 Hello everybody. Welcome. Good morning. How are you doing? Thank you. How are you doing? Good to have you all connecting to this week's mentoring hour. I'll be hosting today's session. As always, we have an awesome panel of teachers who will be more than happy to answer your questions. And I'll also be the first one to admit that some of the questions absolutely scared me. But just huge kudos to the teachers who have awesome answers. So feel free to post your questions in the chat section. Questions on discipleship or just everything based on the Bible and how you can grow spiritually. So yes, the time is all yours. Please feel free to go ahead and ask your questions in the chat section. And we'll get started with the session. Okay, so we have the first question from John Paul. Okay, excuse me. My son just decided to walk in. I'm so sorry. Hi, how are you? Okay, say hi. Hi. Hey. Hi. Just woke up. Okay. Can you call a mama? It's like one minute. I'll fill in for you. Thank you. Okay. So first question is John Paul shares a question. If a pastor is earning. Where should his tide go? To his own ministry or to the home church? Okay, interesting. Interesting question. Maybe, you know, I would, I would, my, my, you know, one sentence answer would be to, he should give it to where the Lord, you know, leads him to do it. But I can just give you my own experience. While I was in the US. So I was, I was in that kind of a situation where I was working, I was earning. And we actually had a ministry incorporated in the US. And also we burst at that time, we were supporting about 21 pastors in India. And at the same time I was serving in a local church as a volunteer, like I was just helping the pastor there. So I was in the same dilemma in the sense that where should my tide go? Because I had a ministry, it was called frontier missions initiative, many missions ministry that was incorporated in the US. And through which we were supporting pastors and doing conferences and all. But also I was, you know, a regular member in a part of a local church. So now initially what happened was I used to use my tide and give it to put it into frontier missions in order to support the pastors in India, because it was a commitment and initially those days, you know, basically it was the tide that I was getting that I was sending to support the pastors in India. And then, you know, there were a few others who would give small contributions and all of that would go to help people in India. So for me, the pressure was if I don't put my tide into, you know, my frontier missions, I won't be able to keep my commitment in India. I won't be able to support those pastors. So that was my pressure, my dilemma. And then, but at the same time I used to teach, right, your tide goes to your local church. So that was what I was teaching. But then I was becoming convicted that I was, I myself was not practicing that. I used to justify myself by saying, hey, anyway, it's going to, you know, it's going for a good thing. It's going to serve pastors. It's going to help pastors in India. So I used to justify myself and I went on like that maybe. Yeah, I don't know for I think at least two years I went on like that. But then at some point I've felt convicted, deeply convicted that, hey, I am telling people that your tide should go to your local church where you are. But I myself, I'm not doing it. I mean, I know I'm giving it to the house of God in the sense I'm supporting pastors in India. But right now at that time I was in Chicago. So at that time I said, so look, I'm part of a local church in Chicago. So I should be giving my tithe here. So one month finally I decided I said, God, I'm going to trust you. From this month, I'm going to put my tithe, which was the substantial amount I was going to put. I'm going to put my tithe into my local church, which means that huge amount suddenly goes away from frontier missions. It's no longer there, but I still have a commitment to support. I think it was at least 21 pastors or the numbers were increasing. So I don't know what the numbers were at that time. But I still have to send money to India to support this many pastors. But I'm trusting you. And so that month when I decided to do that, I gave my tithe to my local church and said, no one, I'm going to do this. But God was so faithful that there were other people just raised up. I don't know how and where. I mean, in the U.S. who started sending money to frontier missions and we never failed in our commitment to support the pastors in India till we return back. So, you know, I'm just sharing that personal example that, you know, that was a learning for me as well in just obeying God and saying, OK, I'll give my tithe to my local church wherever I am. And whatever other ministry I have to do, God will, you know, provide for that and trust him for that. So my simple answer is do what God puts in your heart. But what we do teach and preach is that, you know, whichever local church you are, you give your tithe. I hope that helps, John. Yeah, it's possible. Thank you. Back to you, Roshan. