 I can pray. Pastor. Yes. Yes. Please Rose. Father in heaven, we thank you for today. We thank you for the many ways you provide, you protect and you preserve us. Thank you for your unending and unconditional love for all of us. Father, we thank you for the next hour of being in this school and we devote and commit this hour to you. Father, we also ask that you anoint Pastor Nancy with your words of wisdom as she speaks in your behalf. Inspire us. Inspire us and move us by your Holy Spirit as we listen and understand what we are about to hear. Inspire Pastor Nancy. Guide us all by the light that comes from your word. Father, we ask this all in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Rose, for leading us. And once again, welcome. Good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining in. So, this morning, I will begin with the quick recap of our lesson on baptism because in the last class, somehow, I forgot to press record or I don't know. I thought I pressed record but something happened but the whole thing didn't get recorded. So, I'll just do a quick recap of baptism for the sake of our e-learning students or anyone else who is connecting to the YouTube channel. And after that, you know, I'll go into the second sacrament of the church, which is communion. So, we said that there are two sacraments or these are practices that are ordained for the church to follow and these two that we still continue to keep are water baptism and the communion. We see the 1st century church follow it and we do have clear instructions in God's word commanding us to continue these two practices. We don't have any such instruction for other practices. In fact, some of the practices that the Jews had, those were not considered essential for the Christians to keep. For example, circumcision. That's something that has significance in the Old Testament but we very clearly see that the elders of the church, they gave an instruction, they gave clarity that for a bond against the believer, they no longer needed to follow that practice. So similarly, there are other practices that we can look at in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant which we might wonder if we must continue. But there is clarity on these two ordinances or practices because we see the 1st century church following it even in the epistles. There is a reference to things like water baptism. There is a reference to the Holy Covenant but other things we don't. So that is the reason we're talking only about these two ordinances. In the last class, we said that water baptism indicates one's repentance and one's willingness to be part of God's kingdom. This way of bringing people into the kingdom or inviting them to God. So John the Baptist practices a lot and that is why he was called John the Baptist. Even Jesus was baptized by John. We know that Jesus has nothing to repent of but as an act of obedience to the Father, Jesus still underwent water baptism and he was fully immersed in water and the reason why he did that was to fulfill all obedience unto God and we see that just the way Jesus was baptized, we as believers need to be baptized and there is a command as per the Great Commission for us to go make disciples and baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This act of getting baptized on one spot, it is a decision that they are making to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives. The act of baptism is also symbolic of what Jesus went through. Jesus died, he was buried and he rose from the dead. Romans chapter 6 verse 4 shows us that similarly, spiritual believer has died to the old life, has been buried with Christ and also experienced that resurrection with Christ as they come out of the water. So it is symbolic of what the Lord Jesus went through. Baptism also helps us have a clear conscience towards God. That is something God has asked us to do and we obey him and whenever we obey God, we can carry a clear conscience before God. What is the requirement for one to be? What about this? One needs to be born again. You know, it's as simple as that. So they need to repent and believe and after that one can be water baptized. So we don't see too many prerequisites strictly telling people to do a lot of other things before they are water baptized. In fact, when you see the way believers in the book of Acts baptized people, somebody who was born again a couple of hours ago, somebody who was born again a few days ago, they just went ahead and they baptized them in water because it's about that person confessing Christ, repenting of their own life and following Jesus. Yes. So that is all that is required for one to be water baptized. What a baptism has got to be immersion only. We don't see any biblical basis for things like sprinkle baptism or you know, any other form of baptism. It has to be immersion baptism. The word baptism, it's a baptism or it means to be immersed or to be dumped or dipped. And therefore immersion is the way to go when we talk about what a baptism. We also must not infer that one needs to become very mature spiritually or needs to be a spiritual giant in order for them to be water baptized because you know, we don't see that in scripture. People didn't even wait the moment somebody believed they baptized them. So one is baptized in water and then the normal journey of walking with Christ and growing in God, that needs to take place. So maturity, it's not required that one be very mature, you know, for them to be water baptized. Then yes, when we are water baptized, we can expect supernatural things to take place. We can expect answers to prayer because it's an act of obedience and we know that every time we obey God, God's blessing comes upon our lives. And so yes, there are testimonies when people were water baptized, they receive breakthroughs. But then there are other testimonies where nothing dramatic happened. But the point is that we have been commanded to follow water baptism and we are just being obedient to it. So one of the good ways in which we can follow this practice in our local churches is to