Joseph Prince - Unveiling Jesus' Heart To Serve You

Thank you, Pastor Gabriel. Praise the Lord. God is working in the house, amen? And I always want you to come expecting, come prepared, come ready to receive, amen? And sometimes, you know, people, they are so religious and our natural inclination is to be religious. When Adam sinned against God, Adam actually covered himself with fig clothes so no one need to teach him to be religious. He knew. He knew instinctively. But religion is not relationship with God. Can I have a good amen? So religion is part of your flesh. The flesh tends to be religious. Do you know Satan is religious, amen? He will try to get you an idea about God that is not true, like God demands from you, God is out to get you, God is finding fault with you, God is not pleased with you.

So you always see an angry God, and sometimes that image, you know, is also helped along because we have a father who may be always grumpy, always finding fault, never really happy, or a mother who is like that. I mean, matriarchal control is very strong, especially in our country, amen? You know, like they say, even in America, "If mama ain't happy, nobody's happy," you know? So the idea that we come ready to receive, people will say, "Well, you are very selfish. All you can think of is come to church to receive, to receive, to receive. What about serving the Lord? What about giving God His due? What about..." You know, actually, the only good thing for a man to do before God, I used the word "to do" is to receive, because what do you have? How can you think of yourself anything more than spiritually bankrupt, actually? And even after we are saved, born again, we keep on receiving, amen? Even after we are no longer a sinner, but a new creation, we still receive from the Lord.

So there was a family very dear to Jesus. Jesus raised the brother from the dead, Lazarus, and the two sisters, Martha and Mary. And when Jesus came to the house, Martha, her first thought is religious, amen? I say "religious" in a sense of, like, "I need to please God. I need to", you know? And that sounds so good, that sounds so great, but that comes after, my friend. He is not after your hands, He's after your heart. He's not after your energy and effort, He's after your devotion. And yet we miss the point. Like in the Book of Proverbs, it says, "My son, give me your heart," amen? And the Lord knows it's the heart. The heart is the thing when you come to church it's to be occupied with Christ. And when this is right, it will affect your hands. It will affect your walk, amen. I will affect your service. And you will not just serve Him, you know, in a natural way, but your service will be with excellence, will be in the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

So Jesus came to the house, and the natural thing to do, especially for us Asians, someone come to your house, the natural thing to do is to go to the kitchen, find something good, especially when that person turns up suddenly, amen? The first thing, you know, we meet one another, what do we say here? All right, in Asia especially, "Jiak ba buay? Sudah makan? Have you eaten"? right? We don't say, "Have you spent time with Jesus before you came to my house? It's more important to spend time with Him than me, amen"? But eating first, right? Now, the sister went into the... the older sister actually, her name is Martha. She went to prepare food in the kitchen. Now, that's fine. You can serve, it's okay, but you know what happened, right? She came... what was the other sister doing, Mary? She was at Jesus' feet.

Now, when you think about it, Jesus used the word later on, "One thing is needful". One thing is needful. Actually in the Greek, it is very emphatic, the one thing. Of this one thing it is necessary. It is needful of this one thing. So what is the one thing? The sister sat at Jesus' feet and she just received. The Bible says she listened to His Word and she just received. You see, when the one who flung the stars in place, the heavens showeth His handiwork, we are all made by Him. When we were in our mother's womb, the Bible says, the psalmist says, "We were carefully wrought, fearfully and wonderfully made. And my soul knows right well," amen. He is the one that put all the diamonds, and the gold, and the sapphires in the crusty rocks for man to dig and to find. He is the one who made everything, amen. He's so full. He's so full, and most of all, he's so overflowing with love, if I can say that. His love is not just enough. His love is extravagant.

So that's why He made man, so that man can be a recipient of His love. He did not make man, listen, for man to love Him. Now, later on the law commands man to love Him, but actually even that, the best of men failed. David failed, amen. We cannot love unless we know we are first loved. The way he... and God knew that, so God gave the law not to justify man by, but to show man his shortcoming, that he cannot do the very thing that God wants him to do. So God created man to receive all His love, to receive all that He has done for man, so that man can enjoy it. You see, your children, you know when you build another house, let's say, okay, just imagine, okay? Imagine in Singapore you can build a house very easily, okay? All right, use your imagination.

I talk about this, "Aye, don't you know nowadays", okay, okay, sister. So sorry, brother. Hold on, just imagine with me, okay? You build another house from the house you are living in. You build your house for your children or other people's children? It's for your own children. You have a good savings, it's for you and for your children, amen? If you're older, your children's children even, amen. You look forward to bestow all, everything good, you think of your children. And for those of us who are more loving husbands and responsible fathers, you plan for holidays, who do you think of? Your loved ones, amen?

Many times, you sit even during holidays and all that, you make sure that they are sitting well. You make sure they have the best seat there. You make sure when the chicken comes in, all right, the chicken is the extra official of this restaurant and the biggest piece goes to the boy or the girl that you love, your children, your wife. Your wife gets a bigger piece. And all the guys said? I'm talking about loving husbands, loving fathers, amen? And when you go on holiday, I've had guys tell me this, they serve. In a form, in a way, it's a holiday for the children and for the wife, but for them, they are busy looking out. They are busy making sure everything is fine.

Now, I know that many times it's the wife that does that. Now, the wife said? Oh, this time your amen is louder than the guys. Okay, but it is so, amen? And we do it for our children so that they enjoy. Do they say, "Thank you," in commensurate with all the good things we have done for them? No, children have to be taught to say thank you, amen? They have to be taught to say thank you. It's not natural with their flesh, amen. What is natural, okay, for the flesh is not to say thank you, but to complain. That's natural. So we are learning about the flesh so that we know ourselves, and I just want to announcer to you the good news. Your flesh has been crucified at the cross and we are to reckon it so, amen, and live by the new man.

See, last week we talk about resurrection. Our Lord Jesus rose 2,000 years ago bodily from the dead into the timeless zone, into a zone where he will never die again, that place that we're all created for because everything on this earth is temporal. Everything that you see, if you can see it, you can touch it, you can feel it, all right, it is temporal. It has an expiry date. It is all passing away. It is all degenerating. It is rusting away. It is not permanent. But the things that cannot be seen, they are real, amen? They are real. The real you will live forever, amen? That's why there must be a place to house you, amen? When you step out of your body, you heart stops beating, you, the spirit man, lives forever. It is where you are housed, okay? "What is this, exercise, Pastor Prince?" No, this is visual.

For those who listen on audio, they won't get this, amen? There must be a place to house you. That's why people don't just disappear just like that, because why? When God breathed into man, man is a spirit being. Man will live forever, amen? So every time we come before the Lord, the greatest delight that He has, just as your children, is to see you enjoy. And sometimes you don't say thanks, but your joy should be in seeing that they're enjoying what you cook. They're enjoying what you bought. They're enjoying what you sacrificed. They may not know the fullness of your sacrifice, but your joy in seeing them enjoy what you did. And that's why it hurts when they don't say thanks. That's why it hurts when they push away that food that you have taken so long to learn, and study, and go through the recipes, and you know, painstakingly produce such a fine dish, and then they don't like it. It hurts.