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you for stepping in. All right. Do we have any more questions? Please keep sending in your questions. Okay. So we have one from Divya. The question means, what does mountain of God refer to this game in the dream but unable to figure out what it means? Okay. What does a mountain of God first? We only know that Zion and the Bibles refer to as the mountain of God. Yes. But any of the pastors would like to respond to this question. Give an explanation of your understanding. Okay. So Divya, in scripture, you find that mountain is, you find typology. And typology means these images that mean something. So one of the meanings of the type of image of a mountain refers to a kingdom, right? And this you get from Daniel chapter two, Daniel chapter two, where the king, you know, because it sees a dream and he sees a huge mountain. And in Daniel chapter two verse 35, it says the stone struck and became a great mountain filled the whole earth. And then he goes on to explain that the mountain actually refers to verse 44, Daniel 244, the mountain actually refers to the kingdom of God. So Daniel 235 and Daniel 244. So in biblical typology, mountain refers to kingdom, right? And then there's another interesting, other interesting passage, which is in Isaiah chapter two, and also in Micah chapter four. But it talks about the mountain of the Lord's house will be established. This is Isaiah chapter two verse two. The mountain of the Lord's house will be established on top of the mountains. And this is again quoted in Micah chapter four and verse one. So here again, the mountain refers to the kingdom of God, you know, that the house of the Lord will be greater and more powerful than all other kingdoms. So to answer your question, mountain typically refers to the kingdom of God. And then as Pastor Ocean also mentioned, mountain also refers like Mount Zion, it refers to the people of God. So Mount Zion in the Old Testament refers, you know, was actually a little mountain, but later on as you come into the prophets, so Isaiah and Ezekiel and so on. They used the phrase Mount Zion to refer to people, the people of God. So initially it started in the book of Samuel. Mount Zion was a little mountain on which David established the city of Jerusalem around which he established it of Jerusalem. So it was an actual place. But then the phrase Mount Zion came on to refer to the people of God and it continued on into the New Testament. In Hebrews 12, it's used again to refer to the people of God. So if it is Mount Zion, people of God, mountain kingdom. Okay. Okay, okay. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you so much. Thank you, David. Thank you for the question. Thank you, Pastor. Okay. All right. We have another question from John. One Timothy chapter one was 20. We see Paul mentioning that he delivered Hymennaeus and Alexander to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. What would have been the necessity of this? Can a person in spiritual authority do that? Let me just go through that question one more time. So one Timothy chapter one was 20. We see Paul mentioning that he delivered Hymennaeus and Alexander to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. What would have been the necessity of this? Part one. Can a person in spiritual authority do that? Pastor Nancy, would you like to respond to this question, please? Yes. Yes, Pastor Ocean. So John, what I understand is that Paul would have definitely done his part to bring correction in a loving way to these people that he is mentioning here by name. However, we see a certain progression that is advised in scripture as given in Matthew 18, the way one must go and bring correction to someone who has wronged them. And also as spiritual leaders, the scriptures tell us that we were spiritual, that we must bring correction in a gentle way to somebody who has wandered away. So I believe that Paul would have done the needful in this case. However, if people were unrelenting, even this is something that he would have written out of his love for them, that now that people are not listening, let them learn on their own. So in that sense is what I believe Paul is writing this, that hopefully they will learn through their experience and their relationship with God. So I think I'll just leave it at that, John, that is as much as I know, maybe Pastor could share. Yeah, thank you. Just to add to what Nancy shared, we read about a similar thing in a similar instance in 1 Corinthians 5 where Paul says 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 5 is talking about somebody who is sexually immoral and having an immoral lifestyle. In fact, it's an incestuous lifestyle. And in verse 5 he says, Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that a spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So we see that, you know, that there was a, you know, you see that happening there. And in this case, we see that it's a lifestyle. It's a continuing lifestyle. And it is not only affecting that person, but it's also affecting the body of believers. Like if you read verse 7 says purge out the old living that you may be a new lump and also verse 6. Sorry, your glorifying is not good. Do you not know that a little living livens the whole lump? So there's it's a, you know, negative or unrighteous influence on the whole body and it's a serious thing. The body of Christ is holy is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so, so it's affecting all the other believers as well. So, so he, he, so he goes on to explain what that delivering is also delivering to Satan, like putting out of fellowship of the