Ep. 155: Praising under pressure

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us, O Christ, the light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by Your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfil Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rational with the knowledge of Your greatness, do enlight, O my

Lord, our thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and

divine Scriptures at all times. O Lord of all, Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, forever. Amen.

Studying, examining and learning from the book of the Acts,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 and during our last discussion, we saw and witnessed

the evil outcome from those whose evil, falsehood and

deception are exposed and or are brought to an end.

And we saw that the final result was the imprisonment of Saint

Paul and sealers, not simply imprisoned, beloved, but placed

in the inner prison and in shackles.

That is, they couldn't move. Minimal food, no toilets, rats

stench, no attorneys. You know, and I like watching

world's most interesting, I say, but world's most dangerous

prisons. I think there's one on in

Salvador or Ecuador, I'm not sure which country.

The conditions are atrocious. There's 60 to 70 prisoners that

are locked up in a room that is very small and barely any room

to move. Some are sleeping right by the

toilets, the the bathrooms, you want to call them and they are

not free to move. And you know how we sometimes

kick during our, our, you know, sleep?

My grandson Abel sleeps straight, ends up with his legs

in my side and the head in the side of his grandmother.

And he's always kicking and moving right.

No, no, no. There's a specific time one of

the guards blows the whistle and then that's time to turn the

other side if you would like. And you know, I encourage you to

go and watch this now. Why?

You appreciate life. You pray for these people.

You pray because they are human beings.

They are our brothers and sisters.

Some are Christians. We've only, you know, had a

brush with the law. I've made a mistake.

Some are there for years and years.

No legal representation, no hearing date, pleading with the

cameraman to please do something.

We are here. We are dying.

There's diseases. There's.

It's atrocious. This was worst.

Actually, this is worst because at the end of the of some of the

shows, you see that this prisoner was released because

his case was heard and what have you with with the prisons going

back to Saint Paul and Silas's time.

You could be there and no one know you're there and you could

just die there. OK, so let's see what these

people do. What?

Saint Paul, who was a chosen vessel of Christ?

Just because I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I believe in

God, I go to church, I read the Bible, I do my charitable deeds.

Nothing bad should happen to me. That ain't gonna.

That's not right. That's not Christianity.

Beloved, let's look at what these people, Saint Paul and

Selas did, these two brothers, these two champions did when

they were faced with this atrocity, this situation.

Verse 25, Chapter 16 Acts 1625 Now at midnight, at midnight,

Paul and Selas prayed and glorified God, and the prisoners

heard them. And suddenly there was a great

earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were

shaken. And immediately all the doors

were opened, and the bands of all were loosed, the shackles,

the bands. When the keeper of the prison

awoke and saw that the prison doors were open, he took a sword

and would have killed himself for the thought that the

prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out a loud voice,

saying to him, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.

What did they do? They were praising, singing

Psalms, most probably after the mystical Supper.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus and his disciples praised.

This is what we do after our Mystical Supper.

What do we do? We praise God.

Let us all who by the gift of the grace, yeah, the Deacon

proclaims, have received this all sanctifying body, right.

And what do we do? We praise with the Lord's Prayer

and then at the end we praise again that Trinity that that

bless the righteous believers. The Toyota that was usually

prayed in the in the houses when the the the Eucharist was

offered in the houses. In any case, we praise after the

mystical supper, just as Jesus did.

Paul and Selas prayed and praised.

Now they didn't cry and they were crying out.

They weren't whispering. Oh Heavenly Father, please help

me all we will follow. No, no, no.

They cried out with a loud voice.

The prisoners heard them. They didn't cry out.

We didn't do it. I want my mommy.

I didn't do it. I need to get out Shawshank

Redemption. When that prisoner is put in

prison and then he starts crying out and all the other prisoners

are saying actually, they have a bet on him.

They're saying be quiet, be quiet.

And he's get taken out and then he's murdered, basically, right.

I want to get out of it. They didn't do that.

Oh, why, Lord, why? I've been preaching your, your,

your gospel, Lord. I've been doing as you know, I'm

fulfilling my mission, Lord. I go to church.

I read the scriptures. I, as I said, I pay my dues to

the church, my donations, my charitable deeds.

I do all of that. I do all of that.

Why am I confronted with stress and pressure and suffering?

Why No, they didn't do that, beloved.

Sounds a little familiar, right? Again, for those who read the

Scriptures, Acts chapter 5 verse 41, if you go back and listen to

Acts 5:41

that episode we read in Acts chapter 5 verse 41, the

Acts 5:41

disciples who were punished for the sake of Christ.

Look at what they said when they came out.

They were let go. They were set free, they said,

and they departed from before them after being beaten,

whipped, most probably spat at right, punched, beaten.

