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Here's a powerful message from our lead pastor, Pastor Nathan Lee Wine and Sanaby. Let your heart be open, your spirit be stirred, and your hope be renewed. This is IPC Hope Temple, your place of divine encounter.

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Amen. And I'm happy that the Lord has blessed us with another month. And if you're happy, put your hands together. Bless God. It's a good time to be excited. Amen. So for this month, I want us to consider a subject. The theme for the month would be God in all. God in all. And there will be three areas, hopefully, I'll be speaking about. One will be God in Self. Not God Himself, God in self. God in relationship, God at our work. Amen. So I'm going to see God playing a role in us as individuals, how God plays a role in our relationship with people, and God's role in our work places and the things we do for living. Let us pray. Father, I pray for your grace to be increased on us this morning as we get into your word. I thank you for how you've led us from call to worship through the powerful prayer time of healing and praying for the kids and the amazing ministration by our sister that seeks that we enjoy your presence, seeks that we will be in your presence. And now, Lord, as I expand on these words that you've inspired through our prayer and our call to worship and our singing, may your grace even more increase. That we'll have deep insight into what it is that you're doing with us. And I pray that at the end of the day, none of us will live the same. We will be inspired to live and seek after you. And our deeds will so much be glaring in the view of people that they will give glory to you, our Father in heaven. Grant me eloquence, grant me understanding, and let me be faithful to your text as I speak to your people in Jesus' name. Amen. So I'm going to read a bit more extended than what was read to us. I'm going to start from the verse 16 of Ezekiel chapter 36. So Ezekiel chapter 36, I'm reading from verse 16. I'm reading from the NIV. A story that almost in one paragraph contradicts itself. Almost contradicts itself. If we just take it from a purely human point of view, it doesn't make too much sense. God speaks to Ezekiel and starts complaining about the fact that Israel has defiled his holy name. And they have profaned, well, they defiled his name in a promised land where he's given them. And then wherever they went, they left his name profaned. And the conclusion of this passage is what makes it contradictory. It's if they have offended you and you are a holy God, the way you deal with people who are unholy is to separate yourself from them. Just like he dispersed them from the land, you keep up dispersing them, and when they go to other nations and they disregard your name, you find a way to kill them. After all you created them. That is how I would expect a God who is holy to behave. But for some of us, we've been preaching for a while and saying that the subject of grace was manifested in the New Testament, but started in the Old Testament. God's response to a group of people who have disgraced him and profaned his name, not only in private, but in public. Not only within their nation, but internationally, they have gone profaning the name of God. And when he sat down, he realized one thing. The Bible says, when we deny God, he will deny us. But when we are unfaithful to him, he cannot be unfaithful because God cannot deny himself. The Christian religion poses a challenge to many other religions because, in its sense of true logical assessment of how life and relationships should be, the Christian religion does not follow all the norms of other religions. And I'm going to make this statement to you, and we'll use that to look at the scripture I just read. In every other religion, and in fact, not even only religion, in human society, you are loved when you perform. In other words, you have to perform to be loved. You have to be able to show that you are a good person for people to love you. In Islam, in other religious sects, what they say is that God will bring you to Himself when you live well. When you live righteously, then God will love you. In the same way, when you are unrighteous, God does not love you, and so he punishes you. That is the summary of all religions aside Christianity. Christianity's approach to that is this. We're all heading to hell, but somehow other religions say that even though we cannot please him, he expects us to please him. The question is, how would you? You were incapable of pleasing him, yet he expects of you to please him. That is an unfair requirement. I remember when we were in school, the teachers we loved most were the ones a week to exam will come to class and say, you know, you have to check this area, you have to read more on this area. We loved them because they were giving us hints of where we probably have to focus more. And then there were those teachers who would never finish their syllables and still set questions. See, God wants us to live a holy life. God wants you to live a holy life, but God is not distant from you and demanding a holy life from you. Because he looks at you and looks at me, and we are totally incapable of doing that. And so, what does he do? The Bible says he tells the prophet Ezekiel, let