community of believers. You know, they're, he's put out of fellowship. In other words, like we would say probably excommunicated from the church, from the body of believers for a season. So that that person might, you know, learn and come to a place of repentance and come back. And then we read in second Corinthians, we see that that has happened. So, so it's a very extreme case. But, you know, that's, that's what it is. So even in 1 Timothy chapter one and verse 20. So these, these two people, Hymenius and Alexander are, you know, continuing to blaspheme. So he's saying that they may learn not to blaspheme. And it's putting out of fellowship of the community of believers and distancing oneself so that they may learn, come to a place of repentance and then, you know, be restored again. Yeah. Pastor, you want to add something to it? Yeah, I think both. That's Nancy and I say my covered, you know, the core, the meat in the core meaning of these passages. And what I just want to add is that in some sense, there is a spiritual, a spiritual leaders do have a spiritual oversight over the people and trusted to them. Right. So you, we have this word oversea. So acts 20, it was 28. And also in Hebrews 13. I think it's worse. 15. Let me give you the exact procedures. 17. He was 13 17. So acts 20 28 Hebrews 13 17 is talking about spiritual oversight. So that means there is this aspect of protective. And protection, spiritual protection that comes through the spiritual oversight of the leaders who are watching over your souls. And so, in a sense, that by, you know, by, when Paul says, I'm having this person over, they are no longer going to be under the spiritual oversight and the spiritual protection that comes from the leadership over the people whom the Holy Spirit has appointed them, which makes them in some way vulnerable, even more vulnerable than others to demonic, you know, whatever the enemy wants to do. So that's why he's saying I'm handing them over to Satan. You know, that means she is going to be do things because first of all, they're in rebellion against God, which automatically opens them up to the enemy. And secondly, is that as a leader, Paul is choosing to withdraw his spiritual oversight over those individuals. And there's that aspect. I don't want to magnify that too much, but then that is a reality that we've seen scripture. The reason I don't want to magnify that too much is because then people get into the extreme of spiritual covering and shepherding and all of that. Which again is, you know, like you're falling into the other side of the ditch. So we don't want to magnify that too much, but then that's a reality we have to understand in its own context. Yeah, so that's the only thing I would add. Thank you. Thank you, pastors. Thank you, everybody for responding in. Sorry, one more Russian. I just going back to Divya's earlier question about mountain. I just realized that, you know, the mountain could also the typology of the mountain could also be that of the obstacle. Right? That's from what Jesus said in Matthew in his teaching on faith. Whoever says to this mountain, be thou removed. So while the typology, one of the images, mountain refers to the kingdom. That's from Daniel to 35 and 44. The other typology, the mountain also refers to an obstacle. You know, if you say to the mountain, be removed. So I just wanted to, I just, just came to mind after. Okay, Divya, just thanks. Yeah, pastor, can I, can I add something? It was mountain of God and the reference that you gave me on Daniel too. It was a confirmation as well. So yeah, yeah, I just wanted to. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, pastor. Thank you, Divya. Okay. Right. No, we have a question from Sid. He says, pastor, as we are celebrating Diwali today and I do have some Hindu friends. Is it okay if I go and celebrate with them? But my one Christian friend, he says that don't go out today for it is evil spirits festival. Don't step out. Pastor, so what should I do? One is my church friend and, and the Hindu friends are my college classmates. So what can Sid do in a situation like this? Oh, any one of us, this can happen to any one of us, right? So pastor Paul, would you like to shed some light on that, please? Yes, sure, Roshan. Thank you, Sid, for the question. Okay, I'll give a very, very practical answer. Now you've mentioned here, said that you, you know, you're going to go and celebrate with them now. I'm not sure what is, what comes under celebrate. We know that Diwali is a big festival in our nation and, you know, it's called the Festival of Lights and all of these things of crackers, bursting crackers and all of it. Now, if it's like, very practical, like even, you know, probably me growing up, you know, we would get together with friends and burst crackles. But I had no idea what the, what Diwali is like in, in context of their festival, like, what is it all about? It's only about like bursting crackers or enjoying with friends. Now, if, if you're mentioning about, you know, anyway, now the government has banned crackers and all that, but if it's something like just being with your friends and spending time with friends, you're not really celebrating Diwali, but you're just spending time with your friends. But, you know, when you go into the details in the sense that you, you know, you, you involve in their, you know, their