see where you want to have this organization or where do you want to see yourself standing, maybe three years, five years, ten years down the line. And so we saw that because leaders have the ability to influence other people, right? And so we must have that, right? Now, we also looked at, you know, it doesn't mean we have to wait to become a CEO of a company and only then we can, you know, lead other people. No, we can be a leader in a cell group with ten people and still, you know, have this quality of being able to have foresight, of being able to, you know, look ahead and look to the future. And it's very important because we remember that, you know, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they were all leaders, yet they could not see that the Messiah was there. They were blind spiritually. And so it was like they were blind leaders and their followers also were blind and they both are just going to fall into a ditch. So it's very important as leaders that we be able to see things ahead. Very important. It's also what we saw yesterday was it's good to have a vision. It's, you know, it's good to write them down, pray over it and all that is wonderful. But as leaders, we must maintain proper heart attitudes. We looked at three heart attitudes. First one was servanthood. Second one was passion. And the third one was self-control. We see that the Lord Jesus, being a leader, he chose to be a servant. He said, I've not come to be served, but I've come to serve the people. And this must be a heart of a leader. And we also saw that, you know, during his time, he brought all the disciples. He washed their feet. He walked in humility. He did not do anything out of selfish ambition. And two, he had a passion. As leaders, we must have passion. You know, yesterday we had a couple of questions as well on, you know, how do I get my team members to be passionate about, you know, some, you know, a goal or a vision that we have together. And so as leaders, it is a responsibility. It is a task. It does take time to, you know, invest in people's life. But one thing we can be assured of is like a leader has the ability to touch people's lives. The leader has the ability to influence others' lives. So we must be passionate as leaders. And three, we look at self-control and, you know, being self-governing, being self-restrained, making the right decisions at the right time, knowing how to speak, when to speak. And I think in ministry as well, a lot of, you know, a lot of times there have been leaders who have gone on to the pulpit and maybe in certain conferences, they get excited. They say things that they shouldn't have said. And this loosely spoke of things and it backfired on them. Maybe they didn't really mean it. But in that excitement, in that, you know, that being the center of attention, you get thousands of people listening to you, watching you. And many times, many preachers have said the wrong things, wrong words, you know, they have a genuine heart. They love the Lord, all of that. But in that excitement, they've said wrong things and then it's backfired on them. So as leaders, we must also have the ability of self-control, right? Which also means, you know, because nobody's going to check on us as leaders. Nobody's going to say, hey, did you do this, did you do that? So, you know, we must have the ability to check on our work, on our time, check our habits, our productivity, our interactions with people. So to make sure that, you know, we're following the right heart attitudes. And we also looked at maintaining, you know, proper people skills now. Any organization, any ministry is about people. It's not about robots. Ministry, again, it's not about robots and, you know, just coming on the stage, sharing and, you know, going away. That is not what ministry is, right? Ministry is about people. Without the people, there is no ministry. Without the people, there is no organization, right? So as leaders, we must develop people's skills. What do we mean by people's skills? Remember that they are people. They're going through different challenges. They all have a different story. You know, how to relate with people, how to communicate with people. And these are, this is an attribute that we can develop over time. You know, sometimes God chooses a leader and he trains them during the process. And there are times God trains people and then at a certain point of time makes them a leader. So, however it is, as leaders, we must have people's skills, being sensitive to people, being, you know, looking at their challenges, being, showing empathy, sympathizing with them, you know, giving them encouragement, building them, empowering them. These are very important, right? Now, especially in ministry, it's very easy when, you know, when we have a small church, it can be a one man show, right? Meaning, okay, one person, the pastor will do everything. Right? Now, that's okay for some time. But then later on, it's going to be a burnout. Be as leaders, must be willing to, you know, build teams, trust people, right? And, you know, another important aspect of, you know, maintaining people's skills is to trust people, give them opportunities and trust them with that opportunity. Right? So, for example, there's somebody in the church, a young man, he's been faithfully serving for a year, give them some opportunity, trust them with that opportunity. And don't be going on