They departed from before them, rejoicing that they were worthy

to be disgraced for the name. When you're being disgraced,

suffering, persecuted, praise the Lord and say thank you Lord,

for making me worthy to be persecuted and be disgraced for

your name. This is what they were doing.

They're also following the footsteps of the psalmist.

Psalm 119, verse 62 in the middle of the night, I rise to

Psalms 119:62

give you thanks because of your righteous ordinance.

Now what was righteous with these people being with rats and

and their excrement? What was righteous?

You know what was righteous? The righteous thing was that God

was in control, was aware, God could see, and that they were

being persecuted for God. This is the righteousness.

Now let me tell you something, this is not God fault, God's

fault. No it isn't.

God didn't cause them to go into prison.

God didn't say to the magistrate throw them into prison.

No, because they are preaching my name.

No, they are proclaiming salvation as the demon proclaim.

No, no, no. Did the evil in this is this

that the masters of the young girl who was demon possessed saw

that their pockets were hit? No more business making, no more

money, making money from this falsehood.

The evil 'cause this to happen and not because Paul and Sealers

were guilty of that. No, no, no.

But this is because of evil. But God knew God had a plan.

God through this evil. Remember, we spoke in last

episode or the first episode when we talked about this

scenario. Don't trust a thief with your

property. Don't believe a murderer who is

speaking highly of humanity and the human race.

No, no, no, Evil cannot come. Good cannot come evil.

But God, God praise his name, can change evil into good.

And we're going to see the goodness of this now, the

righteousness of this now. We're going to see that right

now it's all evil. But wait, wait, be patient.

Righteousness and the holiness of God is going to be revealed.

Whatever you're going for through pressure, pain,

suffering for Christ, wait, wait, wait, be still and know He

is God. Listen, don't worry about what's

happening in the world. Don't worry about Iran.

Just pray for the people, pray for the innocent, pray for

mankind, especially those who want peace in the world.

But then again, there's got to be that disclaimer.

There must be that disclaimer. I will go to the grave with this

disclaimer. There will be no peace without

Jesus Christ aiming period. Slam dunk, hook, nail and

sinker. No ace.

There will be no peace without the Lord Jesus Christ.

OK, so don't be fooled. Peace, peace, you know, doesn't

the Scripture say there will be, there will be proclaiming peace,

peace. Someone's going to make peace in

the world. Oh, this person's making peace

in the world. If it's not through Jesus

Christ, it's false. It's on water.

It's built upon water, not even sand.

It will collapse. So don't worry about the world.

And Jesus said these things will happen because they're going to

happen. Because I know mankind, I know

how evil man is going to be and use the free will for evil if

these things are going to help you.

But don't worry, Jesus said, don't worry.

You're going to have tribulations in this world.

This was last Sunday's or last Sunday's gospel.

You're going to have tribulations in this world.

But do not feel I have overcome the world.

I have, I conquered the world through what?

From my resurrection, which we are still celebrating.

This is the fifth week of the resurrection.

We're still celebrating that, beloved.

So they wake up, woke up in the in the middle of the night, in

the middle of the night, I got up and praised God, right?

So they did that. They're following the footsteps

of the psalmist. They were aware of the

Scriptures, right? That's a good habit to adopt,

beloved. Let's not just adopt what social

media is portraying. What Hollywood evil, evil, utter

evil. And those who are not evil in

Hollywood, they end up leaving. They end up leaving because the

evil, the, the, the, the immorality that comes from that,

that organization, whatever you want to call it, we need to pray

for them. We need to pray for all these

people, right? Don't worry.

What the world portrays good. The world is portraying evil to

be good. The scriptures don't portray

evil to be good. God doesn't portray evil to be

good. And we are not supposed to do

that. So let's adopt good habits.

Beloved, when you're experiencing sleepless nights,

forget about the night quil unless you're sick and your,

your, your, your medical practitioner is prescribing or

what have you. You know, even then, even then,

we Christians have a better medication.

Beloved, we have the most effective medication, prayer,

fasting, the Holy Eucharist, the body of Christ.

You're having sleepless nights due to stress, pressure,

uncertainty. You may be going through that.

Now. Let me speak to you

specifically. Let me speak to you

specifically. Yeah, I'm talking to you.

Yeah. You, my brother, my dear sister.

Are you losing sleep over something?

Are you stressing out over something?

Are you under so much pressure, uncertainty, confusion?

Yeah, well, let's try this. Try this.

Sit up in your bed when you can't fall asleep or go to your

designated prayer room. My brother Zayak Nishu, God

bless you. I saw your little designated

prayer place. Get on your knees and just pray.

Pray. O Lord, help me to overcome.

Lord, strengthen my faith. Lord, strengthen my trust in

you. Lord, help me to know that

everything will be good for those who love the Lord.

I love you right now. It is so bad.

The circumstance is so unbearable, but I know, Lord,

you're in control. You are in control.