him know I'm doing this for my own namesake. I would say when at the Bible school where I teach, um, introduction to biblical studies, we always have this conflict when we start with. I ask people, what do you think the Bible's central theme is? How God loves us. I said, Well, it's a thing, but is it the central thing? He said, Well, it's about how God came to die to save humanity. Then I asked them, Who do you think the Bible really is talking about? They're like, Well, it's it's about man, but God it's working in the life of man. Like, okay, not quite true. I tell them, and that's where the confusion starts, and we start going into the Bible, and I said, What if the Bible has nothing to do with you? Then you're like, Oh, how? Because if you especially if you grew up in the charismatic church, you were told that you're so special, that God so loved you, that you you are like he couldn't even sit for a moment until he dies to save you because you're so, so special. And then you come to a Bible school, and this young man comes to stand there and tells you, after everything that your senior pastor has told you, tells you you're nothing in the Bible. Now that's annoying. I get that. Now, how dare you tell me I'm nothing in the Bible? Then I asked them, Have you watched this movie before? They said, Yes. I said, Who was the star of the movie? And then they mentioned the name. I said, Who were the supporting actors? Yeah, I don't know. I said, but did you see somebody drive a car past? Yes. Was he part of the movie? I said, yes. Do you know his name? He said, No, I don't. I said, all of you are supporting actors in the Bible. You may be there, but you're not that relevant. You give a background and a meaning to the whole thing, but it is not about you. God says, I am going to do this for my name's sake. And if this truly offends you, then my humble suggestion to suggestion to you is that probably what God did to the people of Israel is yet to happen to you. If you offended that the Bible is about God and not you, if you offended that God sat down to write a book about himself and just sprinkled you somewhere in there so that it would highlight his image, and you're offended by it, then you probably didn't experience what happened to people of Israel from verse 24. He says, Tell them what I'm going to do is not because of them. I'm going to do it because of my own holy name. Anybody, if you're going to do something for your own holy name, and these people are so disrespectful, so unholy, and everything, you don't you need to be measured in the way you go. You have to you need to be guided. You can't even trust them. But go, God goes all out. Prof. God goes all out. He puts them on the surgical table, opens their chest, and realizes that they have a stony heart. Do you know what a stony heart is? A heart that can't change, a heart that cannot feel, a heart that cannot be responsive, nothing you do to it will make it move. If somebody tells you all you're saying is like pouring water on a stone, do you understand that? On the surface, it looks wet, but nothing penetrates. The Bible said when God put us on the surgical table, opened our chest, what he found was not a void, but a place filled with a heart. But that heart was a stony heart. And the Bible said he took that out, and then he left us and went. No. Bible said he put a heart of flesh in us. What is the meaning of having a heart of flesh? If stony heart means you're not responsive, a heart of flesh can sense, can feel, can respond. But his work is not done. Because after you do surgery, and especially when people are put to sleep, they can't do anything. They are live, but they're just as good as dead as well. And so God said, It is not enough for me to change your heart. I need you to bring you back to life. The Bible says the same spirit which raised Jesus from the dead is the same spirit that would quicken your mortal bodies. The word quicken that means bring you to life. And so God did not just change our heart. The Bible says, and I will give you a new spirit. I will not just make you some a candidate that is able to respond, but I'm going to make you somebody who lives to respond. I will give you a new heart. You're not just going to be a heart that is going to beat, but a heart that will beat at the impulse of my love. And when I say God it all, and today we're focusing on God Himself. The point I want to raise to you is this we as believers must be people who are passionate about seeking God's presence. That's why I'm telling you the song so links into it. The whole point is, I wanted to come here to tell you to desire and seek God's presence in everything you do. Seek His presence in your life. Seek His presence in your worship. Seek His presence in your prayer time. You know you can pray and not seek His presence. You can pray and seek any other thing, not His presence. God is not your end game, He's your means to an end. But Jesus said that is wrong. Jesus said, I came to die, not for you to be stagnant. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And then he said, Nobody gets to the Father except through me. There is a destination. God is not a means to an end, He is the end in itself. And some of us, because of the way we have perceived Him, the way we think salvation works, because that's how we think salvation works. We thought about it, we thought it was great. We waited and we made a decision that we'll follow Jesus. Among all the bad choices, he is better than them. And so I chose you. Jesus told his disciples, you did not choose me. I chose you. Because the relationship between God and us, even though he's a just God, is not based on justice. It's based on grace. Grace is not expecting someone to earn something, it is enabling the person to earn it. So this is where the challenge is when pastors come and say, live for God, be holy and righteous, be more pay, be more passionate about God. And the congregation goes and they're passionate. And one week, two weeks, they fizzle out, everything just vanishes from them. And they come back to church all frustrated and they tried and they tried and it doesn't work. And finally, this is what they tell themselves. I don't think this church thing works. And every time you come to church, it looks like pastor is chastising you. You're unholy. You're not living for God. And it's frustrating. One of the most challenging things in human relationship is when somebody demands something of you and you make the effort and you still don't meet the standard of the person. A lot of relationships have broken up, not because foundationally they have something they are fighting over, it's only because somebody got exhausted and gave up. Because they they made a claim that I gave my life to Christ. I've come here to tell you something. It was Christ who gave his life for you. And because society says, work so that you can be loved, you're working so hard, and yet you're not getting the love. Because you're not meeting our society's standard, and you still cannot meet God's standard. But what if I tell you that God loves you, and because of that, you need to respond to Him. You know, there are a lot of great, beautiful, young women, very exciting women in the Church, but as much as I love all of you, I have friends owned all of you. You know why? Not because you're not special. All of you may be special to somebody else, but there's somebody who is very special to me. And that's my wife. Now, listen to the point I'm making. I wrote on a one one day, I think that was the last post I ever did on Instagram about two years ago. It was a birthday. And I said, if I told you you are my world, that's a lie. You're not my world. There's so many things that come together to form my world. If I said you are the most beautiful, it's a lie. But you are the one I love. So you don't need to be the most beautiful in the world. You don't need to perform to earn my love. You don't need to be my world to earn my love. But what I expect of you is to respond to my love. There are some of you who would offend me and I will walk past it as if nothing happened. And my wife would do the slightest thing, and I'm picking on her, and I'm like, Did you notice that? You know why? Because I feel I have invested in her, and I don't mean money. I feel I've invested love in her. And when I am in this relationship with her, it is normal to expect a response from her. When I wake up in the morning, you you don't call me. There are some of you who don't even have my number. Even even those who claim to be very good friends with me, and I'm pointing somewhere, don't even call me. And I'm not offended. Because that particular person, for instance, is married to somebody else. But I'm worried when my wife doesn't call me. We have a specific time she calls. When that time passes, I'm worried. Because you see, just like God has worked in us, it we have to perform, not to end that love, but perform as a response to the love. And so when I come here and I said, I say to you, you need to be holy. I'm not making an unreasonable demand of you. All I'm saying is that you need to acknowledge what God has done so you can give back what is given you. The Bible says we love him because he first loved us. So there is no excuse for us. Now, you your question, how would I love God? Well, my answer to you is how did he love you? Has he given you a printout, a stencil with which you can live your life? And so here's where the challenge is, and this is the point I want to make to you. I know we are in a time where everything in the world is competing for attention and affection. And even for me as a preacher who comes here every Sunday to preach to you, I'm struggling with it. I'm struggling with it. But this is something I have learned from scripture. What you do not adore, you cannot worship. And I'm thinking that there are so many things we adore in life and therefore we worship. But the one person who truly deserves our adoration has been sidelined. And the reason the scripture means something to me, and the reason I use my wife as an example is when you recognize somebody's investment in your life, just the same way I recognize my wife's investment into my life, I can then respond to her in a way that I may not respond to some of you. And it's not a crime. Nobody has ever come to me to complain that why do you love your wife more than me? It's not an argument to even start with. That is a conversation an unbeliever cannot have with you. Because they do not have the same covenant with God like we do. But God can ask us, why do you love other things more than you love me? Because He has made an