asking, oh, did you do it? Are you, of course, there are ways of, you know, making sure that, you know, if he needs assistance, we help him or her, but, you know, we need to trust people. And this all comes under people's skills. And then finally, we looked at if the head is not right, the body is not right. You know, when we look at the analogy of the human body, if the head is not functioning all right, the body is not going to function all right. So, the head is where it sends the signals to our body. So, we all woke up this morning and the head sends signals to the body saying, okay, you have a class at nine and you've got a login. So, you did what you had to do to get into the class. It's, the head helps you make decisions and also to make the actions, you know, to fulfill the task that is ahead. Now, head is not right. The body won't be right. You know, we also saw, you know, if you have a leader who's always, you know, mocking other religions or talking about other religions in a bad way, the congregation will be doing the same thing. If you have a leader who's gossiping about other, you know, pastors or other leaders, you'll have a church full of gossipers. If you have a leader who's always talking about, you know, wealth and money and all of these things, you will have a congregation who will always be thinking of wealth and money and all of these things. All right, so it's very, very important that as a head, as a leader, we know how to portray ourselves. We need to make sure that, you know, it's a huge responsibility. Even if there are just five people, even if you're just a cell group leader, next semester you, next year you will look at, we will look at discipleship and small groups as well and how important it is for leaders to, you know, even if it's 10, 12 people, you are, you and I are influencing them. Right, so as a head, we need to make sure we are right. So we stop there, we'll go to the next point. This is chapter 13 on leadership. Next point is demonstrate, emphasize, empower and celebrate honesty. Let's read Proverbs chapter 16, 12 and 13. Proverbs 16, 12 and 13. Yes, go ahead please, anyone. Proverbs 16 versus 12 and 13. Yes, anyone? Yes, faster. Proverbs 16, 12, Proverbs chapter 16 verse 4. It reads, Kings this test wrongdoing for a throne is established through righteousness. King take pleasure in honesty is value the one who speaks what is right. A king's rock is a messenger of death, but the wise will appease it. When a king's face brightens its means like his people is like rain cloud in spring. Yes, thank you. Thank you say it's just versus 12 and 13. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. So good leaders. I'm reading the message translation here. Good leaders abhor wrongdoings, but sound leadership has a moral foundation. Good leaders cultivate honest speech. They love advisors who tell them the truth. Now in a world that we are living in, honesty, integrity is very easily thrown away. Now the core values that regular people have that we must have are all just, you know, put aside. Now I'm not talking only in the corporate sector, but also in the ministry, honesty, integrity. There are many, many ministries in so much of trouble in legal trouble. Financial accounts don't match and they've got into trouble. Their cases are in the court. And then you've got integrity issues. You've got, you know, leaders who have been involved in, you know, adultery with men and women. And these are all offensive in the eyes of God. That's why the writer here, the message translation used the right word, good leaders abhor. The word abhor is to come to have extreme hatredness to something, right? And in a world that we live in, being honest is quite risky, right? Others may say, strike back and say, okay, why do you have to do this? You know, leaders must protect people. We must, as leaders, we must make sure that those who are honest are protected. We must make sure that those who are honest are empowered even more. But people can, you know, leave honesty and integrity at the doorstep and do everything that is evil in the eyes of God. Never let honest people feel vulnerable or feel punished for their choice of honesty. There will be times in, let me translate this in ministry, right? There will be times in your church or in your team, a group, hopefully not. But I'm just saying, there will be times when, you know, there could be a season where there's this feeling of, you know, dishonesty that's happening. Or you feel that there's something wrong within the church. And then we find out that there are some dishonest means used or there are integrity issues among some of the church members. What must we do? Yes, we must bring correction. But there will be these few people in the church who stand for the truth and say, no, no, I don't want to involve myself in dishonest ways or walking in, you know, without walking in integrity. Now, those are the people we must protect. Those are the people we must empower. It's not always about talents and skills, right? We look at hard attitudes, right? Talents and skills are a part of, you know, God's calling in our life. God calls us, he gives us these talents and skills. But above that are attitudes, right? Some people in the organization will hate you for your honesty. You know, say, hey, this guy, no, no, he's not a good person. I mean, he's not going to involve with us because we know something