0:01 [Music] I want to begin by sharing a lovely verse from Daniel 12 uh verse 3. Daniel 12:3 0:20 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Uh last month we were talking about the godly wisdom and how we we can seek for 0:39 godly wisdom and then um there's uh this verse shows that there's something glorious ahead for those who are seeking for godly wisdom and who have that wisdom. Daniel could write about it. God revealed that to Daniel 0:59 because we know God gave him that divine wisdom and um we know from his prayer life he was so so much in contact with the with God uh that God revealed so many things especially about the last days what's going to happen and God gave 1:19 him that wisdom and this beautiful verse is something that's like a reward for us waiting so this just like a glimpse If you have if you seek after wisdom and the wisdom which I give you um there'll be a bright future for you like the vast 1:35 sky it'll be you'll be there'll be something wonderful for you to look forward to. It's just a glimpse we can't understand because our finite mind cannot grasp what is ahead of us. But as we grow closer and closer to the Lord, 1:51 at least the joy that we get in our heart is uh enough to encourage us that we um that we can look forward to and we can press on to getting that godly wisdom. And um I want to remind you of one verse 2:08 that we meditated on last month that is Proverbs 9:6. It says leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight. So we all when we were be began our earthly life from the way we've grown up 2:26 some of us have had the godly have had the fortune I mean uh privilege of growing up in godly homes. So we got a little bit of godliness in our lives but deep down we've all grown up with worldly wisdom and we've studied and we 2:46 dealt with people in the world and we that that worldly wisdom was imprinted imprinted in us that we thought oh that is the great thing but as we come to the lord and we come to know his words we know that that earthly wisdom is just 3:03 shallow there's nothing and sometimes it can be even demonic as we read in James chapter 3 uh 13 and verse 17 says about godly wisdom. So um we have to unlearn all that or put that aside when we come to the Lord and say 3:21 Lord I need that godly wisdom from you. And um it says here in uh Proverbs 9, wisdom has built her house and hune seven pillars. I want to start with that. And uh pro James 3:17 says about 3:38 seven virtues which wisdom has. So I connect those two and I thought we'll think of those two uh those two verses. How we can uh think of some of those pillars at least one of them. Um when you think of the word hune in in 3:57 proverbs 9 it says wisdom has hune and it's also earlier one there's a verse which says that um um proverbs 24:3 says that a house with is built with wisdom and established with understanding. So 4:14 when you think of the word hune the what does it come to our mind to my mind it comes to a quarry where pillars are maybe pillars of stone are huned are built uh and or maybe of wood maybe over 4:34 here people build with wood but in India I know that pillars are built with stone or concrete or things like that so I was thinking of a quarry What what goes on in a quarry is far away from what people other people usually quaries are away from the main 4:53 city and u what a lot of blasting and hacking and chisling goes on in the quarry but is far away from uh the eyes of what uh the whole world sees. And that reminds me of the chiseling and the working with the 5:12 Holy Spirit does deep in our hearts. If we have to be a pillar in God's to build a pillar and have a house built with with wisdom, that wise woman's house, a lot of hammering and breaking and 5:30 cutting and deep down in our heart, nobody need to know what's going on. It's between God and us. that chiseling process. Sometimes we think the breaking is just like a sandpaper, you know, so gentle and but that sometimes 5:47 very often that's not enough. God has to do a great breaking in our lives. Uh you think of Job what happened in Job's life. Even Job didn't know what why this testing had come in his life. The shattering had come in his life. um his 6:06 wife, his friends, nobody knew. Only God knew and Satan knew a little bit. But God knew that uh this what was the reason for this breaking process. But you know in the end it says um about Job in in the last chapter Job said until 6:26 now I only heard of you and seen you but now I see you Lord. when that breaking process is finished uh sometimes while it's going on towards the end we see we see God and we can 6:43 understand Lord you're you're showing me something more about yourself and and Job said I repent in dust and ashes so that's something that we that's the goal that we can look forward to say Lord I allow I allow you to break 7:02 me. I allow you to allow I allow that chiseling and that breaking so that that pillar can be strong and uh I can be bring glory to your name. I can come out through the uh at the end of the testing I can say like Job Lord I repent. I 7:21 thank you when I have seen you. that revelation that the lord gives in our eyes in our hearts that we can see the lord more clearly. So coming to the pillars, I thought of uh that verse in James 3:17. 7:39 Uh the wisdom from above is first pure. First of all, it's pure. And we think of purity as something that's that needed most of all. Jesus 7:57 said in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Sometimes we we think of purity in a different way. I've heard in different churches um and in the Old Testament also the 8:15 children of Israel were asked to uh purify themselves by some outward things they had to do. They had to discard all the old level old things and they had to wash and they had to sprinkle the blood. Those are all a picture of what God 8:32 really wanted to do in our hearts to have that. Those are all outward things. But what the Lord wants to do in our heart is purity in our heart and only after Jesus came we have that because Jesus made the way for us to have that 8:47 um purity in our heart. It says there blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. I thought what is it? I used to think like what was it to see God? It's not like we'll get a vision of God and or maybe we'll 9:03 see um suddenly something an angel appearing to us. Those used to happen to some people like Sadhu Sunda Singh and some others saw a vision of God. But for