Episode 120: 25 down 25 to go

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.

I recall a joke that used to be said during my school days, oh,

my school days back in the 80s, St.

John's Park High School, Peter Ponzo, Algo fab and Robert

Barco. Nostalgia.

I remember the joke and it went something like this.

A man attempted to swim the English Channel.

He swam halfway, he got tired and he swam back again.

And the reason why I said that is that on Wednesday we are

reaching our halfway point with our fast.

And as we've been during these weeks of the great fast, we've

been discussing a few topics and, you know, topics that

pertain to fasting. Last week's episode was not only

during fast. And then we talked about

temptation. So Wednesday's mid Lent is

halfway. We're halfway there.

And the church in its ecclesiastical calendar has set

a service for this Wednesday, for Wednesday in all the

churches, I believe at 6:00 PM, they will be the Eucharistic

service, the celebration of the divine literature of Holy

Qurbana. And that is a, a, an

encouragement. It's, it's the church cheering

its children on and saying keep going.

Yes, you're there, you made it. Keep going halfway.

Not long to go. Don't, don't walk back.

Don't swing back, just keep going, you know, regardless of

where you are or how you've been doing it.

And we're going to talk about that, but keep going.

So it's an it's an encouragement service for the children of the

church. So we've come halfway 25 days.

We have another 25 days to go until we first of all approach

the the passion of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, which

commences on Sunday of the hosannas, added Oshana. 25 days

by now, if we have done it correctly, that is fasted, if we

have committed wholeheartedly and concentrated attentively on

the theme, the reason, the purpose of our fasting, we will

have felt experienced, comfort, courage, change and a desire to

continue for not only another 25 days, but continue period.

That is, if we have done it correctly.

Keep these words in mind, these actions, if we have done it

correctly, committed wholeheartedly, and concentrated

attentively on the theme or the reason for fasting.

We would have identified our weaknesses by now, our

wickedness, our wrongs, along with our strengths and

righteousness and the right things that we do.

If we have fasted and offered this fast correctly, we would

have found the path and solutions to give up, to correct

and repent from our weakness, wickedness and wrongs.

Not only identify them, but also giving them up, correcting them,

and most importantly, repenting from our weaknesses and from our

wickedness and our wrongs. Now you did notice that I

continue to say if we have done it correctly, committed

wholeheartedly and concentrated attentively on the theme, the

reason, the purpose of our fasting.

Excuse me, how, how do we do this?

What, what is the correct way? What have we taken our focus

off? And I want to be concentrated on

more, but maybe somehow derailed from the real theme, the real

purpose. Well, by depriving our mouth

from various foods, which is great, not the most important

aspect of fasting, you can deprive yourself from dairy

products, from poultry and from the meats and what have you.

But if you haven't deprived yourself from what is evil, what

this pleases God, you are that Son who said to his Father when

asked to work in the field in Matthew that yes, I will go

Father, but he didn't go. And then Jesus says this is not

the Son that has done the will of the Father.

So if we have deprived our mouth from various food, but we

haven't privileged it with prayer, praise, then we haven't

pleased our heavenly Father. Who are you fasting for, who

you're offering your fast to? The Father, praises, praise and

glory be to his holy name, the Father and the Son and the Holy

Spirit, the Holy Trinity. So by depriving our mouth from

various foods, but at the same time privileging our mouth with

prayers and praise, with attending the church services,

the Vespers, the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, by praising

God through many means and ways. Beloved, you have deprived your

mouth from words which are hateful, derogative, rude,

inappropriate, lies, gossip, etcetera.

Great, excellent, excellent, but privileged with others as well.

In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29, we read Saint Paul instructing

Ephesians 4:29

Let no evil word proceed from your mouth, but words that are

good and useful for edification, that they will impart blessing

to those who hear them. If you have deprived your mouth

from those words that are not blessings and have no use to

someone else, according to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29,

Ephesians 4:29

privilege your mouth with whatever is good and useful for

improvement that you may give grace to those who are here.