invite people as soon as they believe, you know, invite them to be baptized. One could choose a particular day in the month or as it works for that local body, pick a particular day and everyone who has believed on that particular day could take them if there is no source of water, a close while you could plan to go to a place where there is a tank or there is a river or something like that and then by faith people can be baptized in water so that they are able to, in a sense, you know, they are declaring to the people that now they have become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and they are confirming that decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And then people are baptized. We see that we can baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as per some of the scriptures. But in the book of Acts, we see that people are baptized in the name of Jesus. You know, either should be fine, but just so we follow both, both the, you know, instructions or recommendations. Here at APC, I mentioned to all of us, we say in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and, you know, I baptize you in Jesus name. So we just do it both ways so that people who are coming from a certain background, they don't feel like, hey, you didn't do it like this. This is what it says in Acts. So this is what it says in Matthew. So we do it both ways. And yes, it's something that is to be done by faith by the person who is baptizing and also the person who is being baptized. You receive that by faith. And baptism is fine once because it's just a, it's just a professional acceptance of one's decision to follow Christ. And, you know, we make that decision once, right? Once we are born again. So one need not be baptized again and again. One baptism, and that is more than enough. And does baptism, is baptism a prerequisite for someone to be born again? No, we don't see that. You know, what if somebody is not water baptized for various reasons? In the last discussion, we saw some people could be bedridden. They cannot be dipped in water. What happens to a person's salvation that we don't see scripture putting a, like it's not a rule where if you are not water baptized and you're not going to receive salvation. So, yes, in some instances, people who are born again are unable to baptize, but that does not affect their salvation. So these are all some of the points that the key points which we discussed in the last class, and we also made this point that when it comes to the Holy Spirit baptism, the order in which one can be baptized in water, one can be baptized in the Holy Spirit. We don't see a prescribed order again in scripture. It could be either way. One could be baptized first in the Holy Spirit and then be baptized in water or the other way around. So some of the key things that we touched upon and I think that should cover all the basics about water baptism. So let's move on from here. Today, we will discuss about the Lord's table. The Lord's table is a practice where we partake of bread, which is representative of the body of Jesus and wine or grape juice, which is representative of the blood of Jesus. Now, who instituted the Lord's table? It's the Lord Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 26 from verses 18 through 30. And it would be good if someone can just read that passage for us, please. Matthew 26 verses 18 through 30. Yes, ma'am. Matthew 26, 18 to? Ma'am, 18 to? 30. And he said, going to the city to search a man and say to him, the master said, my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them and they made ready the Passover. Now, when the even was come, he sat down with the 12. And as they did eat, he said, earlier, same to you that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, he that dipped his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him. But why want to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed? It had been good for that man. If he had not been born, then you thus which betrayed him answered and said, master, is it I? He said unto him, thou hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to his disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this root of the wine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. And when they had sung and him, they went out into the Mount of Olives. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Susan. So, yeah, so thank you so much for going through that. Here we see the Lord Jesus in the Last Supper. For the first time, we are not sure if it's for the first time because even, yeah, because in John, we find that people are opposing the Lord Jesus for preaching something like this. But anyway, you know, we see that at the Last Supper, he goes ahead with the communion. And he talks about it being his body and his blood, and he encourages the 12 disciples to partake of it. Okay. So I just quickly come to a question here in the chat. And this is about baptism. So sorry for the interruption in what I'm sharing about communion. So Charles is asking, so sprinkling is not baptism. Yeah, it has no biblical basis, Charles. Yeah. So in other words, no, it's not baptism. I hope that's clear. Okay. Yeah, let's, let's move on. So the Lord Jesus instituted the communion. And there was instructions, there were instructions given by Apostle Paul to the Corinthian Church on how to partake of the Lord's table. Now, one interesting thing is when you read the accounts of Apostle Paul, and his like, you know, the way he instructs the Corinthian Church, you will also see that he says that he received revelation about communion, basically from God. So we know that he was never a part of those 12 disciples when Jesus was around. And so he never saw Jesus do it. So also he never really spent that much time with the apostles in Jerusalem for him to learn everything about their practices. And he says it, he says it himself, that I have received by revelation. So by revelation, God gave him the understanding about the holy communion and based on that, he instructs the believers. So what are some of the key things