about him. And then there will be some who will stand against you. They will say, you know, he's the one who did wrong, but he's put the blame on somebody else. All of this will happen in the corporate and in the ministry. But remember that there will be some who will stand with you because you are honest. Stay honest always, right? Proverb 1726 says, it is not right to make an innocent person pay a fine. Justice is perverted when good people are punished, right? So honesty and integrity are very high values. And when we see that in our team, when we see that in our team members as leaders, we need to empower them. We need to empower their honesty, celebrate their lives, thank them for being honest. And it builds a whole lot of, you know, trust and faith in them. And we'll begin to see that, hey, other people in the team also. There will be times, you know, in ministry, like for example, even me. So I've been in APC for quite some time. There are times when, you know, we feel tired, we feel weary, you know. But it's the best thing to do is to be honest. There are times I've gone up to, you know, our leaders, senior pastors and, you know, senior leaders as well. And I've told them, you know, I feel tired. There's no pretense, right? We can't pretend to be something. They ask me, hey, can you do this thing? Can you get this job done? There are times I've said, no, I can't. I'm just feeling very tired. And, you know, we don't give excuses or say lies and, you know, be dishonest or no, just be honest. And when you're honest, people begin to trust you even more. I remember there was this one time, this man was part of our volunteer team. This happened in another place. And I asked him, brother, can we go and visit this family? Because, you know, they lost their loved one. Can we go and visit this family? He said, yes, yes, first. And then we decided at a time and a date and he said, okay. And then even in the morning, I called him and said, okay, so today is the date we will go. Somewhere in the afternoon, he says, actually, you know, I'm not feeling too well now, so I can't come. I said, okay, it's all right. Okay, I'll go alone. So he, so I went alone. But later on in the evening, as I was talking to him, I found out that the only reason he couldn't come was because, you know, the transport for picking up his child from school, you know, that person was unwell, so the bus driver, the auto person was not available to go pick up the child. You know, but he told me that I'm not feeling well, so I can't come. Now, what happens is, all he could have said was, you know, hey, this is what's happened. You know, the transport guy hasn't been able to come, so I have to go pick up my child. It's a genuine reason, right? The child can't come alone, can't come, return back home alone. But what happens is, it becomes, when we don't be honest, you know, it becomes a habit. And we tend to live a life of dishonesty, and that is not right in the eyes of God. And then once you become leaders, if you're already in leadership role, we'll try to implement this. You know, the enemy has his ways of bringing all these wrong, hard attitudes, wrong attitudes, wrong thoughts, wrong dealings with people. Just because you get away with one thing at one time doesn't mean that, you know, every time we can do the same thing. It's wrong in the eyes of God, so we must remember that. Next point, your attitude wrecks on or invigorates. People tolerate or celebrate your attitude. Now, I'll just read Proverbs 16, 14 and 15. An intemperate leader wrecks havoc in lives. You're smart to stay clear of someone like that. Good-tempered leaders invigorate lives. They're like spring and rain and sunshine. Now, attitude is something that is quickly noticeable. You know, you say, you know, hey, this guy has an attitude problem. I'm sure we've all used that when we were young. You know, he's got an attitude problem, so I don't feel comfortable talking to him. You know, maybe because he's too rich or maybe because his boy is too talented, so he's got an attitude problem. Maybe because he's very good in his studies and he's got an attitude problem. Attitude is very quickly noticeable. Our attitude affects whether you like it, others, you know, it affects others and others decide whether they like it or not. Our attitude can dampen other people's life, kill other people's spirit, or it can refresh and inspire us. You know, I've heard this saying, right? Our attitude will determine our altitude in life, right? Imagine this, we grow up the ladder. Corporate sector ministry anywhere. We're growing up the ladder. God is opening doors. We're growing. We're growing. We're growing because we have good skills. We've been working hard. You know, now we're growing up the ladder and at one point of time you'll reach a position. A high position. So professionally, we have done well, but on this journey of moving up, if our attitude also has not changed, what happens is we climb up the ladder and then because of our attitude, we can just slip that one step on the ladder and fall bottom down right to the ground. Our skills and talents take up after ladder, but it's our attitude that keeps us there, right? Yes, it's always good to, you know, have an attitude that is always joyful, pleasant, and we understand that there are times, you know, we can't be always pleasant and always happy, but we must not have a bad attitude, right? And