It hurts when your husband says, "Hmm". How's the food today? "Hmm". Give you an "Umm," then you know. Hmm, amen? Open your mouth, lah. Brother. He'll thank you, amen? And by the way, studies have shown, and this is not from Christian studies. These are from scientific studies, and I saw one from Harvard University, and they said that people who are optimistic and people who are thankful, all right, they made a study, literally followed a certain group of people for some years and they found that people who are optimistic, people who are appreciative, look at the good points instead of finding fault, looking for the bad points, they live long. They live long compared to people who are pessimistic. And this study, actually maybe one day I'll produce it. And this study actually covers a span of many years and then they covered, regardless of race.

They took a number of people from different demographics and race and they put them together and followed them for a number of years, this Harvard study, and they found out that, you know, besides exercise, and the propensity for certain races and all that to a certain kind of genetic setback, you know, and different races will have different types, they said that all that aside, the thing that made a difference is optimism, amen, and appreciation, a thankful heart. We are very quick, ask yourself why are you so quick to find fault, amen? The moment Pastor Prince came out just now, you found fault. You found fault with something like that hair or whatever, lah, or the face, or the... you know? Why, why, why? Why are we so... you come to a place that you've been waiting for awhile to go for holiday and the first thing you look for is something in the room in the hotel that you're not happy about.

How about the many things that... the fact you are there. And that's it, you'll be a happy person. And when you're a happy person, your body will be happy also. It will respond with health and ease, because dis-ease is disease. You see, if you hear this part, you go home, you're a happy man. You're a blessed man. You're on your way, but you gotta watch this. And don't blame the person you're criticizing. Don't blame the object you're criticizing. Don't blame the nation you're criticizing. Don't blame the government you're criticizing. Don't blame everybody else but yourself. Ask yourself why do you have this propensity. The children of Israel, they saw the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God providing them supernatural food from heaven, the bread of the Mighty, the psalmist tells us, and they complained.

Every step of the way, they complained. And the consequence is disastrous. They died in the wilderness. The Bible says their bodies dropped in the wilderness. What's God teaching us from that one lesson? The main sin, it wasn't that they were running around committing adultery. There was one instance they did that with the women of Moab. There was one instance, all right, during the time Balak and Balaam, but besides that, what else did they do? Idolatry happened one time in the wilderness, right? The golden calf. But what else did they do? The constant sin they did was complaining, complaining, complaining, amen? And if you can, just say, "Thank you," once awhile.

And you know, you don't say thank you to people that you think it's their job. That's the problem. The pump attendant, right? You go pump your petrol, do you say thank you to him and talk to him like he's a human being for awhile, amen? Give him something, a tip. Tell him, "Go drink coffee," amen, with a smile on your face, amen? We don't thank the people that serve us food. We look at them, the man who's clearing your table at the hawker center, do you thank them? Uncle, thank you. Once a while, give something. We gotta learn to receive and say thanks. So Jesus says, "Mary has", so Martha came out complaining, right, and said, "Lord, don't You care that my sister has left me alone"? Alone. I always, when I say something like that, a song comes up.

All right, I do not know is it from the world of the hymn or the world of the end of the world side, okay? It's like, you know, everything has a song. And she says, "Don't You care that my sister has left me alone? I blame You. Don't You care? You don't care. My sister, she don't care. I'm the only one alone". That's the key to depression. Think of yourself the whole day, amen, blame everybody else, and you'll be depressed, amen? And you know who'll be unhappy? Only you. And that reminds me of another song. Only, Okay, anyway. So Jesus said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are careful, troubled about, anxious about many things".

Are you troubled about many things? We say that it is our right to be troubled about many things. But Jesus says, "Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her". I love it. It's like Jesus says, "She chose that good part, I love it, and no one is gonna take it from her". Not Satan, not the sister. Even older in ranks, too bad. She has chosen the good part. You see, it's gotta be chosen. God won't force it on you. Every day, you've got a chance to sit down and receive His ministry. Actually, when I was growing up in the Christian world, they would teach us, right, do your quiet time.

All right, so I do my quiet time. They ask me later on, "How was your quiet time"? right? I'd say, "It was very quiet". I don't know what to say to God, you know, I was born again as a teenager, and in my teenage years and all that, I can talk, in class, I stammer, but I can talk to my friends and all that. During quiet time, I just say it's too quiet. I don't talk to God. I don't know what to say to God. And they'd tell me, "It's for God to talk to you". But He doesn't talk to me. It's very quiet. So but I don't have the keys yet. I was doing quiet time, I wasn't receiving. I wasn't going there to receive from the Lord. I wasn't coming before the Lord to receive His love, amen. Actually, the Lord wants to love you.

You know, I've said before and time and time again, because like I said, I have an older daughter and she was born exactly during the time of the former rain in Israel, November. And I have a second son, all right? My daughter was born in the former rain, literally November, and my son was born in March, the time of the latter rain, literally the month of the latter rain. The two main rains in Israel. And I always tell them, "Former rain, early rain". Sorry, "Early rain, former rain, latter rain, latter rain," amen?

So they both symbolize something, but I also believe that my life is because of you all. When I'm supposed to have a child, it's because of you all, all right? It's not based on my efforts, amen? It's really based on you all. I have an older one so that you all who have older kids, "You all don't know, lah". You know, during the time of teenage and all, I have, "Pastor Prince, you only have a young boy. You do not know what it's like to have a teenager, to have a young adult working, and the responsibility they are supposed to show their parents, and I'm going through this and all that". I know, amen? All the way through University, yes, I know. I know. I know what works and what doesn't, amen. But some people say, "Well, Pastor Prince, you forgot already, lah. Now Jessica is, you know, in her 20s and all that, you forget what it's like to have a young kid and all that kind", I know.

So I believe even my life is because of you all. Uh-huh. So if you all bring even more young parents who just got married, maybe Wendy will have a baby now, amen? Yeah, and that's in the Bible, by the way. The minister's life is not a life for himself. The minister's life is God does it in a way as a testimony for the rest as well as also for the blessing of the rest. See, we are here to be used. We are here, that's what the word "minister" means. Jesus Himself came down and said this, "I came not to be ministered unto but to minister," amen? So we minister to our children, we minister to our wives primarily with words because we can do a lot of things for them. I know we can also do a lot of things, like sacrifices and all that. It's in deeds, okay? But one of the main ways love is shown, right, is actually words. Your children need your words.

So we learned just now that one of the best things we can do is that we have this propensity knowing that we are, we tend to complain. We tend to... and by the way, why Martha was careful, and anxious, and troubled about many things, many things, about many things? Because she didn't do the one thing. She didn't sit at Jesus' feet and she wasn't occupied with Him, amen. She wasn't, like, saying, "I'm here to receive Your love," or you know, "I look forward for my quiet time with the Lord, amen, because that's when I receive His love. I can't wait to spend time".