worship or their times of prayers, whatever they're doing. Now, that would be wrong. But, you know, you can go out, there's evil spirits there every day, not only on Diwali, so you can go out. It gives you all the more reason for you to, you know, spread your light to others. I just wanted to share this one incident that happened maybe in 2017 on where we went out, you know, a lot of friends, Hindu friends. We went out, it was on Diwali and, you know, they all bursted crackers and all of that and we were there. But I remember asking this friend, I think I shared this in the lifestyle evangelism class. Just asking your friend, are you happy after the festival, you know, after the whole day? I asked him, are you happy that you bursted crackers and enjoyed yourself? He said no. And so it was an opportunity for me to share the gospel with him and that same night he accepted Christ. But so if I had said to myself, OK, this is an evil spirits festival and not gone with them, I wouldn't have got the opportunity to share the gospel with them. So just to, you know, just to make the right perspective to my answer, if it's something to just, which is not involving worship of their, of their God and their worship of their whatever they're doing, then it was just being with friends, spending time together. I think it's all right. And, you know, don't worry about the evil spirits. There are plenty of scriptures that say that, you know, great as he does in you, then he does in the world and God has given you the authority above these evil spirits. So you can go ahead, spend time with them, share the gospel with them, be a testimony to them, but avoid, you know, worship of what they're doing. So I'll just leave it at that. Maybe one of the other staff can also share. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Paul. Yes, Pastor Nancy, please go ahead. Yes, yes. Thank you, Pastor Paul. Thank you for that. And I think Pastor Paul has made it very clear that we can't engage in worship, right? Apart from worshiping the living God, we mustn't engage in worship of anyone or anything else. I just want to add to what he shared. So this happens to a lot of us, because we have friends of other faiths, we get invited for dinners and, you know, lunches and things like that. So there are two portions of scripture that I felt like sharing. One is from 1 Corinthians 10, verses 27 through 31. Basically, that says that if somebody invites you and you know that they are partaking of, they are involving in worship of some other God, the good thing to do is to not ask, you know, whether the food was dedicated to those other gods to just go ahead. If they've invited you for dinner, you just quietly go and, you know, have the dinner. But if you do come to know that the food was dedicated to, you know, some other God, for their conscience sake, you know, Paul writes and says that it's better that you don't take it, because then, you know, you stand out as a witness and as a testimony to the worship of the living God. So, you know, that is something I wanted to say. And also, you know, Romans 14-23, it says that whatever is not a faith is sin. So just to go by our conscience also, you know, if there's anything that makes you uncomfortable, like if you're invited for something like this, and anything that makes you uncomfortable, just don't do that. Okay, so whatever you do, if you're able to do that out of faith, that's fine. But if anything makes you uncomfortable and doubt, then don't do that. So just wanted to add these two passages as well. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Pastor Nancy. Thank you, Sid, once again for that question. I hope they were able to answer your question. Okay, so moving on, we have a question from Diana Thullure. Rosalind, I see that you've raised your hand. Can we get to it after we respond to Elisha's questions? We'll get to you after we respond. So Diana Thullure has posted a question saying, Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established. Believe his prophets and you shall prosper from 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 20. Diana has asked us to expand on this. I'd like to read that scripture one more time from 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 20. I want to read verse 19 as well just so we understand the context. And some Levites of the Kohathites and Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel with a very loud voice. And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Techoa. And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established. Believe and remains steadfast to his prophets and you shall prosper. Can I request one of our pastors to respond to that, please? Bastashish, would you like to give your thoughts on that? Yeah, so it's just 2 Chronicles 2020. Diana is just encouraging us to believe the prophetic word that God releases by his spirit through human vessels. Of course, we have to look at things from the New Testament, but 2 Chronicles 2020 is an Old Testament scripture. Its application has to be in New Testament context. So in New Testament context, what do we understand about prophecy and the role of the prophetic? So we know that there is a gift of prophecy which can all flow through every believer. And the prophetic, there are people who are called to be prophets in the prophetic office. But the New Testament