we have a choice. If we are a leader, how we can portray ourselves? How must our attitude be? Are we short tempered? Are we people who get upset quickly or do we get irritated very quickly? Are we always, you know, in a hurry to do something? Are our words, you know, offensive to people? All these things people notice, you know, there's also the aspect of, you know, physical, you know, the way we, there's a lot of study on how, you know, especially in counseling, we study some, you know, pointers where physical attire, a physical way of, you know, even in our physical attributes, people can make out our attitude. So it's very important to have the right attitude. Celebrate people who have the good attitude. Draw inspiration and encouragement. Stay positive and have a great attitude. So this attitude will quickly rub off on others, right? Remember that as we grow up the ladder, it could be because of our talents and skills and God opens doors, but there's this responsibility of mending our attitude, changing the way we, you know, maybe speak or the way we deal with our team members, the way we deal with our team, we need to be, you know, having positive and great attitudes. Next one, very important, as leaders, be real, down to earth and avoid pretence. Proverb study in 7 says, a pretentious, showy life is an empty life. A plain and simple life is full of life, right? Proverbs 12.9 says, better to be ordinary and work for a living than act important and starve in the process. So Proverbs is so wonderful, he just touches every aspect here. He's saying, be real, be down to earth. When ministries are small, it's very easy to be real, it's very easy to be down to earth. If you're studying a business, it's very easy. When you start something small, it's very easy to be down to earth, be real, be yourself. But what happens as we grow? As the ministries grow? And then, you know, people or, you know, even organizations, as they grow, we start coming on YouTube and then people start inviting you, why don't you come to this church and play your song? Why don't you come to this church and preach? And then people start to invite you. And then what happens? All of a sudden that down to earth feeling goes away. Why? Because there's importance. Where there's importance given, people turn out, you know, they start saying, hey, it's because of me. People are inviting me to come and preach in so many places. People are inviting me to come and, you know, sing the songs. I'm a songwriter, so many people are coming calling me. Now, what happens is it becomes a show business. Now, remember this, very important. Leadership is not show business. Jesus, in his ministry, nowhere did he portray ministry as something that is very, you know, superficial or very great. Nowhere. He's just simple. He's a simple man. You know, nowhere does it say that, okay, Jesus, now he had 10,000, 15,000 people listening to him. So he started wearing, you know, some nice ornaments and perfumes and, you know, wearing very wealthy clothing of linen. Nowhere does it say that Jesus got up in the morning, he wore his regular clothes. He went out with his regular people. He didn't say to the disciples, hey, you are all fishermen and car and, you know, tax collectors. For some time, don't be near me. Let me go do my, anyway, I've got about 15,000, 20,000 people who are listening to me. I'll still do the healings. I'll still do the miracles. I don't want to be seen with you guys. You know, just ordinary fishermen. Nowhere did Jesus do that. But here's the thing. Don't put ourselves on the pedestal. We must be accessible. We must be approachable. Be normal as leaders. You know, this is very sad too. I'm very, you know, when we look at what's happening around us, you know, pastors and leaders, they're not normal. It's very sad to say, you know, it's okay to laugh. It's okay to cry. It's okay to, you know, remember that we are real normal people, right? People will know that they can do what you do because of what you are. You know, one of the things that I always do with my children. This is something, you know, that I've learned over the past year or so. You know, as my son, he's about six years old. He always sees me in the church. He always sees me leading worship, praying for people, preaching. And as pastors children, sometimes people have a lot of expectations. You should know this. You should know that. You should know the whole of the Bible by the time you're 10 years old. And these are, you know, wrong expectations. But some of the things that I do is, you know, it's very important that he learns that, you know, I'm not perfect. So I keep, at times, you know, when I get upset or, you know, I tell him, you know, these are things that you should not do. And then I go and we have this heart to heart talk. I sit with him and I tell him, I apologize and I say, I'm sorry. And for him, it's a big deal. And dad, dad, why are you apologizing to me? You know, for him, it's like, oh, everyone come and pray to you, pray for you. And you know, they, they, they have so much of reverence for you. You know, in the church, everyone say, come, pastor, please come, please sit. You know, he's seen all of that at a young age. And so he always feels that, you know, that, you know, my dad is somebody who's very great and he feels that way. But I keep telling him, you know, I make the same, I make mistakes. So sometimes, you