Sometimes I'm with people, right, honestly, it's not that I don't appreciate the people I have. I love them, but I feel like I wanna go away and spend time with the Lord tonight. There are moments I feel that way. I just, because I know that there I receive unconditional love. From my friends, I love them but I can always say that they love me conditionally, unconditionally, or not, amen? You all love me because I preach to you all. It's conditional, conditional. If I don't preach, you all don't love me. "No, Pastor, some of us will still love you," amen? May your tribe increase, hallelujah. All those in the first row, take note. Okay, so, the best thing, because observing this tendency in you, all right, your new man is quick to spot something beautiful.

I shared this before, but for the benefit of those who never heard it, this is not from the Bible. It's actually from a writing that goes all the way back. It's what you called apocryphal teachings, writings about Jesus, because John himself said that Jesus did many things, many things; that if everything that Jesus did was written down, all the miracles that He did was written down, I suppose that even the books in all the world could not contain what He did. Wow, you talk about the outer meaning, the inner meaning of the deeds. One deed itself takes how many books already, amen? And the books are still being written from His three-and-a-half years of ministry, right? So what is written is for our benefit.

So anyway, this teaching, and it bears witness with my spirit. It talks about a crowd gathering and people are saying all kinds of things, terrible things about what they were looking at. They were all looking down, and all kinds of horrible things. And some people were holding their nose, you know, and they were, like, in apprehension of what they are looking at, you know, with such a horror look on their face. And slowly, the crowd saw someone behind and realized it was Jesus, and they start clearing. They made a way, all right? They made a way and then they looked at Him. There was silence. And Jesus came and looked into the pit where they were all looking at and there was a dead dog. It was terrible. The dog was violently mangled dead and flies were all around. And there were people spitting on the dog. There were some, when they saw Jesus, they all kept quiet and they looked at Him to see what they will say. And Jesus looked down and then He says, "Pearls", you know pearls? "Pearls were never whiter than those teeth".

So when the dog was there, the dog's teeth were exposed, and He said that the pearls were never whiter than those teeth. He found something good to say. I bear witness with this as a story that is worthy of my Lord, amen. So we have this tendency, right, whereas heaven's tendency is to look for the good. You see, the whole reason that Jesus came and died for us on the cross for our sins, all right, so that sin is no more the subject between you and God. It's a closed issue. So when God deals with you, He wants you to know He's not looking at you with all your faults. Whenever you come already, you know, you say, "Oh no, just now I quarreled with my wife, oh no. I come to God now because I'm desperate for His favor. My boss just called me and told me that the deadline had been brought forward. I need His favor. I need His wisdom. I need His help. Oh man, but I shouldn't have quarreled with my wife now".

So what are you obsessed with? Not with His love. You're not occupied with His goodness. You're not occupied with what Jesus did at the cross, with what Pastor Lawrence shared just now during Communion. Every week, he tells us Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, amen. He was bruised for our iniquities. Every Sunday, right, he tells us, "By His stripes we are healed," amen, yet we keep on forgetting that. You know why? You think about it, when Jesus in the upper room, He said, "God is glorified in Him and I in God". You know when Jesus said that? Right when Judas, He gave the sop, the bread, He dip it and He gave it to Judas. That's the greatest act of love.

In Jewish tradition, when you dip your morsel of food into the tray and you give it to your... whoever you give it to, that's the one that you love the most. That's the one that you are actually honoring the most. Not honoring, but loving the most, okay? You cannot be honoring the deed of Judas. Judas was in the process of betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. It's all been prophesied in the Bible, even the betrayal, even the 30 pieces of silver, right? So Jesus gave it to him and Jesus told him, "Whatever you do, do quickly". And the Bible says he went out from the upper room, and it's so telling. It tells us, "And it was night". It was night, so spiritually speaking it was night for Judas. He stepped into darkness, right?

And Jesus knew where he was going, but the apostles all did not. The disciples did not. The disciples thought, the Bible says, because Judas was a treasurer, therefore he took the money. And when Jesus said, "Do what you need to do, do quickly," such cool, Jesus is so cool, isn't it? He's telling him, "You're gonna betray me, do it fast," amen. He knew. I love the way the whole chapter begins. It said that, "Jesus knowing He came from the Father, and going to the Father, laid aside His garments and washed the disciples' feet," including Judas's feet, 'cause Judas was still there. And do you all remember when He did that, He came to Peter, and Peter says, "Lord, you must not wash my feet. How can you wash my feet"? And the Lord said this to him, "If I don't wash your feet", okay, all this is in the Bible.

You're looking at me like I need to show you the Bible so at least you will have a feeling that it is in the Bible, okay? So I said just now, "Before the Feast of Passover, when Jesus knew His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father," I love this, "having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end". Okay, drop down. Now, "And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot..." It's interesting that Judah is Judas Iscariot. His name actually is Judah. This one is the Anglicized form. It is like Greeks, you know? Judas, they say Judas, but it's Judah. Judah Iscariot. "Ish" is "man," "cariot" is like "kiryat," Kiryat Ye'arim. It's from the word "kiryat". It means city. Judah, man of the city. It's like the entire nation rejected their Messiah, huh?

So, "Judah Iscariot, Simon's son, betrayed Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and girded Himself". So in those days, right, it is like the most menial task of the servant is to wash the visitors' feet. So obviously they had the upper room to celebrate the Passover in a few days. And in fact right after this, Jesus will be arrested and all that. Will be the Passover, and the Bible says just before the Feast of Passover, all right, Jesus rose from supper. He girded Himself. But before that, notice the way it says, "He knew the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God".

Do you see that? I love that. "He rose from supper". That means He knows the Father, He's secure in Himself. The Father gave him all things. He's the strongest person in that room, in the upper room. I love it. You know, it takes the strongest to stoop the lowest. For us, we say that, you know, I humble myself. Bro, you're already flat on the ground. You're already humbled. It takes the Most High to be able to humble Himself and make Himself low. For us, if we know the truth, I don't care about what accomplishments and all that, in the sight of God, all men is flat. They don't realize it. When Adam sinned, all men fell. We cannot go humbler than that. God wants us humble, yes. Humble means we realize that everything that we have, we owe it to God. It comes from Him so we are grateful and thankful for it. Can I have a good amen, people?

So I love it. Knowing He had all things from the Father, knowing He's the strongest there, knowing He's the richest there, knowing He has received all things from God His Father, He rose from supper, bowed down, and washed the disciples' feet. That's how the Lord loves you. With all the power He has, He uses it to serve you, to cleanse you from your defilement and sin. He uses His power. I love this because, now, you must understand one thing. You say that, "Oh Pastor, He's instituting the physical ordinance of washing feet".

Now, I got nothing to say critically about that, okay? Please don't read things into my sermon here. I'm talking about the spiritual truth of what Jesus is doing, because I tell you this. I don't think Jesus was teaching all this to institute a physical washing of the disciples' feet. I'll tell you why in this context. Did they practice that in the early church? Yes, but I think they practiced that knowing it was figurative, okay? I tell you why it's figurative. Do the disciples know when Jesus took the basin of water and washed their feet, if Jesus washes your feet, if I wash your feet, can you tell? Can you tell I touched your feet? Yeah, of course. Can you tell I'm watching your feet? You can tell, right? But what Jesus told Peter, drop down to where he says, "Lord, are you washing my feet"?