all of most of us or all of us we can say is the spiritual vision that 9:21 revelation we can have of God. More and more we can understand God's ways. This is how God is dealing with me. God is allowing this testing in my life for this purpose. I'm not going to be disheartened. I'm not going to be 9:36 discouraged. As we said there's two no entry roads. discouragement. I'm not going to uh give way to despair. And the second thing is we can see God in everything, every situation. Blessed are the pure in heart for they'll see 9:53 God in every situation. I'll see yeah God is behind us. It's not a mistake that that's happening. When we think of purity, the picture which comes to my mind is u when you see a baby, a young baby, newborn baby or as the baby 10:10 becomes 2 or 3 months old and you look at that baby's eyes, there's such purity and that's an example of the purity uh of the godly purity which we we are supposed to have which we had when we began our earthly life. There's no evil. 10:29 There's no pride or hottiness in that baby's eyes. There's just trust and love and I can't describe that. That's the picture of purity. But as we have grown, we have lost that purity and um impure 10:48 things have come into our lives telling lies and more and more impure things have come. So we need first of all the cleansing and Jesus has made a way for us to become pure again. The first step we need cleansing from our sin and there 11:06 are verses which uh tell us about that and um uh let me read some of those verses. Titus 2:14 Jesus about Jesus who gave himself us 11:23 for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. And then 1 Peter 1:22 says, "After we have purified your souls, we can love with a pure heart." And 1 Peter 11:42 1:18 says, "We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ." And Hebrews 9 says, "The blood of Christ can purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." So these are just a few of the verses 11:58 which show us that we can have that cleansing in our heart. It's only then that we can see begin to see God and begin to have that um purity in our heart. And that is not a one-time 12:16 cleansing as we know it's a constant cleansing that we needs to have every day in every situation like suddenly a thought some bad thought comes to our mind or an unforgiving thought some incident where somebody did some harm to 12:32 us and we are we keep a bad attitude an impure thought comes to us right there then and there we can ask Lord Lord please forgive me make give me a pure heart. Wash me in your precious blood. So constantly we can ask for that 12:48 cleansing and like the tears that keep our eyes always washed constantly. We don't have to the tears don't get stopped uh getting produced all the time. Tears are getting produced and washing our eyes and especially more 13:05 when some dirt falls in or dust falls in the tears come in in plenty and keep washing. So constantly we need that forgiveness and cleansing from our sin. That's the first step of purifying ourself and uh getting ourselves pure. 13:22 And then we have to do a part also to get that purification in our life. We have to do our part. We can't just say oh Christ has cleansed us and I'm my sins are forgiven and now I don't need to do anything. 13:38 That's what we used to think in our early Christian life. We thought, oh, all that you need is to repent and ask Jesus into your heart, then everything is okay. But we know as we have understood more and more of the new 13:53 covenant that that not enough. There's more. We have to do our part and purify ourselves. This verse in 1 John 3:3, it says, "Everyone who has this hope of Christ's return 14:12 purifies himself as he is pure." Verse two, it says, "When he appears, we shall be we shall see him and we shall be like him." So if we have that hope of Christ's return, we'll always be purifying ourselves. 14:30 Um then it'll never come to a stop. We have to do that. And then there's this beautiful verse in Daniel 12. Again, we want to turn back. I want to read that verse. Daniel 12:10. It says, "In the last days, many shall purify themselves 14:48 and make themselves white and be refined." The God gave Daniel um a glimpse of what was going to happen in the last days. And one of the things is people many we will purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined. Thank 15:07 God we are living in those last days when we we can do our part in purifying ourselves, judging ourselves and not like the how the children of Israel had to do outwardly but inward purification can go on throughout the 15:25 day. Not on spec specified days like the children of Israel had to do but throughout the day at night when we wake up that cleansing can go on. Um and there's another beautiful verse which I want to share with you about uh 15:42 cleansing ourselves. That's in Philip uh Psalm 119 and verse 37. It says turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. Give me life in your ways. We need to do something. We need to turn 15:59 our eyes eyes from looking at worthless things. You know how it is. If we uh keep on watching some movies or something that stays in our mind but we we must ask the Lord Lord help me not to get into that mode of watching movies or 16:18 watching worthless things. Give me a desire to turn my eyes away from these worthless things and a desire to know your ways Lord. That's a verse we need to share with our children also. We need to tell our children pray this prayer. 16:36 Turn Lord help me to turn my eyes. You know our children will be facing so many things in school. uh their friends may show them some pictures or something on their phones which we wouldn't like them to see. Then we can say our daughter to 16:53 our daughters and sons you you have to be vigilant. You have to ask the Lord and you must turn your eyes away because in God's word it says Psalm 119 turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. And another beautiful verse I want to 17:09 share is Philippians 4:8. It says we all know that verse whatever is lovely pure think on those things all those things are there Philippians chapter 4 Lord help me to meditate on those things 17:28 the things which are pure and that's the um challenge we should give to our children also to discern what is pure in school or what their friends say or sometimes when they are doing their studies and they're using the internet 17:44 and then some things pop up and we have to teach our children see those kind of images which come you should not look at it you should turn your eyes away don't let them don't even if your friends show that to you avoid those things and we 18:01 have to teach our children and you know uh sometimes in um it's good for sisters to share with each other if you know something which are not good for our children. We you can share with each other. Dear sisters, you can say this is 18:17 not good for our children. Be careful of this. You know now there are so many things which are coming in which are shady and the world is thinking that making it look as if that's the proper thing and politically correct things. 