know, when, if there's, you know, I'm upset and I shouted him, I call him and I tell, I apologize. And I say, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. And, and then I bring in scriptures and I say, okay, this is what the Bible says. And so I did something wrong. The reason I got upset was because, you know, I had mentioned this, not to do this. And so now, you know, over the past six months, he understands that I'm just a normal person. Right? So I keep telling him, I also make mistakes. I, but what I do is I still love the Lord. I still go out to God and pray and ask forgiveness. And so now he's more open to me. He tells me everything. Right? There are, you know, when, when I tell him, you know, at times, don't download these games. You know, there are some games that are not right. Earlier I should say, don't download, don't download. And I realized that I shouldn't be saying, don't, I need to replace it with something else. And so I began to talk to him through the scriptures. You know, so what I'm trying to say is sometimes we as leaders, we think we are invincible, meaning we know everything and we are always right. But there's beauty in humility. There's beauty in simplicity. Right? Just being simple, just letting people know that you're a normal person. You know, even now, when I apologize to him and I, when I tell him, can I talk to you later? He's only six years old. But what's happening is he's understanding, hey, even dad is, he's a normal person. Of course, people call him, he's going, he's preaching and he's doing all these things, praying for people and, you know, but he's a normal person. And so he can approach me at any time. If he has any problems, he can approach me. He can talk to me. And so it's very important. Now, there are, there's this meeting or this huge conference that happened in 2000 and I think it was 2014. This is called Vision India Conference. It is a huge conference. So you've got maybe about 15,000 odd people coming into one of the cities in India, in the center, Delhi. And you've got thousands of, you know, youth coming there. And it was a big auditorium. So we were, you know, as volunteers, I was part of the hospitality team. So when the, when the preachers come in, so we take them to the green room, offer them tea, biscuits, make sure that they're comfortable. Let them know the, what's the agenda when they go on stage, when they come off stage. So I was really excited. I was young. We were in Delhi. And I was so surprised. These are very famous people. All right. I don't want to use any names, but they're very, very famous. Everyone know them, especially in our nation. And the demands that they had was, I was quite astonished. I was surprised. One of the preachers said, I will not get into this car from the airport. I will not get into this car unless you send a car which has AC. Send me a better car. I'm not going to get into this car. I'm not talking about, you know, some, something that we see once in a while. These are, you know, great leaders, been in the ministry for a long time. There was this one, and he, he refused to sit in the car. So we had to send another car. Then there was this other leader. Great, right. Very famous. They came into the green room and he was visibly upset. So we asked him, what happened? Is everything all right? No, the, the, what kind of room have you all booked for me? I expected to stay in a better five star hotel, but you just booked a room which is now some regular hotel. There's no swimming pool in the hotel. This was his requirement. He wanted a swimming pool in the hotel. And, but then when they go on stage, oh, thank you, Jesus, you glory to God and all of those things. And I was watching. I'm in the green room. And then from the green room, you can just go, just a small walk away and you get to the main stage. So upset because of, you know, no AC car, no AC room or no swimming pool. But when they get on the stage, they are completely different. Another preacher came and said, what kind of food is this? This food, this is not, is this the food you give people like us? You know, just it was, it was such a show. I was so surprised. I wanted to ask them, are we together building God's kingdom? Or is this like a, I don't know, you know, I was so broken. And I thought to myself, I would never, ever, no matter how big or small I am, should never do this. And I'm glad I learned that lesson. But there was this other preacher, very famous preacher, right? He came in very humbly. He sat, I said, you know, I remember, I said, can I get you a cup of tea? No brother, no brother. Right. Anyways, I got him some refreshments. He sat there. Then everyone were talking and laughing. It's, you know, he went, can I get some silence in a small room? He asked me. I said, yes, master, please go here. And I saw and I just peeped and I saw he was kneeling and praying. And then he went on the stage. He preached in his regional language. And there was a translator who preached in Hindi. The entire stadium was weeping in tears as he was preaching the word of God. This is 2014 vision India. The entire stadium, the youth, the youth, young people are crying and weeping. He's just preaching the word. He finished preaching. There's no show. There's no gimmicks, nothing. Just the word of God. He preached. He wasn't even wearing a suit and all, you know, just a simple man, but very famous. He