What did Jesus say? Jesus answered Peter and said what? "What I am doing you do not understand now". Don't you think he would understand that Jesus is washing his feet? So obviously it's not referring to the physical. He's doing something that has a spiritual meaning, a powerful, a deep, poignant truth there that He's telling them, "What I'm doing now..." Yeah, He's doing it physically, but, "What I'm doing now you don't know, but you will know hereafter". So in other words, the whole thing is symbolic. The fact that the Father gave Him all things, He rose from supper, and supper is a picture of the cross. He died on that cross where the Father says God is glorified in Him and He in God, because the glory of God is shown the fullest, where? At the cross, why? At the cross, everything is manifested to the fullest, to the extreme, and to the greatest. The sin of man.

Never was there a greater sin than to take perfect goodness who came to earth healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, unstopping deaf ears, opening the eyes of the blind, all right, and rejecting all the good. Not only that, putting Him on that shameful death, amen, that cruel death, that torturous death on the cross. So the sin of man is manifested in its fullness against perfect goodness. At the cross, you see Satan's power manifested in his fullness. He was able to sway multitudes of men to sin and to follow his will. He's still active in the world today, to sin against the very one who would give His life for them. At the cross, you see God glorified, why? Because all His attributes of holiness, and righteousness, and inflexible justice, because if God curves on His justice, the whole world collapse.

We see all that is fully met at the cross. God's fullest justice was executed. His righteousness, His perfect righteousness was met at the cross, so God's justice is satisfied. Now we see something wonderful. We see that wonderful Man. We see the story of Bethlehem. We see the story of Nazareth. We see the story of the shores of Galilee where this young baby that was brought into this earth to become a Man grew up, and then we see there the perfect Man, Man in His greatest goodness, in His perfect goodness. Don't forget, He came as a Man. He's there as a Man. Never did we see a man in his perfect goodness and love displayed like that. He loved His Father. He obeyed His Father at the expense of Himself at the cross. And at the cross, God's infinite, unconditional, undying, eternal love for you and I was demonstrated when we see, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son". It's at the cross.

Ahhh, for a thousand tongues to express, everything was fully met at the cross. You know, there is a Levitical offering, the burnt offering. When they bring the lamb and they kill it, they sprinkle the blood around the altar. They sprinkle the blood around the altar, all right? What does that mean? Altar means God's claims on man. You lay on the altar what He claims from man in the Old Testament. Blood around the altar means the blood of Jesus at the cross has fully met all the claims of God's holiness and righteousness on you and your family, and God is glorified. And that's why today God can accept sinful man. It's not a matter of like God said, "I purposely don't want to see your sin. I don't wanna smell that smell. You know, I just accept you, lah. Never mind, lah, you know, from a distance". No, it's not like that. It's not pity, you know?

The Bible used the language of the court. God is just, righteous in making you righteous. Who is it just to? What Jesus did at the cross. And that's why God raised Jesus from the dead, amen, as a testimony that you have been declared righteous because that perfect Man, the sin that He carried, wasn't His own so that the righteousness you and I carry today will not be our own. The divine exchange took place at the cross. Come on, church, amen? You know, I'll keep on preaching the cross, the gospel until Jesus comes for me, all right? You've gotta sit down there and keep on hearing it. It is your bread. It's your life. It's your health. It's your length of days, amen? So Jesus washed the disciples' feet, but He says, "What I'm doing you do not know now".

So it's a spiritual washing, isn't it? It's a spiritual washing, isn't it? Because later on in the same upper room, right, in the same upper room, He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches". In John 15, and this is what He said, "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you". What did He just speak to them? Was it a law? Was it a demand? Was it corrective? Was it a rebuke? No, all these things has its place, but what is the word that cleanses the disciples? He just got through verse 1 and verse 2 talking about, "I am the vine, you are". not "You will be," not "Try to be". "I am the vine, you are the branches". And people, of all the trees, right, if you look at the vine, the vine has no branch. In a sense, the vine has no, I should say, stem. It has branches. In other words, the branches are the stem. What you call clinging vine, have you seen it? You must have the trellis, and the trellis is usually like a cross, right?

So the vine, the grape, the grapevine, it grows like this... It curls around because it has no stem. It has no trunk. The branches make up the vine tree. Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches". You know how one that is? Oh, when He used that phrase, "I am the vine, I am the true vine, you are," it's a declaration, "the branches". "You are so part of Me". When He rose from the dead, He did not rise alone. When He came, He came alone, amen, and born as a baby, but when He left this earth, I'm telling you, we are all in Him. He has something called the church, and the church is not a building. It's the called out ones, amen, partakers of the divine nature. Sins are forgiven and God does not impute their sin to them. And the whole purpose, I was saying just now, is so that God looks at you without your sin on you. "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin".

Now, does that make you want to sin? No, because if you know that there's no imputing of sin, even when you sin and you know there's no imputing of sin, does not make you want to sin. It makes you love the person who loves you so that He still looks at you as if you have never sinned. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times with cursing and swearing. Jesus was caught by the Pharisees. I shouldn't say caught. He allowed Himself to get caught. And Peter denied, "I never knew the Man," and then with cursing and swearing. And yet, the very first word Jesus gave to the angel, "When the women come, give them this message: 'Go tell My disciples and Peter.'" Tell them, "For Pete's sake". "Go tell them and Peter". And Peter. Didn't say, "And Bartholomew. And..."

"How 'bout Judas, Pastor Prince"? Oh, by now he was hanging already. He killed himself. If only he wait for a few hours more, right? Jesus' hanging would become his hanging and he'd be forgiven. He didn't wait for the, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". If only he had waited. One of the greatest forms of self-righteousness is to kill yourself. All right, friend? You have no right to do that. You are not your own. You are bought with a price, and what a price. It's not the blood of Angel Gabriel, or Archangel Michael, or one of them. No, it's the blood of God's own Son. So we come to this and you see that Jesus is washing their feet, and it's a spiritual act. So what was this act? Then He came to Peter and Peter says, "You must not wash me," right? And Jesus says, "What I'm doing now you do not know," so obviously it's not referring to the physical one, but spiritual.

Let's go on. And then, "Peter said to Him, 'You shall never wash my feet!' 'If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.'" Now, some people say, "Well, that shows salvation". He says, "You have no part with Me". No, salvation is He would have said, "You have no part in Me". It is not the Greek word "en," E-N, in. "En" is the Greek for "in" in English. It is the word "meta" in Greek, for "With Me". In other words, "You cannot walk with Me. You are saved, you are born again, but if you wanna walk successfully with Me like we are communing together, you need the washing of your feet". Notice it's not the washing of the blood anymore, it's the washing of the feet. Because when Jesus rose from supper, it's a picture of resurrection. He's giving us an intimation of what He is doing in heaven for us today. He's waiting for you to come and place your soiled feet, dirty feet, your dirty walk, amen, into His hands.