teaches us to test all things. So 1 Thessalonians 521, it says, do not despise prophecies. Test all things, hold fast to what is good. So that's the first thing. So regardless of who speaks what, we don't blindly believe a prophet or a prophecy. Everything, both the prophet and the prophecy have to be tested. The prophet has to be tested to make sure he's a good tree, bringing forth good fruit. And the prophecy has to be tested, making sure that it is aligned to the word of God and aligned to what God is speaking to you personally. Ultimately, 1 John 2 27, the anointing who abides in us teaches us all things. And we live by the anointing, the guidance of the anointing within us. So that's the first thing. And we do keep in mind that not everything a prophet says is prophetic, right? Because a prophet is just a human person. It doesn't mean everything that comes out of his mouth is prophetic. No, it's only when he speaks under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that that's prophetic. All the other is just normal conversation. So the answer to that is we have to believe the prophetic word like Paul told Timothy. First Timothy 118, he says, you know, by the prophecies that went out before you wage a good warfare, you know, so the the prophecies, the prophetic word is important. We have to give it its rightful place in our lives. You know, Revelation 1911, I think it says the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of prophecy. So really the spirit of prophecy is testifying to Christ and from Christ. So it is Jesus speaking to the church. So we have to take it with reverence, but it has to be tested first and then pursued. Is that okay, Diana? Anything specific? Yeah. Diana, I hope you're there. I hope we were able to answer that question for you. Thank you for that question. Moving on to Elisha's question we have. So he's asking us, is it right for a Christian to engage in the USA diversity visa lottery and any other game of chance? Okay. That's the first time I'm hearing that. Elisha, thank you for the question. Is it a lottery kind of thing? Is it what it is? Yes, that's the kind of thing. Okay. All right. So the question is, is it right for a Christian to engage in a game of chance, which is a lot of race, etc. So Pastor Jay Kumar, would you like to respond to this? Yeah, Russian. First of all, this game of chance, it's like lottery or like gambling. I've heard of people's testimonies saying that it's very addictive and also it's a sure short way of losing hard earned wealth. So that's one of the downsides of it. Like apart from that, it has other evils as well like fueling greed without effort or without hard work put in. So those are two things that I can like at the top of my head think of, you know, like one is greed and earning something without working for it or productive work. And also the other evils connected with it, like it is addictive and, you know, it's like when you look at some of the details of gambling, it's a gambling or lottery. It's designed in such a way that the percentage of winning is very, very margin of winning is very, very thin, very small. So the majority would stand to lose and it's an evil which we can avoid. Yeah, that's what I can think of. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Jake. Pastor Paul, would you like to add to it as well? Yes, I'm not really sure about the use diversity visa lottery. What I would say is I just echo what Pastor Jake said. It is a very addictive thing to maybe, you know, there are times when I think nowadays, you know, you go to the supermarket and you purchase some things and they give you this card, you just fill it up, you put it in the box and then there's this whole lottery system where they pick it up and the winner gets a gift now. That is something like that. But that is, I think that is okay because you're not, you know, you're just filling up that and giving it. But if you, like how Pastor Jake said, it's something that your mind is set on and if you always keep thinking about it, okay, this is money that I want to get, it fuels greed, it fuels wrong motives to get money and could be very addictive as well. So regarding the other, the US diversity lottery visa, I'm not really sure about that, so I'll leave it at that. Thanks, Roshan. Thank you, Pastor Paul. Thank you, Pastor Jake. Okay, Elijah, I hope we were able to answer your question. Do you have a follow up question or something that you want to share? No, Pastor. I think I'm okay with that response. Thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Diana. No problem. So do you have a follow up question, Diana? I hope you were able to listen to the responses. Yeah, just to respond to that. Diana, so for somebody to say that prosperity came from the Prophet, that definitely is not true. It definitely goes against the word of God and we can just disregard that. That all blessings come from God and not because of the Prophet. Awesome. Thank you, Pastor. Okay, any more questions? Keep the questions coming. But until then, I'd like to just ask a question to the panel. So as Christian leaders and being surrounded by, you know, being raised in a Christian family, being surrounded by Christian leaders and whatnot from my own personal journey, I've seen one of the key things which kind of has affected the leaders, so to speak, over the years was with