got off the stage. He said, brother, can I have a glass of water? I gave him a bottle of water. I said, please wait. The car will come. Take you and drop you to the hotel. He said, it's all right. Don't worry about the car. You just go to the main road. There's an auto. I know the name of the hotel. I'll sit in the auto and go. I said, no, you can't do that. We have a car. Just wait for a few. He said, don't worry about it. You're all tired. I will take an auto. It's just close by. He went. He went to the main road. He's caught an auto himself, sat in the auto and went. Now, which was more effective? The others came in with all the pomp and all the show with all their complaints. They did something on the stage and went away. This man came in humility and simplicity. Preach the word. The Holy Spirit touched people's lives. Just went back home quietly. No demands. No, no, nothing. When we are real, when we are down to earth, when there's no pretense, the Holy Spirit begins to work very powerfully in us. Because as leaders, we are very easily distracted, very easily gone. We may be taken away into this whole thing of fame and ministry becomes a business. Heard of another evangelist long time back. He said, unless you give me 1.5 lakhs, I'm not going to come and preach. And this was a small, probably two, three churches coming together. And, you know, it's sad to see these demands. But it's very important that we stay down to earth. Be simple. Be careful of familiarity. You know, and our words, the way we walk in our life is very important. Next point, lead by example. And we look at these. Sorry, I think my internet just dropped. Yeah, Nehemiah. Yeah, is it okay? No, it's okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. So Nehemiah chose voluntary to stay away from, you know, enjoying the privileges of being a governor. But he, you know, he led by example. He put his hands to the plow. You know, our life example speaks the most. I'm sure all of us have heard this, right, where we, you know, we can preach a thousand sermons, but what they will remember is what we do. One of the things I do remember is, you know, there was this one time we were at a conference and at that conference, you know, as leaders, we were trained that, you know, after eating, you wash your own plates. So, you know, regularly ate, we just washed our plates and we kept it aside. Then we went to, on the pulpit, we began to share and teach and all of that. But the young people saw that and they said, one of the things we've noticed in your team is you all took the plate, stood in your own line. You know, during the end of the conference, they say, what did you learn from these three days of sessions? And so the youth came and said, one thing that I learned was you all, as leaders, took your plates, stood in the line, took your own food, washed your plates and kept it there. Now, we did sessions on all kinds of, you know, Holy Spirit and, you know, faith, hope, all these wonderful scriptures we thought about, but they remembered this, right? So as leaders, we need to lead by example. What we do speaks the loudest, right? Next one, give honest feedback, right? There'll be times as leaders we have to give feedback, right? Especially if somebody is, you know, sharing the word for the first time or even worship leading for the first time. Give honest feedback. If you feel they were good, tell them they were good. If you feel that there's, you know, much more scope for improvement, there are places where they need to improve. Give them honest feedback. That honest feedback is something that as leaders, we must give, right? People will eventually know that you did it for their good. At that moment, they may not, they may feel bad or some of them who are matured will say, okay, yes, I want to improve on this. But remember that they will understand one day that the feedback that I received was for my good. But listen, correction and feedback has to be timely. You know, give it when you notice it or shortly thereafter, right? Meaning don't wait for, you know, what happened? Six months back, you led the worship and you said this thing and the way you said it was not right. No, don't wait for six months to give that feedback. Give it on Monday. If it was on Sunday, give it on Monday, give it a day later. But the notice period should be very short. And then in timely feedback also, you know, don't, don't choose a time and a place. You know, if somebody does something wrong or you feel that you want to give them feedback, don't, you know, when the cell group is happening, don't say, okay, you know what, I wanted to give you feedback in front of all of them giving the feedback. Again, that is not the right time, not the right place. That's a way and I'm sure that all of us have developed that ability as well. Next point, don't waste your words on the inattentive. There will be times you're giving corrections. There will be times when people will, you know, say, okay, I want to, you know, you're giving them corrections, but you see that there's no effort from their side. They're just going on with the same thing. Don't waste your words on that. If you see that they're not implementing the feedback that they're giving you, just move on. Christopher's got a question. Besides travel accommodation, do pastors typically end their charge for preaching a sermon at an event? Yes. Yeah, Christopher, mostly