investment in your life. And so my call to you this morning is very simple. Now, this is a call to action. Number one, would you make the effort to know what God has done in your life? And I'm not asking you to count your blessings one by one. I'm saying, look at the relationship you have with God. Do you believe that He truly took out a stony heart and replaced it with a flesh, a heart of flesh? For me, it is true. Do you believe that it is God who is quickening your mortal bodies so you can please him? If the answer is yes, then how do I respond to him? And that is where you are called to perform. This is not my word. These are not my words. In verse 27, he says, and I will put my spirit in you and move you, listen, and move you. It's the same to say, I'm going to force you. But then somebody will say, But if God forces me to love him, what is there? He will have to bring you back from dead to life. That he will do. You can't do it yourself. But I like what continues and be careful to keep my laws. Almost sounded as if God is doing everything for me, and I have no role to play in this. And then he says, Be careful to keep it. Is that familiar to you? Think about creation. God created everything, created man and put him there and said, Keep it. Keep it. Your performance is not to please God by working to make him feel, oh, yeah, 70%. It's okay. I'll I can live with that. 80% I can live with that. No, that's not it. It is rather, am I seeing love springing out of this person that I laid out my life for? Remember what I said? In every other religion in our society, we work hard so we can be loved. But in Christianity, we're loved, therefore we work. And so I'm concluding logically with this premise that I just made that anyone who is not showing passion, seeking diligently the presence of God, that person doesn't realize how much God loves him or her. Because if you do, then you will respond. But if you don't, then you have no business responding to. And so my job this morning again, I want to remind you that God loves you. And because he loves you, you have to please him. Isn't it how relationship works? Because he loves you, I please him. So the encouragement is this if you're seated here today, and that's usually what happens to us during communion when we're going for communion. People come on Sunday and start judging themselves and saying, I did this wrong, and therefore I'm not going for communion. Then I ask myself, so what are you going to do before you come back? Like you're going to be righteous and then walk in. Whose righteousness is that? The Bible gives us only one condition by which we should not come. Do not be in sin and walk happily and take communion. Bible commands us that when we're going to communion and we're in sin, we have to be repentful. That's the only communion, only condition. Because look, if the water that cleanses you is here and you're dirty, and your point is, I'm too dirty for the water, well, what are you going to do? Like, how are you going to come back? Do you get the point I'm making? That which saves you, you claim you're too unsavable to be saved. So you're going and you come when you are savable. So, what is going to save you? So, if ever you are in the faith and you're having those fluctuating moments, do not give up. Your prayer should not be, I want to do this. Your prayer should be, God help me. Help me. Because in making that God help me, one is beginning to realize that you depend on God. And you begin to realize God's role in your life. We've come to believe too much in being a hero. Captain Planet started it for me. Then Superman and Batman. And and so we think we have to be flying all over. But what if what God wants you to do is not to be flying over, but to embrace him. Just be in a place of love relationship with him. Just be in a place of not transaction, but mutual admiration. You know how he looks at Job and tells the devil, have you paid attention to God? God sits back and his eyes are going to and fro and he's just looking at us and he's in love with us. Not because we are special, because he loves us for his name's sake. I love this kind of God. And I know why it is difficult for the other religions to accept it. It's almost practically impossible for a God to look at you and say you are sinful. And instead of banishing you, he comes to fix you. He is not mending your heart, he's giving you a new heart. He's not working with your distorted spirit, he's pouring into you a new spirit. What an amazing God we have. Many years later, David comes to the same point. And when he prayed to God, he didn't say correct my heart. He says, Create in me a clean heart. And renew a right spirit within me. Father, help us. We don't want to be transactional with our relationship with you. We want to love you and be passionate and be diligent in seeking you because we recognize that you love us. This morning, Lord, I I don't know the condition of the hearts of your children who are seated here. You know best. But I pray that your word would be true to them, that they recognize the need. That they will work not to earn your love, but they will work in response to your love. That they will learn to admire you so they can worship you. They will learn to seek you so they can enjoy you more.

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