about the holy communion that we must understand? Now, the holy communion is one's expression of their personal faith in the death, the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So every time we partake of it, you know, it's not just an act or it's not just a ritual that the church follows, but it's an expression of my faith. Each time I partake of the holy communion, I'm saying, I believe, I believe in what the Lord Jesus has done. No, I believe that he has died for me on the cross. I believe that he has a covenant with me. I believe that I'm a recipient of that new covenant. I believe, you know, that the blessings of the cross have come upon my life. So it's an act of faith. It's an expression of faith in communion. So it's really important. It's really important. We would also say that communion, it's a proclamation of our faith in the completed work of the cross. So what we are saying is what needed to be done for us since to be forgiven, what needed to be done for us to receive abundant life, the Lord Jesus has already done it on the cross of Calvary. There's nothing additional that needs to be done to buy our salvation. So we proclaim that. So when I'm partaking of the holy communion, I'm saying, you know, the cross is enough. The cross is our victory. The cross is the power of God. You know, the cross is everything. And you know, the cross demonstrates God's love for us. So basically I am proclaiming through my act that I believe in the Lord Jesus. I believe in the work of the cross. So that is the meaning of partaking of the holy communion. Now Jesus also said, you continue to do this till my return. So when we partake of the holy communion, just as much as we put our faith in what he has done on the cross, we are also putting our faith in the fact that he is going to come back. He is going to return for us. So in other words, we're seeing that this act is an expression of faith. This act is a proclamation of what the Lord Jesus has done. This act is also expressing that we are one with God. We are one with God. We have a communion with God. Communion is nothing but fellowship. This is nothing but fellowship. When we look at the tabernacle, one of the pieces of culture in the holy place was that showbread table. And on that table, there was bread. And that is symbolizing God's desire to commune with man or God's desire to fellowship, have a relationship with man. So again, when we partake of the holy communion, it is like us expressing that union with the Godhead, with Jesus, with the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus. This is based on 1 Corinthians 10, 16. We can also express our communion or our relationship with the body and the blood of Jesus. So we are fellowshiping. We are fellowshiping with God and we are saying, I'm one with God and one with God. Then we are partaking of the holy communion. Now the holy communion is also an expression and a confession that we are a part of the body. 1 Corinthians 10, 17 says that we are a part of the body. So we are saying, in other words, so far all the statements that I made, those are confirming that we have a personal relationship with God. And we have communion fellowship with God, a deep communion with God. So they are talking about a union with God. But the holy communion is also an expression of, the holy communion is also an expression of our communion with other believers. Because what they're saying is, we're saying that we are part of the body. We are part of Christ's body. And there are others who are born again who are also part of the body. So we are saying that we have coveted to unity in the body. We're coveted to honouring the other members of the body. So it's about our communion with God. And it is about our communion with people and believers, those who are in the body of Christ. So that is the meaning of the holy communion. Yeah. And therefore, it gives us that we have this responsibility towards God and towards the people. So the way we live, the way we keep our relationships with others in the church, in our fellowship, all the fellowships that we are a part of, you know, it matters because when we are partaking of the holy communion, we are saying that we're coveted to the people of God as well. So that's about the holy communion. Now, we're also told that, yeah. So another point that I just want to add to this is, see, every time we talk about the cross, it's powerful because we're speaking of our victory. We're speaking of that overcoming, you know, that the crosses are accomplished for us. We're speaking about the authority that you and I can walk in. So it's extremely powerful when we consider the cross or we talk about the cross. And just in line with that, when we are partaking of the holy communion, it's extremely powerful because we're talking about the victory of the cross. So at partake of the holy communion, what really happens? Every step of obedience brings God's blessings. So when I'm partaking of the holy communion with the understanding of what this means for me, the blessings of the cross come upon my, you know. So that is why we've heard so many testimonies of people partaking of the holy communion. Somehow, you know, that one act of obedience, that one act of faith, to release this breakthroughs, people say, hey, I got healed. I was oppressed by, you know, some demonic spirit I was set free. I had this financial difficulty and, you know, I received a phone call, you know, sort of like almost immediately after I partake of the holy communion by faith. So a lot of breakthroughs, people testify with that. And we can expect, in fact, every time we partake of the holy communion, we can expect the supernatural power of God to manifest, the victories of God to manifest in our lives, you know, the provision of God to come, you know, breakthroughs to be released, deliverance to happen, healing to happen. So God has, God is really meant for communion to be that act, you know, that releases the power of the cross upon our lives. So it's never really do this, never partake of the holy communion in a light way because