they do. Now, I wouldn't say all pastors now, especially evangelists, right? Evangelist people who've got worship, you know, singers. Now, again, I'm not saying that all of them are, you know, asking for money and all of that. There are some who don't ask for money. They genuinely serve the Lord. They trust God that God will bless them. But from what I know, especially if they're like, you know, famous, they're people who are, you know, they are on YouTube or their songs are very famous when you invite them. They do ask for a certain kind of remuneration. If they don't ask, it's good, you know, the church or ministry that's inviting the person, it'll be good to bless them with something. Yeah, so nine out of 10 times they do ask. All right. So, yes, say go ahead. So, just to kind of put a balance, would you say that even though they charge, the manner and the way it's done should still be done in a humble, you know, it shouldn't be done with the motive that they can't minister without being paid. So, from the standpoint that they have people, they have to pay, they have to, and from a point of humility, basically, would you put that balance in the way they should approach such? Yes. So, for example, if you have somebody who's in the ministry who's probably written a couple of songs and their songs have become famous and they've been invited for different places, we know that that is their only source of income, right? They're in the ministry. So, we must also, you know, understand where they are coming from. Now, they're still not yet very much established. But there are some, you know, pastors or evangelists, especially evangelists, they don't really ask for money, right? It's not like, only if you pay me, I'll come. But what I'm saying, what I'm trying to say is that, yes, there should be that balance, even when if they ask, you know, in ministry, it's very difficult to say, right? You know, you pay me this much and I'll come and preach. It's so wrong to do that. But, you know, we must understand, like, so for example, if I'm inviting somebody, I would ask them, is there a charge? Do you, would you, do you usually, you know, have certain amount of renumeration for this? Or sometimes, you know, Christopher's put here, do attendees pay for a ticket to attend the event? It all depends, Christopher. So, before that, let me just finish this question. So it really depends on, you know, how big the ministry is. Like for example, APC, we don't, you know, we don't like to charge for anything. We try to do everything on our own. We try to, you know, even when we go out on outreaches, mission strip, we do everything on our own. In fact, we try to bless the other ministries who are, but there are many ministries like that. So there are times when, you know, we must understand that there's a need for them as well. And so we can choose to bless them. But there's a way, as you said, say, there's a way of, you know, asking, and there's a way of doing things. It shouldn't be like out of pride and, you know, you know what, I'm like this, so until you pay me this, I'll not come. Those are the wrong ways to deal with it. But it's always good to bless those who are serving the Lord. Christopher, for an event, do attendees pay for a ticket to attend the event? For the Vision India Conference, or, you know, there are many other conferences, there will be times when there could be a registration charge. Like a very minimal registration charge, yes. Or there could be times there's no, you know, now if you've got it in your church, obviously we're not going to charge our own church members to come and be part of an event, right? It's going to, it won't look right. But if you're doing something like a separate evangelistic event or a youth concert, you can think of, you know, having a minimal charge. Now those charges are, it's only so that we can meet the needs, you know, maybe renting the hall or renting sound equipment on that. So, right. Okay. So we've come to the end of our time. Okay. We'll just have probably two more points. What we'll do is we'll finish this next week and then we'll get into our next chapter as well. All right. Let's just quickly close in prayer. Rupa, is it okay if you can close for us? Sure, sir. Thank you. Father God, we come to your awesome presence. Thank you, Lord, for being with us and teaching us your heart. Father, as you have called us to serve you, Lord God, grant us your heart. Father, heart of humility. And to serve you in all that we do and say, Master, that people see a great revival in the children of God, in the leaders of God, that we may serve you with wholehearted commitment and surrender, Lord God. We thank and praise you for giving us this privilege to be called the servants of the Most High God. That you honor us. You have honored us and given us this privilege. And Father, grant, thank you for Pastor Paul and his family serving you, Lord God. We all need more of you in our lives, more of your presence, anointing wisdom, understanding and change of heart, renewal of heart, mind and Father God and our thought processes as we serve you, Lord, that we may reflect your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, amen. Thank you, Rupa. Thank you, everyone, for joining. Have a great week ahead. We'll see you next week. God bless. Thank you, Master. God bless. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, Pastor. God bless.