something called the entitlement. And I learned above that word. I mean, much later, at that point in time, I didn't even know that it was entitlement. So for us as Christian leaders and young leaders, most of us will be stepping into a role of leadership somewhere. How dangerous it can be, you know, that spirit of entitlement. And how can we avoid that? And what is some of the characteristics that we can just lean on to keep that at bay? Anybody? Yeah, I think you've brought up a very important theme or topic. And I know I had, I don't know, this last week or the week before I had mentioned about the Mars Hill Church, which was just, you know, a study that is being done by Christianity today on what was happening. Like, which, you know, they're just referring to it as celebrity status of pastors, Christian leaders. And then, and I just, you know, and I'm just sharing this, I'm sharing this here on, I was actually going to send an email to our own pastoral team and church office and so on, but I'll just share this here on this chat here. That this, you know, less than a month ago, or let's say two months ago, September, this was 16 minutes Australia. I've been brought up this video on Hillsong, where, and again, this is not to put Hillsong down, but I, you know, and God has blessed the church through Hillsong and we will continue to sing their songs and all of that. But I'm just pointing this out because this quote unquote celebrity status of pastors, that means pastors feel entitled to, you know, having this place of being honored. And the sad thing is it's being taken to the to an extreme. Now, we are hearing about, you know, we're hearing about churches in the Western world, but the fact is, even in India, in many parts of our own country, pastors feel entitled to be, you know, held in certain honor, certain respect and given certain privileges. They think like, you know, there is God, there are pastors, and then there are the people, you know, and what we are seeing, you know, in, you know, we're seeing the repercussions of this kind of thing in the Western world, which of course is happening even in our own country. So entitlement means, I feel that I deserve that, you know, I'm entitled to it because maybe I'm making so much spiritual sacrifices, maybe I'm praying so much, maybe I am, maybe I am, you know, whatever as a spiritual leader, I deserve my title, I deserve my role, I deserve, you know, a certain status. But then that sense of entitlement leads people to do a lot of strange things, which actually contradicts the word of God, Christian leaders I'm talking about. Like, you know, if you look, what's this documentary from Hills, from 60 Minutes Australia, the pastors were living lavish lifestyles using church money. They were entitled to it, you know, just celebrity, they were living like celebrities, using church money. And so that's, you know, that's what where entitlement will eventually take us, you know, and then pastors were protecting pastors, even when they were doing wrong, they were sinning, they were sexually abusing people. And it is just happening, because it's now, you know, a whole culture of celebrity culture, you have to protect each other, you have to protect that, you know, the pastoral status. So to answer a question, it is a very dangerous thing, that sense of entitlement, that because I'm pastor, or because I'm spiritual leader, I deserve this, you know, it's very dangerous thinking and a dangerous attitude, which then leads to a lot of these kinds of things that you're seeing happening in, in church life. I think the antidote to that is just telling us that we're all on level ground. That means every believer, whether you're a pastor or a prophet or an apostle or you're a new believer, we all stand on level ground. We forgot, you know, we're all saved by grace through faith. We all read the same Bible. We're all washed in the same blood, and we're all filled with the same Holy Spirit. And, and we have to see our call to pastoring or leadership more as a responsibility rather than a status. You know, and if we do that, then we will avoid the sense of entitlement, which leads us to, which leads leaders to do wrong things. And we have to constantly remind us, look, as a pastor, I'm actually the least of all, I'm a servant. I'm here to serve. And my call as a pastor or as a leader is really a responsibility that I'm fulfilling to serve people. Yeah, sorry for bringing up all the bad things, but it really, yeah. Go ahead. Thank you, Pastor. So just before we go to Divya's question, as just a follow-up, right? I mean, this is again open to all our pastors. So that question was from a perspective of a leader, but then also, and I think what simply put the question as a follow-up is I want to understand the difference between honor and worship. Because I think we as Indians, it's a very cultural thing to us as we like to worship everything or anything in the sun, moon, stars, water, rocks or whatnot. But so, and again, in that same journey, I felt like, okay, it is the people who gave, you know, the leaders this kind of authority that they placed them on the pedestal, which should not have happened. So again, now from the perspective of the congregation or just people, how do we draw the line or understand the difference between honoring? Yes, we need to honor the men of God. And how do we understand