You have been slow to speak. Great James chapter one, verse

19, slow to speak, but privilege your mouth with praises, singing

songs of spirit, singing songs of joy and praise to the Lord.

Holy God, holy, mighty, holy, immortal, have mercy.

What a beautiful song. What a you know, it's so short,

but what there's so much depth in that, so much theology in

that you're confessing God is 1/3 and one Amen, a triune

godfather and Son, Holy Spirit, one God.

You're confessing that God is God, is immortal, God does not

die. The Trinity, the Father, the Son

and the Holy Spirit are alive eternally.

You're confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are

mighty, can do anything omnipotent, and then you're

pleading with the Holy Trinity to have mercy on you.

La kumara tullah mauden and unto you, Lord of all we confess

beautiful words, and you, Jesus Christ, we glorify, for you are

the quickener of our bodies, and you are the Savior of our souls.

What a what a confession. By the way, there is a tradition

in the church and there is a teaching that Adam, when Jesus

was crucified, his cross was near Adam's grave and as his

blood ran down the cross and, and was and hit the ground where

Adam was buried, Adam was resurrected and he confessed, He

confessed you, Lord of all we confess you Jesus Christ we

glorify. And that's biblical because we

know the tombs of many Saints were open and they went into the

Jerusalem. People saw them.

One of them could have been Adam.

There is a, there is a teaching, there is a, a tradition within

the church which the Church of the East upholds.

So not only are we praising God and, and, and and we are

confessing you, Lord Jesus Christ.

We confess you, No one else, just you, no one.

I don't care what the world says, I don't care what anyone

says. It doesn't matter, it is, it is

not worthy for me to listen to anyone who will claim that we

must confess others except the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord

and our Saviour and our King and our life giver and the forgiver

of our sins. You, Lord of all we confess, and

you, Jesus Christ, we glorify, We give you glory, for you are

the quickener of our bodies. You will resurrect our body just

as you resurrected your own body in your divinity and you are the

savior of my soul. See privilege your mouth with

these words. Any other Christian songs, any

other spiritual songs you've deprived your ears from hearing

falsehood, self-centered opinions and voices that lead

away, lead astray from God's truth.

Great, that's good. That is the that is the fast

that we are to offer to God. But at the same time, at the

same time, while you are depriving your ears from hearing

or listening to Satan and Satanic voices music talk.

How can you be fasting and offering to God a fast of

penitence when you're listening to evil, when you're listening

to to songs of cussing, when you're listening to songs where

the the artist, the so-called self-proclaimed artist, they

don't know what art is. He's describing how he wants to

have a far be it from these holy scriptures, a sexual

relationship with a girl and what he's going to do to her and

and and and and your and your yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or have you heard and you're fasting?

Don't, don't fast. God is not pleased with that.

That's God is not pleased with that, but if you've deprived

your ears from all of this, great God bless you.

You have it. You're on the point.

You're on the road to success with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Continue, but at the same time privilege your ears to listen to

the truth of God. The voice of Jesus and the sound

of the Holy Spirit substituted the sound of Holy Spirit through

the Holy Scriptures and their interpretations according to the

sound doctrines of the church and her holy fathers.

Not any Joe Blow, any schmo who wants to give, give his own

understanding and their own interpretation of the

Scriptures. The Scriptures don't need to be

interpreted, beloved. We don't need new

interpretations of the Scriptures.

They were interpreted by the church fathers went, you know,

closer to the time of Jesus Christ.

They were interpreted. They knew, they saw, they heard.

We don't need to reinterpret, we don't need to reinvent the rule.