there is so much that has been promised as we partake of the holy communion. And another thing that I want to add here is, you know, some people believe that when one partakes of the holy communion, the elements, whatever elements people use, some people use bread, some people use wafer, some people use grape juice, some people use actual wine, you know, some people just use water. Here in India, if there are local churches that cannot afford to buy bread or to buy wafer, they just use a regular bread like a chapati or something like that. You tear that and you pray over it and you consume it as communion. Now, do those materials turn into the body and the blood of Jesus because there is a concept called as transmutation where people believe that those whatever you're taking in as communion, it really becomes the body, it really becomes the blood of Jesus. The scriptures don't really tell us that, that we don't have to worry about it. It's an act of faith and if whatever we are consuming, the way to do it is you will see, you sanctify it, you bless it. Paul writes about it, you sanctify it, bless it and then you take it by faith. So that's all. That's how it is done. It's quite simple. Paul also instructs, I'm not reading those two passages but you could go and read it. It's given 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the portions regarding communion. There are a couple of instructions that Paul gives there. He says that one must partake of the Lord's table in a worthy manner. So what does it need to partake of the Lord's table? Communion is also known as the Lord's table because when you eat at the table you're expressing your relationship with somebody. So it's the Lord's table. He says that one must partake of it in a worthy manner. So what does he mean by that? We know that the Corinthian church, he was trying to instruct the Corinthian church for right living. They were people who had come from a pagan worship background and it is likely that some of them continued to eat the food which was offered to idols as well as partake of the holy covenant. So basically he was saying that you cannot partake of both. You have to be committed. You have to be committed or you need to completely pledge your allegiance to the Lord Jesus. You can't put your food there and here as well. So make up your mind. So in that context he says, okay, partake of it in a proper way. You can partake only of the holy covenant and you cannot just go and also express your commitment to other gods as well. So that was one reason why he told them to do it in the right way. The second reason is that the people, the Corinthian church when they would come for the holy communion, apparently it would be something like a feast and people will get drunk. Those days there was no limitation on how much bread and how much wine one could take. Today for the sake of just to have a format that's easy to follow when crowds of people come in, the church has made the consuming of the communion elements as small portions. So you just have a small portion of bread and a small portion of the grape juice. But in those days people would get drunk and knew that that is dishonoring. They were actually dishonoring. So he tells them, if you really want to eat and enjoy, you do that at home. The communion is not that. You need to have a reverent heart because try to understand. You're proclaiming the death, the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. You're proclaiming the victory of the cross upon your life, upon the powers of darkness. So it's a powerful thing that one is doing and we must honour the Lord Jesus for what he has done for us. So in that context, he spoke about us doing it in the right way, doing it partaking of the holy communion in a worthy manner. So yeah, we need to bear this in mind. And again, when you talk about the prerequisite for the Lord's table, it's only for a believer to be, only for a person to be born again. So as long as one is born again, they're invited to the Lord's table. We don't see specific instructions that say, one has to be baptized to partake of the holy communion or one has to be baptized with the Holy Spirit to partake of the holy communion. You can just partake as long as you are sure that the person is born again. So here again at APC, we say that if you are a believer of the Jesus Christ, you're welcome to partake of the holy communion whenever we are having the holy communion, which is generally the first Sundays. That's how we practice here. The first Sunday of the month is the communion week. And yeah, so it's done in that manner periodically. So that's a little bit about the holy communion. Again, if we have questions, we can discuss them, any doubts or comments from your end. I'm just looking at the chat here. Okay. So Samil is sharing an article supported with the Holy Communion, that sprinkling is not bad. And Diva comments that people have who support sprinkling as the Holy Communion. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Samil. And Charles, you could probably report to this article as well. Yeah. Is that okay, Charles? I didn't hear from you after you asked the question. So I'm wondering whether you're on mute. It is okay. It is okay. Okay. Yeah. I was, I was baptized twice because first was sprinkling. But when I believed when the Lord Jesus Christ I, I had to go for immersion to declare my obedience and the, and the submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Charles. So even that is what is important. Our submission to the Lord Jesus. Okay. So even if, you know, one is in this case, Charles is saying he was sprinkled with water as baptism. But even if an individual has been immersed in baptism, but at that point one was not a believer, no, which has happened to a lot of people because just as in some of the churches, you know, you have these ordinances that one needs to keep. Okay. A part of the Holy Communion, be baptized, then something else, something else, something else. So it's just very, very, sort of, you know, it's just part of the ritual. You need to do