And you say, "How can I do that? How can the Lord of glory take my filthy feet"? And that's exactly what He wants to do. He wants to love you that way, amen? You know, have you had a child that you love, and one of the things you want to do is to... like, the child is lying down in the bed at night about to sleep and all that, you feel like massaging the child's feet? You know, as you're like, you know, just to love him. So you all don't talk to me, right? Don't wanna say amen and all that, ah? Have you had things like this? You massage their leg. And you don't know how else to show love, and it's silence but it is, you express by massaging your child's feet ever, amen? Especially when they complain that it's, you know, sore or whatever, and you start doing that. It gives you joy, doesn't it? The joy is in the act, amen?

So the Lord wants to love on you. He wants to wash your feet. In heaven today, He's still a servant. See, once He became a Man He took on the form of a servant, but in heaven, yes, He's glorified, all authority is given unto Him in heaven and on earth, but He remains a divine servant. He's still a servant. He still wants to minister to you. One of the most beautiful laws in the Old Testament is this, that comes right after the Ten Commandments was given in Exodus 19 and 20. Exodus 20 is when the Ten Commandments comes in. You see Ten Commandments for the very first time on Mount Sinai being given to Moses, to the people, and that's when you see the Ten Commandments for the very first time. You know what's the next chapter? Twenty-one. You got that one? This one is 20, right? The next one is 21, okay? So you know what's in 21? Very beautiful law.

The very first verse says, "Now these are the judgments you will teach Israel. When you have a servant, a slave, a servant, all right, that you have purchased", in those days, they lived in that culture, but God is using something that they can learn about His love. And it says that the servant, okay, can only serve for seven years and then he's free to go. But the servant has been so blessed by this master, he's a good master, that the servant does not want to go free. And the master has given him his wife, his children, all right? The only thing, if he goes free, he has to leave them behind. Whatever the master gives, he must leave behind. He must start afresh as a free man without any bestowal from the master. But he says, "If I love", then he says, "I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I would not want to go out free," the master will take him and nail his ear to the doorpost, which means from then on he is gonna wear something here in the ear, amen.

Nothing wrong. I mean, you are wearing earring and all that, guys, you know? It doesn't mean you are a slave, all right, but in those days, from then on the guy walks around and he's wearing something in the ear, that means, all right, it's a mark. This person chose to remain because he says, "I love my master. I love..." Now, is it that God is talking about slaves there? No. Talking about master and slave? No, He's talking about His Son and Him. Jesus came down as a Man and Jesus saw the church that He would die for, the ones to be saved, and you know what Jesus said? "I love My Master, I love You, Father, and I love My disciples, and I love My people, and I will not go out free". In other words, in the Garden of Gethsemane, there was a choice made. Wanna come back? "Not My will, Your will be done". And He remained. He knew that a few hours' time, He'd be hanging on the cross. He chose. He chose because He chose, and that's, hanging on the cross is pierced.

Same thing the ear was pierced for the servant. And then it says these words in Exodus 21, "He remains a servant forever," amen? In our case, Jesus remains a servant forever. To serve who? Serve the angels? No, the servant, angels don't need that service. They are there to serve you. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? So He wants to serve you. But every day, you are serving yourself, you are serving people, you are serving everything, you are serving your boss, you're serving the needs of your company, you are serving this, you are still serving, except to receive the greatest service of all, the service of love, the ministry of love; to come to the Lord and say, "Lord, I'm tired, Lord, but I come before You right now". And sometimes you don't even have to open a Bible.

Okay, sometimes, just say, "Lord, I've come before You like Mary 'cause I know this is the one thing needful. Everything I did today is not so needful. This is one thing needful. If I do this, Lord, I just wanna receive Your love. I wanna receive Your strength. I've been getting very tired lately, Lord. I receive Your... I need a fresh infusion of Your health, Your youthfulness, Lord, Your power, Lord, Your energy, Your divine energy, Lord. I need a fresh renewal". Then if He leads you to take the Bible, many times it's with the Word of God. And you say, "Lord Jesus, my feet is so dirty. I feel so defiled. I've been hearing conversation that's not good. My mind has been focused on very fleshly things. My mind has been dirty, dusty".

Remember this, men's body was made from the dust of the ground. His spirit is amazing, from the breath of God, but his feet is dirty, right, always. Why? It's a symbol of what? Your walk on this earth. You're always defiled. Which part of you gets the dirtiest? Your feet. That's where your body comes from, the dust of the earth. And then when Adam fell, God said this to the snake. God says, "Cursed be you of all the animals. Upon your belly you shall go". That tells us that a snake was once upon a time upright. It had feet, okay? That's why they say that they have found sometimes, you know, like, dormant little feet in the snake and all that that shows evolution. No, it's not evolution. The Bible says the snake was standing. It's a sign that the snake was standing. The monkeys are still around. King Kong is still around, okay?

Thirty-five million years. How do you know? Maybe it's 34. Maybe it's 36. We speak like an authority when we know all these things without accuracy. Okay, that's another field altogether. It's not, all right, important for this topic I'm sharing. Because I'm just telling you right now, church, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and man's body was made from the dust of the ground. And when Adam fell, God cursed the snake first and God said this, "Upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat". "Dust you shall eat all the days of your life". What is Satan's food? What is the devil's food? Dust. Dust. Man's body is what? Made from dust, okay? So when Jesus washed the disciples' feet, we're talking about the whole thing is figurative, symbolic, a type. Am I right? So what did He wash their feet of? Dust.

Now, isn't it interesting? I studied this and this is fresh, you know? The Lord just had me study this. And when Jesus wiped the feet of the disciples, it says, "He poured water into a basin, began to wash the disciples' feet, and wipe them with the towel with which He was girded". He not only washed the disciples' feet. You know, if it's wet and you feel like you washed your feet in a bowl of warm water. Have you done it before, before you sleep? All right, my mother say, my grandmother, her mother, and great-grandmother always say you wash your feet before you sleep, you won't have nee gao. Okay, the Peranakan people say "nightmare". This is a saying of the Baba people, Peranakan. You wash your feet before you sleep, you won't have nightmares, amen? Don't have to say amen. That's not important, okay?

"You are testing me, Pastor Prince". All right, but you feel so refreshed. But if it's wet, it doesn't feel good, right? You wash, you feel refreshing, but you want someone to take the towel and then dry your feet. Oh, that's the best part, right? You feel so loved, the person is drying in between your toes, drying up. After that, you feel so clean. Even though you didn't bathe completely, but you feel so clean. Now, from now on, please bathe completely. You know, I'll say, "From now on, I'll just wash my feet. Pastor Prince says, I learn. Wash my feet," amen? No, you'll find bathe here as well. And after that, you know, you feel so good, refreshed. So there is a towel. And it's very interesting that the towel that He used in the Greek is "lention," the word "lention" in Greek. And "lention" is always referring to a linen cloth.

Now, why do I say that? Because linen on the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, says it's the righteousness of the saints, the believers. So in other words, whatever, we know that the water is the Word of God. Am I right? So when He washes your feet with the water, so every time we come before Jesus, right, He gives you a Word, amen? He speaks to you or through the Word of Scripture you are reading. Don't forget, you come not to give out. You don't come for your quiet time to do quiet time, to finish the chapter that you are reading in your Bible through the year, to do your duty, to make sure you catch up. You'll get nothing. But you come to Him, knowing that He's gonna pour out to you. And there's not much competition, I'll tell you. I go to Jesus, and what He's supposed to give you, right, I get... Does that make you angry or not?