that we don't have to worship them? Just a quick thing. Yeah, it's a good question. I think honor should be held similarly. Like, I honor the pastor the way I honor my parents. You know, same thing. The Bible tells me to honor my parents, the same honor, the same kind of honor I give to the pastor. So I don't put parents on a pedestal, you know, make them next to God. No, I honor them because of what they've done in my life. And because of, you know, their advance and wisdom, their age and so on. So I honor, similarly, I honor the pastor. But I don't make my honor cause me to just give that person free access into my life. You know, I honor, I respect, but that doesn't mean we worship. That doesn't mean we let that person dominate our lives, control our lives, dictate our lives. Those are things we don't do. So, you know, I think that word honor should be held within its context when we relate, whether it's parents, whether it's pastors, whether it's government leaders. You know, we honor, the Bible tells us to honor everyone. In fact, the Bible tells us to honor the brotherhood, you know, first Peter 2. That means we honor each other. So the same thing applies not only to parents, government, pastors, but to one another. Thank you, Pastor. Okay, so we quickly get to Divya's question. So Divya has asked us a question from Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18 and 19. It says, And I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Can I request any one of our pastors to expand on this verse, please? And Divya, so sorry, Pastor Nancy to have interrupted. So which particular section of the verse would you like a detailed explanation, Divya? Yeah, I was just looking at the context of that verse as well. Like Sita was asked, who do you say I am? And why was Jesus saying that at that point of time to Peter? And I understand that it is the authority that is being spoken about. Yeah, but I just want to know the pastor's perspective on this. Okay, thank you, Divya. Pastor Nancy, if you... Yes, yes, Pastor Ocean. So, Divya, thank you for that question. Yes, I was just going to say that, you know, when Jesus says that on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. The rock that he's talking about, as you rightly pointed out, you know, Jesus was asking the question, you know, to... Yeah, to him saying, you know, who do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered, you are the messiah, the son of the living God. So when Jesus says on this rock, he meant on the revelation that he is the Christ, the church will be built. So that is one aspect of it. And the second aspect here is, you know, him saying that I will give you the keys of the kingdom. We know that he had the authority as a son of God, and he's saying that he would give it to the believers so that we can allow the things here on earth which are allowed in the kingdom of heaven. And similarly, this allowed things which are not allowed in heaven. So, you know, things like, you know, God's working, God's rule and reign, the features of the kingdom, the joy, the peace, the power of God, the presence of God. Those are things that we love and whatever the enemies we go against that oppression, sickness, those are the things that we bind or we kind of, you know, don't let that happen in our lives. So those are the key points from this passage, Divya. Does that answer your question though? Yeah, yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, Pastor Nancy. Just to quickly add to the, you know, this passage, the geographical setting of this has always fascinated me, and this happens in the Philippi, Caesarea Philippi, which is in the northern part of Israel, just after Galilee. And so this place, it's just below the Mount Hermon, and so there's a lot of dew, it comes down as water, and so there's constant flow of water and whatnot. And it's filled with rocks. And this region was extremely prohibited for Jews to go because of the malpractices, all the evil practices that used to happen at that region. Talk about a lot of evil things, a lot of disgusting things that would happen there. And so it was like a red zone for any Jew to enter there. And apparently Jesus takes these disciples and he goes there, and he shows them all these gods made of all these rocks and wood and whatnot. And there would be like a cave, you know, and which was again filled with water when you go in. And that was known as a gate to the dark world or the underworld, hence the Hades. And so he's setting up this amazing context in that place. And then he says, you know, all of this will not have power, you know, the gates behind you. And I tell, and Peter has this amazing revelation through the Holy Spirit. And he says, and then Jesus goes on to say, on this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of Hades will not overcome it all. So it's a wonderful geographical setting in which Jesus uses this amazing lesson. But yeah, I hope that kind of helps. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for adding that. Welcome, Divya. Abraham, we are out of time now. We will ask this, you know, get to your question in the following week. Okay. I want to thank everybody for joining in for today's mentoring hour. I hope you have a good time of learning and equipping. God bless you all. We'll see you again next week. Take a break and have a good one. Bye.