We just preach. Just preach the interpretation

of the Church, not just being hearers, but doers within the

framework and life of the one holy and Apstolic and Catholic

universal Church. Privilege your ears to hear

these scriptures, to hear the interpretation of the

Scriptures. If you want to know of some good

books of the Church Fathers expositions on the Holy

Scriptures, the Blessed Theophilac, Theophilac,

THEOPHYLACT, there are four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and

John and the Blessed Theophilac is all is is constantly also

referring to John Chrysostom. You have from the Assyrian you

have all these all these interpretations, all these

books, all these resources, resources go and find them and

read the scriptures. Let your ear hear the voice of

Jesus Christ through the Holy Scriptures and through the

interpretation, the correct interpretation of the Holy

Scriptures. Let your ears privilege them to

hear what is pleasing, what is projected, what is presented,

what is viewed pleasing to God, the Holy Liturgy, the Divine

Liturgy. When you come to church, you

hear the Holy Liturgy. Unto you, O Lord of God, we

confess our sins and transgressions.

You, O Lord of God, are are truly in true.

I'm sorry. In truth, O my Lord and our God,

we are indebted. Give to give you thanks.

In truth, O Lord, we are not worthy.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, for we are not worthy.

You know these are beautiful words your ears to hear, and

when your ear hears them, your mind starts pondering on them

and your heart begins to melt because they are what the soul

wants to hear. Listening to the histories of

the life of the Holy Saints. Read the lives of the Holy

Saints, Pick up a book and read the The Life of the Holy Virgin

Mary, St. George the Illustrious Mart.

These were these are not Humpty Dumpty centre on the wall.

These are not fiction. These are real people that walk

the earth. These were some pagans, some

some very, very unfaithful people beloved that walked the

earth and when they had an encounter with Jesus Christ,

their life changed, their life changed and lived a life of

solitude for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let your ears hear these histories to give you

encouragement and the list goes on and on.

Beloved, remember Saint John the Cross, St.

John Chrysostom, the Blessed Father.

I think it was last episode or was it the first one we spoke

about fasting, what he said fasting should be by the entire

parts of the body. If by now you realize that you

haven't fasted correctly, committed wholeheartedly, and

concentrated attentively on the theme or the reason, the purpose

of that fasting, you have another 25 days to go.

Don't swing back. For God's sake, don't swing.

Don't go back and say, well, 25 days, Robbie, I haven't done

this. Well, what happens?

Do I give up? No, no, no, continue, continue,

remember. And not only for 25 days.

Just continue, continue, period. Remember the parable of the

workers in the field, Matthew 20.

When the Lord, the master, the boss, came to reward and pay

everyone, what did he do? He said to his servants, Start

from those who came last, meaning start from those who

have worked one hour and give them their pay and they gave

them one Dinari. And the one who worked 11 or 12

hours was already calculating the overtime and the bonuses and

the, and the time and a half and what have you.

No, no, they, they started calculating down, you know, it's

going to work probably about 1010 Dinari's for, for us.

Hey, 11 hours. They worked one hour, 1 Dinari.

We've worked 12 hours away, 12 dinari.

They got one Dinari. They still got one Dinari.

They started grumbling and the Lord says listen, what's wrong

with you? What's your problem?

Did I not agree with you that I will give you 1 Denari, You know

the Lord has promised to give us eternal life.

He didn't promise it specifically to you or to me.

No, the promise is for everyone and at the end of the day the

Lord will grant that eternal life to anyone He pleases

because it is his eternal life, it is His Kingdom.

I love his reply. Or are you evil that I am good?

Or can I not do what I please with what is mine?

So don't think, oh, I have to go for 2050 days and those for 50

days are going to be rewarded differently.

No, no, no, 25 days, you have another 25 to go, even if you

still struggle, and you come back on the law and the 5th last

five days of the Lent and you do it properly, correctly,

attentively. The Lord will be appeased.

He will be appeased. Attend to your parish vespers,

liturgy, Bible studies, various ministries.

Go to go to the Bible studies, beloved, you know, online and

and live streaming. There's so many Bibles that is

going on at the same time. My dear brother Rabi Rasha

Andrew Aziz and and my brother Shamasha Allen on Zoom for the

youth. And we have we have other other

various means of Bible studies and preaching.

You know the podcast, you have the live streamings of the Raza

of the services. Listen to that.