Though you are sleeping at the hole and there is a storm, but

you're in control. Oh Lord Jesus Christ, you are

sitting on your glorious throne. You are in control.

You do not shake. I'm a mere human.

Lord, help me. I know you sympathize when I go

through this because you were tempted in every way, but you

didn't sin. This is all scripture.

But I am weak. Lord, help me.

Lord, bring sleep and slumber to my eyes.

I do that sometimes where there's a lot of pressure with

the priesthood. You know about that, right?

Sometimes I don't even get up, don't even sit up.

I just say in my heart, Lord, bring peace to my heart, slumber

and sleep to my eyes. And 10 minutes later you start

snoring, right? And someones knocking out the

door on the bedroom door. Dad, you're snoring too much,

right? Try that.

This is what these people did, you know, worrying about it and

asking God, why? Why?

Why? Yeah.

Yeah. We are permitted to do that.

We are permitted. David did that.

Oh, how long? Oh, Lord, how long am I going to

be under so much stress and pressure and and, you know, my

life is in danger. Those, those whose blood was

shed for the Lamb in the Book of Revelations, Chapter 9, I

Revelation 9 · chapter mention

believe we're saying how long. Oh, Lord, how long?

Yeah. How long?

Oh, Lord, how long. But be prepared to hear the

answer too. Sometimes we don't want to hear

the answer here. Listen to the answer through the

scriptures, through the church, through the sermon, through the

liturgy, through the through the divine sacraments.

God will say it's because of your evil you put yourself in

this situation or or the evil of others have put you in this

situation. But do not fret, do not worry, I

have overcome. Time will come.

I will deliver you. Read a Psalm, pray, maybe even

sing, but quietly. You don't want to wake the

neighbors upright, maybe even sing Adisha Allah, you can sing

in your heart. The late a blessed memory.

Modern I would say when you pray, you can be sitting on the

chain, you can pray, be praying. That's meditating.

He's talking about meditation, right?

And if you are experiencing what I just mentioned, for Christ's

sake, husbands, wives, mothers, parents, children, best friends,

whoever you are, you, you, I'm talking to you specifically.

If you're going through experiencing all these stresses

because of Christ, praise and glorify God because it is he who

has made you worthy of the suffering and persecution,

persecution on his behalf, just as the disciples did.

But the key is this. The key is being persecuted for

Christ and not your own foolishness and your fault and

evil. No Saint Peter makes mention of

this in his first epistle, chapter 2 verse 21 Peter 220 And

he writes, what praise have they who endure suffering because of

their fault? But when you do good and are

made to suffer and you take it patiently, then your glory is

greater with God. Don't complain about receiving a

traffic fine of 304 hundred $500 because you are driving 20 or 30

miles above the speed limit that that's a felony in some States

and I know that. Don't, don't complain.

It's your fault. That's it.

Oh, you know the police officer, you know, we go off all these

what happened? What happened?

He gave me a fine wire. I was driving 100.

What was the speed limit, 70? Oh, there you go.

It's your fault, right? But when you are driving speed

limit and you have evidence and you know, the officers try maybe

had a bad day and wants to get you, you know, some of them say

this, I go fishing and the first person I catch, that's my catch,

right? I've heard this from the mouth

of police officers. God bless them, God help them.

And I make a habit, do this. Make a habit when there's a

police officer next to you, forget the politics, forget the

politics, Christianity, roll down your window and say,

officer, I pray for you. I thank you for your service.

May the Angel of the Lord protect you.

Maybe if that police officer is a corrupt officer.

And yeah, there are many corrupt officers.

Just like there are corrupt clergy, just like there are

corrupt clergy, there are corrupt police officers that may

touch the police officers heart. Oh, you're talking, you know,

this is there's non realistic. Oh, with Christ there's

realistic and non realistic. No, no, with Christ there is.

Period. So don't complain when we are

persecuted because it's my own fault because of my own

foolishness. No, pray to the Lord that he

will bring you to repentance so that you don't take yourself

into that same dilemma. You don't walk yourself into

that same scenario, but we're not when it is not your fault

being persecuted for your faith. Oh, how Christians are being

persecuted for faith. How are how we are being

persecuted because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as I mentioned, you preach in London, London, Stan, you

preach Jesus Christ, you get taken to jail.

You stand there and preach Islam, you can't speak.

And this is evident. It's evident, right?

Because Christianity is being attacked.

Christianity is under attack. But this is the foolishness,

beloved, this is the foolishness that those who are attacking

Christianity are attacking Jesus Christ.

They're kicking against the pricks, The twigs, right?

The thorns? They're gonna come out second

best. Unless the Lord wants to use

that to change the heart and bring him back.

One Peter 220 But what honor is there to those who endure

suffering because of their foolishness?

But when you do what is good and they afflict you and you endure,

not complain, endure, then it magnifies your honor with God.