What you are supposed to get, right, right, you would have gotten it if you would spend time with Him. He gave it to me because He says that, "There's no one waiting before Me and I'm so full. I'm love personified. I wanna give. I wanna pour. I have so many good things, perfect things that will truly satisfy, but they don't want. They have no time to receive. They are so busy providing for themselves. Will you take it"? And I say, "Lord, Lord... Bring it on," amen? So I purposely say that to provoke you. He has plenty left over, of course. But don't think that God can give to you on the go. It's very hard to give on the go. And I'm telling you, all right, one of the biggest problems is amusement, amusing ourself with social media, and our phones, and whatnot. You know, the word "amuse," the word "a," "A" put in front always negates whatever follows. So separate the "A" from the "muse". You know what's "muse"? Meditate. You think long enough.

Today's world, especially our young people today in this generation, born into this age and all that, you know, are finding more and more things to amuse, to occupy your mind. We have no time to be musing. The Bible says, the psalmist says, "While I was musing, the fire burned. Then speak I with my tongue". That's the key to a powerful ministry, meditate. "While I was musing, the fire burned in the Emmaus Road. Then I spoke with my tongue". This is the key to a successful ministry of preaching the Word, amen? "While I was musing, the fire burned". If you got no fire burn, you just impart knowledge, it's not gonna be the same. Are you listening, people? So take away the "A" and you have the word "muse," meditate. Put the "A" there, that means what? No meditate. That's the word "amuse," "amusement," come from there, amuse, no thinking, just do. It's like do you know that they say, and it's a fact, you can check it out, that dementia and Alzheimer's is at an all-time high.

More and more people are having this problem. I suspect, okay, I suspect, this is my own personal conviction, that it's got a lot to do with what happened recently. What came into the world that caused... we don't understand why with our modern, you know, medicine, and breakthroughs, and all that, we're not able to arrest it. In fact, it's on the rise. Why is that so? I submit to you, I believe personally, my own personal opinion, my spirit, which is faster than my head, tells me it's the preoccupation with TV, preoccupation with devices, preoccupation with all these things. Your mind is no more thinking. If I call you, I don't have to memorize your number.

You know, one time I was telling my wife, "Your number is like this, right?" and I tried to quote it, and she said, "Ah, you don't know my number"? Thank God I could correctly, her phone number, because very easily I just put under... okay, I won't tell you under what, all right, amen? Something romantic, lah. I just have to touch it. That's it. And she told me, "You know, I memorized", she memorized some of the people that we know, and she'll rattle them off. She make it a practice, she says. That's one of the reasons why we... okay, that's a little benefit for you to think about, all right? We let other people live their life and we are down there, stoned, one hour, two hours, three hours, all right? Next episode. Four hours, five hours, you know? Then we sleep, still going on in our mind. Then we wake up, next one, next episode.

You know, we're not thinking. Reading is good. Reading your Bible, reading books, reading, reading is good. It stimulates your mind. You don't want your mind to become rusty, all right? Watching TV is not stimulating your mind, okay? And all the TikTok, you know, social media, Instagram, all that, they have people, all right, who are there finding new ways to capture, especially young people, their attention. They cannot allow them to muse, to think seriously. You think what we let you think. So don't be bound, okay? You can see all these, like a creature holding your head. You know what I'm saying? So I don't know, lah. You know? Some of you, "Uhhh, yah, yah, blah, blah". See, you can't even talk properly. Okay, anyway, "To wipe them with the towel," the word "lention," okay? And I look at the word "wipe".

I'm bringing this to a close. "Wipe," you think about the word "wipe". The Lord had me check this word and I was blessed because the word "wipe" is "ekmasso". Ekmasso. Now, what is "ekmasso"? "Ekmasso," you see, it's made out of two words, "ek" and "masso" in the Greek. "Ekmasso". "Ek" means "out of, away from". What's "masso"? "Masso" is the word "devour". It's the word "eat" or "devour". "Ek" means what? "Ek" means what? Away from, delivered from, out of being devoured. So He washes your feet, then He wipes it. Now He wash your feet, it's no more dusty. No more food for the devil, amen. And He uses the righteousness of the saints, right? He dry your feet with what? A righteousness consciousness. At the end of the washing, it's always a righteousness consciousness. You have a fresh sense that you are clean. You have a fresh sense that when He looks at you that He's not finding fault with you. Are you listening, people?

So one of the things you can do, all right, then Jesus went down, okay, I'm gonna show you what you can do. Drop down. He says, "You shall..." Then Peter said, after He says, "What I'm doing you do not know now," Peter says, "You shall never wash my feet"! "If I don't wash you, you have no part with Me". Okay, not, "No part in Me," that's salvation, but Peter is saved, all right? They are all saved. "No part with Me". In other words, "You cannot walk with Me". You're still a believer, but there's no co-laboring, no walking together, no communion. "If I... learn to receive My love every day, receive My Word," amen. Are you listening, people?

Again, I repeat to you, the word that cleanses in John 15, same upper room experience. They are still in the upper room when Jesus says later on, "I am the vine, you are the branches," then He says, "Now you are clean". It's not a word of rebuke. It is not a word of a new law. It's not, okay? Now, there is a new commandment He gives in this upper room. You know, we focus so much on the Ten Commandments, right, we forget that, we also focus a lot on the Sermon on the Mount. How many of you have heard Sermon on the Mount? All right, okay, a few of you. Very sad. Okay, one more time. How many of heard of Sermon on the Mount since you were a Christian? Okay, how many of you heard of Sermon in the Upper Room. Fewer. That's true for every Christian. They are more familiar with Sermon on the Mount than the Sermon on Mount Zion, 'cause the upper room is probably the highest point of Mount Zion.

They know this, but the sermon that Jesus preached in the Sermon of the Mount is actually the laws, the constitution of the kingdom that He came to bring, and that's another teaching altogether, all right? It is still not the dispensation of grace just yet or the church age yet. He came to bring the kingdom of God to Israel, all right? That is now in abeyance, and now the kingdom of God becomes spiritual. But had they received Jesus then, the kingdom of God would have come to earth in Israel, all right? So that was the constitution of the kingdom. We should be more familiar with instructions for the church in the Sermon in the Upper Room, the Sermon on Mount Zion. Come on, come on, come on. The Sermon on Mount Zion, there you have a new commandment. "Love one another as I have loved you". The key is there, "As I have loved you". I'm to receive His love. I cannot love unless I have been loved. We love because He first loved us. Can I have a good amen?

In the upper room, He taught a new kind of prayer, "Pray in My name. Up 'til now you have asked nothing in My name," which means that includes the Lord's Prayer even, all right, under the kingdom. We still can pray that prayer. It's still valid for today, yes, all right, but He included that prayer because that prayer did not end with His name. He said, "Up 'til now you have not prayed in My name, including all the prayers that you have prayed". But up 'til now in the upper room, the prayer for the church is this, "Ask anything in My name and your joy will be full, and I'll give it to you". The Father will give it to you. Are you listening?