Let your ear hear that and attend church, attend Vespers.

Don't worry about you don't understand.

Don't worry about that. There are a lot of things we

don't understand in life. We still do it, don't we?

When you go to the doctor. When you go to the doctor.

Let's go back, you know, back in the, the, you know, the 80s when

you received your prescription, could you read what the doctor

had given you? It was in shorthand, right?

Yeah, I think it was in shorthand.

You can read that. But you believe that the

doctor's not going to give you something to kill you.

And yeah, sometimes doctors, physicians have made a grave

mistake. Right.

But you believe you didn't understand.

Well, let me tell you, when you come to Vespers, when the

liturgies have been said, there's nothing derogative

there. The priest is not asking that.

You're stricken down. No.

The priest and the and those who are participating in the in the

prayers that the deacons and and the faithful are asking the Lord

to have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Lord. Lord, forgive us.

Lord, accept our prayers, our petitions, our fast.

Go take your Bible with you. Start reading your Bible or just

listen. And truly, if you go with a

contrite heart and a will, a desire to only be there for God.

Yeah, the gift of tongues, not babbling, not Hubble Shobble

bubble. No, no, that's evil.

That's not a spirit of truth. That's a spirit of confusion.

So when you see people on the ground growling and Hubble

Shobble bubbling, walk, run away.

Run away in the name of Jesus Christ.

No. When you're there and you hear

the the the language spoken by a God, the Aramaic language.

Yeah. And the Lord wants to reveal

something to you. And you have this desire and you

pray yet. Then the gift of tongues will

work. You will hear it in your

language. I will be saying, Maria, you

will be hearing it. Oh, Lord, I have called you.

Answer me. And then I'm sure you're going

to jump up and down, say, Robbie, something happened was a

miracle. Yeah, that's the miracle of the

gift of tongues. Why?

Because during these time of fasting, we want our ears to

only listen to what God is telling us.

Listen to Jesus Christ, Listen to the podcast, listen to

sermons to live speech streaming, read the Holy

Scriptures accompanied by the commentaries of the Father.

If you've deprived your eyes from seeing things that are

evil, that are immoral, well, privilege your eyes to see

something good. Come to church on a Sunday and

stand in that nave in the haikler, in the nave in the

sanctuary and witness that amazing sight which is the

altar, which denotes the holies, the the heavens and the the

priest and the altar and the deacons, which are in in place

of the of the angels and the priest who is the, the soul of

Jesus Christ who is standing there at that moment.

Let your eyes witness these beloved, your ears you've

deprived from listening to falsehood.

Yeah, deprive your ears from listening to everything that is

evil, but privilege your ears to listen to what is pleasing to

the soul and most importantly pleasing to God himself.

So, beloved, let's go back and examine our past 25 days and

examine if we have done it correctly, if we have been

fasting correctly, if we have offered this fast to the Lord

that is appeasing to him. If not, again, we have another

25 days to go and let's continue, continue, strive,

struggle, wait until that day, that Sunday, where we will, we

will be celebrating the greatest event of the entire history of

the world to date. The world can still not fathom.

The enemies are trying so hard to refute the resurrection, but

they can't. They are kicking against the

thistles. The enemy is trying to so hard

to ridicule the greatest event in the history of the world,

which is the resurrection of our Jesus Christ.

Let's continue offer this fasting, our prayers, our

petition, reading the scriptures.

If you have not deprived the members of your body from what

was before you began deprived, start depriving them now, but at

the same time, privilege them, beloved.

Privilege Him with what is good to encourage yourself as well,

and wait on the gracious mercies and compassion of our Lord and

our Savior Jesus Christ. Praise and glory be to His holy

name now and at all times and forever.

Amen. We hope you enjoyed this week's

message. Please don't forget to rate and

review this podcast and share with your friends and family.

For any future topic suggestions or to give us detailed feedback,

please visit our link in the show notes.

Linktr dot EE forward slash double edged sword.

Until next time, God bless you all.