So even you know there's two faults you're enduring or you're

going through persecution for Jesus Christ and you still want

sympathy from people. Oh, it's OK.

Oh my, you know that's not right.

That shouldn't happen. Great, there's your reward.

But if you endure and you brush it off and say no, no, no, glory

be to Christ. This is only his grace.

He's making me worthy to be seen as being suffering or being

persecuted for Jesus Christ. Then your honor, honor guys,

honor, honor Ikara, like, you know, Christ teaches us and the

scriptures teaches us to, to honor our parents, honor our

mother and father. How, how great is that?

What a, what a, what a precious gift for parents when their

children honor them. Well, what about when God honors

you? Because those children don't

honor sometimes they disrespect, but God's honor is true.

So if we endure, we will be honored by God.

And we are also told that the prisoners were listening to them

a form of testimony about the zeal we should have for Jesus

Christ to go to any lengths for him, even in suffering.

Using it as a as a as a opportunity to show the love of

Christ to show how we stand firm and trust and persevere the

promises of Jesus Christ when he says, if you humble yourself, I

will exalt you. They didn't merely whisper in

hush, but they must have been crying out aloud.

Again, in Psalm 142, verse 2, it proclaims that I call the Lord

Psalms 142:2

with with. I call the Lord with my voice.

And in my voice I supplicated the Lord crying out.

And according to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 15, this is a form of

Hebrews 13:15

a sacrifice of the fruits of the lips.

You have the priesthood of the sacraments of the of the

mysteries. You have the priesthood of the

altar and of the Holy of holies, which wasn't abolished.

Show me in the Bible where Jesus says I've abolished.

No, you can't. Don't, don't even listen.

Let me. No, no, no, I'm sorry.

I'm going to, I'm going to waste your time by asking you to show

me. No, no, no, it's not abolished.

It's not, it's not physical anymore.

It's not of the flesh. It's now of the spirit because

Jesus said I did not come to abolish.

So don't, don't, don't waste your time.

I apologize, Perhalta, I sincerely apologize for trying

to waste your time to ask you to go and find in the scriptures

where Jesus has abolished the law.

No, don't, it's not. You won't find it.

You want to do it on your own accord, fine, God bless you.

And if you do find it, come back and and call me or message me,

right? So you have the priesthood of

the altar, priesthood of the mysteries of the sacraments, and

you have the priesthood of the faithful, which is you, you

know, when you stand in church and some people have a habit of

singing with the priest, don't you're not permitted to sing

with the priest. You can't sit there saying the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's not for you to say,

that's for the priest. It's specific list says in

order, Our God being a God of order, a taksa, we frown upon

taksa liturgy or it's order. The priest begins.

The Deacon replies. They all reply.

The faithful reply. So when the Deacon says lift up

your voice, all you people, and glorify the living God, If

you're in the Syrian liturgy, you'll say Kadisha Allaha in

TuneIn rhythm too, by the way, right, to make it nice, Kadisha

Cortana. Or if you're in the English

liturgy, you'll say Holy God, holy, mighty, holy, immortal,

have mercy on us. That is the sacrifice of the

fruits of the lips. You don't sing along with the

deacons when the priest says I'm going to translate in English

and the Shamashi says you don't stand there.

No, no, because it says the deacons offer that sacrifice or

that reply and the deacons are the mouth of the people in

English when the priest says bless all my Lord, bless all my

Lord, bless all my Lord, my brethren.

You know there could be 1 Deacon, but he says my brethren,

meaning everyone but the people in their hearts, yes, they can

praise and offer that reply, right?

May Christ hear your prayers, may Christ accept your oblation,

what have you right. And this is scriptural, beloved.

It was a sacrifice of the fruit of the lips, Saint Paul writes

in Hebrews 1315, and through him that is Jesus Christ.

Let us offer sacrifices of praise always to God, which is

the fruit of the lips, giving thanks to his name always, by

the way, not only during church, always praise your name, Lord

Jesus Christ, Adisha, Allah, always, Lord Jesus Christ, glory

be to your name. And this is all in line with

what Christ commanded in Luke chapter 12, verse 3.

Luke 12:3

For everything that you will say in darkness shall be heard in

the light. And whatever you whisper in an

ear, Bach Bachhta in an inner chamber, chamber, you know

secretly will be preached on the rooftops.

So when you're persecuted and slandered for righteousness,

when you're suffering under pressure for righteousness, for

truth, do the opposite of what the master of the girl who was

demon possessed, do the opposite of the magistrates finding

right, do the opposite. Don't show evil, No, no, no,

don't repay evil with evil, but rather sing praise.

Why? Because you have most probably

and assuredly exposed evil, lies, heresies, blasphemies, and

conquered them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, one God and forever.

Amen. We hope you enjoyed this week's

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