It's a lot of instruction. The Holy Spirit was given, and instruction about the Holy Spirit and what He'll do all in the upper room. That's the message we are to spend more time in, and also the washing of the feet, the spiritual meaning. In other words, all that I'm teaching you is part of the Sermon in the Upper Room. When He goes back, He's telling you today what Jesus is doing at the Father's right hand, okay? I'm gonna give you something that I think is gonna bless you because he went up, "Simon Peter says", Jesus said, "If I don't wash you, you have no part with Me". Simon Peter said, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head"! Obviously he had bad imaginations, dirty thoughts, whatever, and his hands do bad things and all that, so he says, "I'm all dirty, my head". Sometimes Christians feel that way. Sometimes we feel that our head is still dirty and all that.

Listen to what Jesus said. Some people feel that they need to be born again. The next word Jesus says is this. "Jesus said to him, 'He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.'" Now, forget the last part, okay, because the last part here refers to, "For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, 'You are not all clean,'" okay? So He refers to Judas, so take that one out. Let's see the lesson here, all right, stand alone. Verse 10, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet". Now, the word "bathed" is "louo". In the Greek, that's bathe. He needs only to wash his feet. "Wash his feet" is a different Greek word, "nipto". Nipto is when in the morning you wash your face, you nipto your face. You wash your feet, it's a part of your body. It's not a bath. A bath is louo. Say, "Louo". Louo. Say, "Nipto".

"Eh, it's all Greek to me, Pastor Prince". That's why I'm teaching you. Louo. "He who is bathed needs only to nipto his feet, but is completely clean". Now, "He who is bathed" is the first washing, and this same word is used in the washing of the regeneration that Paul used. Paul talked about the washing of regeneration. The word "washing" there is "louo". We are all born again, we are all bathed once and for all. That bathe cannot be repeated. I said the bathe cannot be repeated. Once you are saved, you are saved. What if I fall? What if I stumble? Then He just gave you the answer. You only have to wash your feet. And this bath in Revelation chapter 1, it says, "Unto Him". Listen carefully, all right? I didn't put it up here. Listen carefully.

Revelation chapter 1, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood". The word "wash" there is "louo," bathe us. Young's Translation says, "And bathed us from our sins in His own blood". That is salvation. Have you been bathed in the blood of Jesus? You are saved. You are born again, hallelujah. All your sins, God remembers no more. And God sees you without imputation of sin. You're not perfect. You are lining up. There's progressive sanctification going on, but you need to be established in this in order for you to really have that progressive sanctification. Now, I said a lot. For those of you who have ears to hear, receive that, but here it says you need to know this. Once you are born again, once you've been washed by the blood, you don't need to keep on rewashing, rewashing, rewashing, rewashing every day. You only need the Word, even when your feet get sore. That means what? Your walk, you fall, you stumble. The devil traps you. You need to go back.

See, a lot of people just, "Oh God, I confess my sins. Oh God," and keep on doing the same thing because they're not using the resource that Jesus told us to use. Come to Him. Just say, "Lord, I've been stumbling a lot, Lord. My feet is very dirty. I put my feet in Your loving hands". And it's very hard for me. I feel like Peter. No, You cannot wash my feet. Lord, How can You wash my feet? Sometimes we are all Chinese, many of us, very Chinese in our, "No, cannot, lah. No, no, no, lah". Like, "Want a piece of cake"? No, lah. No, lah. No, lah. You eat, lah. You eat. Then really, the other guy eat, right, you get angry. Whoa, you didn't persevere, did you? Usually that guy is from another country usually. You don't understand our custom. We are supposed to say, "You want a piece of cake?" we must say, "No, lah, no". You cannot say, "Thank you". We must say, "No, lah. No, lah". Then they will say, "No, really". Then you still must say, "No, lah. No, lah".

Third time, third time is the cue. Say it the third time. If you are from America or whatever, learn this, all right? The third time is the killer. He will go for it. Say, "No, really, really, do you want this cake". "Aye, yeah. Never mind, lah. Very kind," you know? that's a Singapore custom, okay? You gotta learn that. But some people, they do not know. They thought that you have personal reason or whatever. They come from another place, right, they don't know our culture. You say that they ask you, "Would you like a piece of cake"? "No, lah". "Okay," right? That's why you need to receive from Jesus every day. These things happen, you know? Before you know it, on the road you didn't plan to get angry, but you get angry, right? Are you with me so far?

And Jesus dropped down, he says that, "When He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, 'Do you know what I've done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so", again, "Do you know what I've done to you"? You see? If it's physical, they will know. "You call Me Teacher and Lord, you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet". Now, does that mean we take a bowl and wash one another's feet? I'm not against people doing that, okay, in camps or whatever when they have retreats and all that. It's fine, okay? But don't forget what Jesus says, spiritual. So the whole thing is spiritual. In other words, I must come to you and I find that you are discouraged. You have been anxious. You are burdened with care. And I speak to you, amen. I don't have to bring the Bible in front of your face all the time. But what I'm preaching is the Word, like what I'm doing right now.

Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you, because you know, I'm always asking the Lord to speak through me, amen. Sometimes when I say something, you know, I say, "Wow, that was so good". I feel like taking down notes, you know, but I got no time, 'cause I know I'm not that smart. It's the Holy Spirit took over because He loves you. Just like having children now because of you all, right? So likewise, you know, He will say things in and through me, and I love that kind of ministry. I love like I'm stepping out and I say, "You're not that smart to say that. You're not that smart to know that. You are not that smart". And many times as I preach, the supply flows, I see more, because of you, the ministry. So thank you, ah? You know, I have never taken a sabbatical for years, ever since I went into ministry as a young man, never. But this year, when you don't see me here and there, you're in good hands because Jesus will still supply, all right?

You don't see me here and there, don't worry. It's not that I'm sick, or I'm this, I'm that. I just will take more sabbatical because actually seven, seven, seven, my ministry, this is exactly the year of sabbatical for me, my ministry. So if you don't see me around, I'm probably somewhere, usually by myself because my son still has to go study and all that and be in school, but I'll probably go away here and there, all right, to refresh myself in the Lord. I think I'll be doing this finally this year, all right, for the next leg of my life, amen? But you will not be robbed. You will not be shortchanged, all right? I can talk big, lah, huh, about all that. After one week only, you know, cold turkey from preaching, all right? So if I have to preach through my phone wherever I am, can you receive? That's receiving, amen? So you never know, okay?

So but just to let you know that finally, you know, a lot of advice has come to me and said, "Pastor, you need to take. This is another cycle of seven has come, all right? Take it," amen? And finally this year also I turn 30 years old, so... amen? So I think I better take it. Praise the Lord, amen. So let me wind this down. As we talk to each other, let's wash one another's feet. And then let the person go away feeling like, "I feel refreshed being in that lady's presence," you know? "I feel refreshed being in that sister's presence. I feel refreshed in that brother's presence. I feel refreshed in that man's presence. I feel refreshed after I leave him". Why? You know, it's not just pastors. He says that, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, wash one another's feet". It's like His love, you know? Wash one... you see what I did? Do the same.