certain things at certain points in your life and one does all of that, but that doesn't make one a believer. So let's say somebody has been through immersion baptism, but it's only later that they are born again. They would need to be baptized once again, because baptism is also an act of faith. So without faith, when one is baptized, it doesn't count. Okay. So if one is sprinkled baptized or immersed in baptism, but they were not a believer, it needs to be done again. Okay. And yeah, any other questions or thoughts? So again, for both water baptism and communion, age, if we talk about the age limit, as long as some, you know, that child is conscious that they are born again, they have committed their life to Jesus and they're going to follow the Lord Jesus. It's their decision and they fully understand what they are talking about. They are born again. They can partake of the communion. They can also be water baptized. So there's no age limit. It's hard to tell what age one must be to partake of these ordinances or practices. If there are some good questions in our notes so you could go through that and it answers some common questions. So let me quickly see if there's something different here. Okay. Can a believer baptize another believer? What do you think? Can a believer baptize another believer or should it only be the elders or the pastors who must baptize? Well, I know that I think from the scripture that a believer can baptize another believer. It doesn't mean that after the elders are the ones that can do it. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Isaac. That's very correct. In fact, we have examples that is was that Philip? Yeah. Philip, who was a volunteer at that point, you know, he's not called evangelist yet. And Philip baptized the Ethiopian nun. When God called the believer in Damascus, Ananias to come and pray for, you know, to be apostle Paul. He was just a believer, ordinary believer. He comes. He prays for a soul and then he baptizes all. So these are just believers, Philip and Ananias. So, you know, it shows us that yes, believers can baptize other believers. Yes, Charles, you have something to say? Yes. A believer, who is the pastor? Isn't it the pastor believer? That is the first thing for someone to be a pastor. Must be a believer. So a believer baptizing a believer, that is the right thing because I will not go to which doctor to baptize me because I don't believe what they believe. Therefore, a pastor is a believer. Then he will baptize another person who has not yet been baptized. So I think that is the right track to have a believer baptizing a believer. Thank you. Okay, sure. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Charles. And on similar lines, Samuel says, yes, believer can baptize Kennedy. Yes, and Anita also. Yes, so yes, believers can baptize. If there is an opportunity for a pastor to baptize, great. If not, if there's, you know, just a believer around by faith, one can baptize another believer. Now, also the question here says, what if one partings of the communion in an unworthy manner because, you know, Paul says that like you check yourself, examine yourself before you do this. Will one, and then he says, you know, many are sick among you, some have also, you know, died. So it's a warning. It's a warning. So people ask the question, what if I, if I did something, you know, against God and then I part of the holy covenant, will I be struck dead? Well, we don't see things like that happening under the new covenant, you know, there's just more grace extended to us. But still, you know, we must examine ourselves and we must confess our sins. And this is not to create fear in our hearts. If at all we are aware of something in our lives which God is not pleased with, before we partake of the holy communion, in true repentance, genuine repentance, we can say sorry, and then partake of the holy communion. So we can keep it as simple as that. And that should be alright. Okay, now the other question here that has been included in the notes is, should I partake of the Lord's table? If the one ministering it does not have faith, something that Charles said just now, a believer baptizes a believer that makes sense, because both believe. Now similarly, when it comes to communion, what if the person administering the communion does not have faith? You know, sometimes it happens that if, you know, I've gone out of a city, I've gone to a particular place, and I don't find a church, I want to attend the church and I go someplace and for whatever reason, I feel like, okay, you know, maybe the person who is doing the, leading the communion themselves is not believing in it or something like that. Then how, can I partake of the holy communion? The answer to that is, see, faith on the part of the one ministering the holy communion is very important, and we should, you know, look for that. But in case, you know, one sees, like, suppose, you know, it's a traditional church and the person that sells is not born again or something like that, then what do you do? But they are administering the holy communion. So in a situation like that, you know, when we are given the elements, we can pray over it by faith and we can take it. The main thing is faith. There's no faith in the act of communion. Then it really doesn't help. So this is the right way. So how to partake of the holy communion in the right way, to have faith when we do it. So just, you know, some clarification there of how to go about it. Now the other question that people generally ask is, can a believer take part of the Lord's table at home? Okay, so I think people have been asking this question more recently because of COVID, you know, unable to go to church, unable to have gatherings. In fact, I met some students, like, you know, we have some of these students who used to minister too. So once in a while, I just bumped into them and they were telling me how they had not, because of COVID for like six months or seven months, they never took communion because they couldn't go to church. And they believe that only pastor has to pray and give it. Only then they will take it. So yeah, a lot of people believe that. So what is our opinion on that? Can one partake of the holy communion at home? Will it be valid? Okay. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. So Christopher says, yes. One example is the Book of Acts. We see about the early church that they broke bread. It says they broke bread house to house. So that in itself, you know, gives us the clarification. So they had the gatherings in the temple, but they also had these house meetings. And they did partake of the holy communion at home. So that gives us confirmation that it's okay. Won't make our communion invalid. So those are all some of the common questions that arise. And I think we've touched on it. If there are no more questions, then we can directly proceed to the next chapter here, which is about church discipline. Any thoughts? Okay. Yes, Christopher. So Christopher is asking, can we celebrate a lot stable, more regular basis, like daily basis? Yes, we can. Because again, if you look at the Book of Acts, it says like, you know, they met house to house, broke bread daily. So the frequency has not been prescribed for us. Like it's not like a set to a set frequency. So yes, we can. If you would like to partake of it on a daily basis, no, a lot of people talk about it, you know, personally, they, they have communion every day. It's up to each person's conviction and belief. So if you have the faith to do that, then yes. Yeah, Charles, please go ahead. Mine is like we have denominations, maybe Baptists, and then we have Anglican and we have Catholics all believing about any, the Holy Communion. Can a Pentecostal and Anglican have a Holy Communion with the Catholics? What's your say? So see Charles, we, when we explained about the Holy Communion, we said that one, this expresses our communion with God, it also expresses our communion with the body. So as long as people are born again, we can have Holy Communion. It doesn't matter which denomination one belongs to. I hope that answers your question. It does. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. So I think all the key things have been addressed. So let's move on. We move on to the next chapter here, which is about church discipline. Church discipline. Then we're talking about the local church and raising up a strong local church, a local church which will fit into all the images, whichever capacity God has called each one of us. But now for all, practically, when we look at raising up this strong local church, we will have problems, we will have challenges because we are dealing with people. There can be external pressures and that has a way of us responding to it. But internal challenges, internal problems will also be there because we are here working with imperfect people and we ourselves are all so we can expect certain internal problems or issues or challenges to be there. Now, based on the word of God, we have to be prepared to address these matters as well. It's not a surprise. In fact, I've heard pastors say that if your church is like a 30-member church, it's already hard enough because you have to deal with 30 individuals. You're trying to work together with 30 people, you're leading 30 people, you want 30 people to be mature. So, if the church grows to 50 people, you can expect a lot of good things but at the same time, more challenges because you have an additional 20 people who are part of your congregation and similarly, the more number of people we have, it's a practical thing. We know that there are going to be challenges that could be issues, small and big. So, we have to be mentally prepared to address it. And there can be certain issues where people need to be corrected, people need to be disciplined. These are really hard and difficult things for pastors and leaders to do. So, let us just look at the most basic way of resolving an issue that occurs between believers or we could even call it a conflict. What if something happens between believers? How would a pastor deal with it? A very common passage is Matthew 18 that a lot of people know Matthew 18 verses 15 through 22 where we are instructed to first, if there is an issue, if two believers have an issue, the best way is for them to talk. You go tell your brother his fault, if he hears you, you have gained your brother. So, two believers can talk if there is a problem. Now, if that does not get solved, then one can have, one can engage another person or immediate somebody who will come and who will speak to both parties and try to make peace among other people. Now, if that does not work, then the leader of the church is to step in and that person needs to bring resolution to the matter. So, this is our common and a normal progression from Matthew 18 which we must follow. So, this is the most basic way in which a church leader can go about resolving conflicts. If you hear of two believers having an issue, then you could encourage both of them, hey, why don't the two of you meet? Why don't the two of you discuss? Why don't the two of you clarify and come to a resolution? If that does not happen, the leader can ask for, let's say there's an elder in the church or somebody who both these people respect. Okay, so that person, you can request that person. Okay, this is the thing that's going on. Why don't you sort of mediate and talk to both the parties and bring peace? If that does not work, then the leader can step in. Then this leader can step in and then the leader can try to bring resolution to the matter. So, that is our common way of sorting out the problems that may arise between behaviors. Now, all the issues that may come up, they're not that simple. Okay, this sorts out the matter well and good, but if it doesn't, if the issues are different and bigger in some sense, then there are more instructions that we have from God's word. So, what we'll do is since we have completed the time for the first session, let's take a break. We will come back at 10.02 and we'll continue and look at the other instructions we have for resolving conflicts. Thank you.