And you know the Bible says, "Husband, love your wife even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word". He's talking about husband and wife, but then he illustrates that this is what Jesus did with all of us. First of all, "Husband, love your wife, as Christ loved the church". What'd He do? "He gave Himself". He didn't give presents. He didn't give Prada. He didn't give Aramis. Some wives are saying, "Forget the love, give the Aramis," ha ha, all right? Playing with toys. Playing with rocks. Children play with rocks because they think it's valuable until they grow up older. Okay, praise God, anyway.

Now, "Love your wife, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word". The same way Jesus, after He gave Himself at the cross, what does He do? He always makes us feel washed. He always refreshes us. He cleansed us from all the defilements of the world. The world has a lot of... and one of the defilements is fear, all right, or sinful thoughts that attach to you. You hear conversations that are profane, vulgar, unbelief, men rebelling against God. And Christians, can you stop saying, "OMG," you know? It is taking the name of God in vain, you know? Don't be like the world. This is that defilement.

Don't let it come into the church. I don't know why, I got this thing when I hear Christians saying, "OMG, OMG," you know? You don't realize what you're doing. You can be a man in control of your mouth. Don't be a man who just like... go free, amen? Amen. You feel like saying it, say pray in tongues. Pray in the Spirit, amen. Sorry, yeah. Amen, Pastor Prince. So the whole purpose is why? Why did Jesus die for us on the cross? "That He might present a bride to Himself, and that he might sanctify", sanctify means cleanse her with the washing of... and make it holy, set her apart. "Cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot," amen, "or wrinkle," wrinkle is the idea of age, "or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish".

So Jesus does it, gave Himself for us on the cross. Now the church is in place. That's you and I, a born again creature. What do we need? He needs to sanctify us from the world, the defilements, the contamination. And I believe you study carefully the Levitical ceremonial laws and all that, you find that in the Bible, people that have uncleanness in the Book of Leviticus is washed away with water. The whole idea is that, so I think there's a physical benefit. Just like physical water washes your physical body from uncleanness and refreshes you, I believe the spiritual water has an effect on your body as well. And there's a verse there that says, "Having our bodies washed with pure water," in Hebrews chapter 10. So the more you allow the washing of the water, I'm telling you, the healthier you'll become. Are you listening?

Like if you are sick, play the healing Scriptures. I've got one right now available on YouTube. Keep on playing it the whole night. Play it, amen? We have soothing rain and thunder sounds, and refreshing sound, in my voice I try my best to be as refreshing as possible by the grace of God. I prayed over that entire recording, okay, that God's anointing will rest on it. So just bathe yourself, just like I used the word "bathe," actually "nipto". You're actually washing your feet, but it's like a bath even, right? Then all the sudden you are healed. We have many testimonies. Read the comments and all, you'll find a lot of people are already healed, amen. So are there are ways of doing it, but receive the love. You must be in the place of... that's the one thing needful, okay?

So when you talk to your wife, you must leave her with a sense of having washed her feet. Every time you are with her, watch your words. We get critical without realizing it. I also, okay? I'll tell you that, all right? We have little, you know, prickly words, and words that stab, and all that, and why don't we just stop all that and, you know, your words, just like Jesus speaks to us is to cleanse us, to make us feel clean, not to make us feel dirty, not to burden us down with depression and heaviness, or speak in such a way produce more care. What about your children? How 'bout this for an exercise? It's so easy for us to point out their mistakes. It's so easy for us. You can find it. You look for it, you will find it.

Right now, the whole Midianites of the world, the Midianites of the world is looking out for churches they can just report. They find even a slightest whatever, they report it and they'll make it big. They'll never report on all the churches that are living for the glory of God. They will find someone. They'll find somebody, all right? That's the way the world works, amen? Bad news sells, and they want the whole world to have the impression that every church is the same, amen.

So listen, find something good and say, "Hey, I like what you did just now. When you said that to that person just now, it was very kind of you. Hey Justin, that was cool. Hey Justin, you know when you come to me and just hug me like that, I love it. I love it. And now I know why God wants us to be with Him, all right? It's for us. You know, it brings us joy just to hold you there. You don't have to say nothing, just be there". But when he does right, we don't say. When he does wrong, "You know what, just now, I must tell you this. As your father, I must tell you this, you know? Don't do this. Don't do that". Yes, we will still see that. And we love them, we want them to learn, yes.

There'll be moments like that. We call that withdrawal from your bank. Moments where you scold them is withdrawal. You keep on withdraw, withdraw, you know what's happen or not? You are Singaporeans, no one need to teach you. They're completely empty, right? Bankrupt. We put deposit. Every time you praise them, it's a deposit. So when the time comes for you, amen, to make a correction, it's always lesser than the deposit and you'll do well. So make it this week if you can, find a good point. Instead of finding fault, find something good and say it. Tell them. Do it on your wife also. Say it. "I love the way you love me. I love how your eyes close."

Pastor, close. Okay. If I sing, you all want me to close. So give praise to Jesus, people, amen? Now, I'm gonna release you right now, but perchance there's someone here you have not experienced that bath, that Christ died on that cross, shed His blood for all our sins. And His blood is royal blood. His blood is sinless blood. His blood is holy blood. And only that blood can wash away our sins. And the Bible says, "To Him who loved us and bathed us from our sins in His own blood".

So friend, have you taken that bath? Are you washed in that bath that washes away all your sins through His blood? If not, I wanna give you this opportunity right now. This life on earth is just temporal. We know, in our hearts we all know that there is a spirit world, and that world is even more real, and you will know it the day your heart stops beating. As for us, we will keep on looking to heaven because Jesus is coming back for us, waiting for His Son from heaven.

Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place. And if that is you, pray this prayer with me right now and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will come into your life. Pray this prayer:

Father in heaven, I thank You that although I'm a sinner, Your Word says Christ died for sinners. You loved me when I was at my worst and You sent Your Son Jesus Christ and He died on that cross for all my sins. And when all my sins were finished at that cross, completely forgiven, completely sent away, You raised Jesus from the dead as a testimony that I have been declared righteous before the courts of heaven. Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior. Thank You, Father, in Jesus' name, (and all the people said) amen.

Stand to your feet. Hallelujah. Don't take the blessing of protection for granted, amen? Let's believe God for protection, amen? Let's believe God. Let's believe the one who loves us will take care of us, amen, and let, you know, keep on being under the blood, under the washing of water of the Word, and God will keep you refreshed, strong, healthy, amen.

Throughout this week, the Lord bless you and your families with the blessings of Father Abraham, the blessings of Deuteronomy 28, for Christ has redeemed us from all the law, from all the curse there. So the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 will come upon you, even this week, you and your loved ones. The Lord make His face shine on you as He already is through the work of Jesus Christ always smiling on you throughout this week, and grant you great favor in the sight of everyone who looks on you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and your loved ones and grant to you and your loved ones His wonderful shalom peace, well-being, and wholeness, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, (and all the people said) amen.