18:32 And we have to teach our children. We have to discern. We may not always be there. Mommy and daddy may not always be there but the Lord will show you these things are not good for us as Christians. We have to keep away from 18:46 these things and this this is the day when we have to use our we have to be really vigilant teach our children to be vigilant you know young girls um and also people like me who done with raising children we have more time in 19:01 our hands then we um and girls who are are working and not yet married they have lot of time and they may switch on the TV and watch so many things and the time that they spend Not only impure things but time is wasted. So we have to 19:17 warn our children and young girls take that warning. Don't waste your time looking at all these things which are not um uh uh uplifting and and very soon we are um spiritual discernment will get 19:35 less and less and we'll tolerate more and more uh unwise things, ungodly things and we'll go off drift to the wrong side. That's why we have to be so careful. you know there um there's another verse which I want to share 19:53 um verse um let me find that verse in two Peter 2 9 whatever overcomes a person 20:11 he'll be a victim So if we allow ourselves to be overcome by these things, one day we'll become a slave to that. Slowly slowly we'll become a slave to those things. So we have to don't let 20:30 those things overcome us at all. We have to we we have to warn our children. You know when the children of Israel I know when the children of Israel left Egypt and they wandered in the wilderness Moses was trying to teach them godly 20:48 ways but even though they left Egypt Egypt hadn't left their heart in their heart there was Egypt was still there they were longing for the things of Egypt the food of Egypt the customs of Egypt the idol worship maybe the worship 21:03 of the calf and so many things Egypt It was still in their heart. We have to tell we have to be vigilant. Even though we have left our left the world and we want to be detached from the world, there might be still the little bit of 21:18 that world still in our heart and we have to be ruthless and say Lord I don't want anything of this world impurity of this world to remain in my heart. So as mothers we have to we have to um and uh we have to be vigilant and 21:36 some things which are just small to begin with can become a habit and take hold of us. So we have to be vigilant and we have to teach our children also be careful of these things and that's a great responsibility for us as mothers. 21:55 Then another way we purify ourselves is through trials. God allows trials to purify us. First I said about Jesus, he purifies our heart and we do our part in purifying ourselves 22:13 and thinking of uh godly things and pure things and turning our eyes away from ungodly things. But the third is uh when trials uh god allows trials in our lives. I I somebody said that trials are like the 22:33 wrapping paper which god sends in our life and inside is the beautiful gift and the gift is divine nature. When we we get the present with the gift but it don't look at the wrapping paper which are the trials 22:51 the beautiful thing with gift which the lord wants to give us is his nature and we allow um him to do that uh allow the trial to do its work in us then we get more and more of that godly nature. 23:09 So trials can come as I said u in um Job's life he didn't know what was going why the trial was allowed in his life we all we may not have the extreme trials that job faced but some amount of trial the lord allows in our lives through 23:29 sickness through some financial difficulties through our relatives sometimes our children what our children are facing God knows And it's not the same for all of us. It's different design. The wrapping papers are different colors for different ones. But 23:47 we look not at the right wrapping paper, but we look at what is inside and say Lord let your let that testing do its perfect work. And in this context I want to share two beautiful verses. One is in 1 Peter 1 6 and 7. 24:07 It says don't be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon your life. And 1 Peter 1 16 says, "You rejoice 24:27 though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials. The test of your faith is more precious than gold which pre which perishes though it is tested by fire. 24:41 So God allows the testing in our life to uh to bring out the godly nature and so we should not be surprised. We should not be discouraged but rejoice when we go through that when God when gold is 24:58 tested it comes out as a as um more pure substance and we we look forward to the time when that testing is over and and the Lord will show us and reward us for having gone through that 25:17 trial and that testing. But there's a beautiful verse which we we can get comfort in. When we look at trials and we think, "Oh, this is a big time of testing. I'm going through this sickness and this death and everything." There's 25:31 a verse which comes to our comfort, which comes to my comfort. And that's in second Peter chapter 2:9. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trials. God knows how much trial is allowed. He is controlling the temperature. 25:49 of that that furnace and he knows when to stop and he puts the thermometer in and he says yeah it's time this this much temperature is enough this much trial is enough and now my child is ready so that's a verse we can get 26:07 comfort in we don't have to look at the trials oh what a trial I'm facing but we can say the lord knows how to deliver me he knows how much I can face. He won't test me more than what I can handle. That's a comfort to us and he'll take 26:24 care of it. What a comfort and consolation that is when we go through. We don't look at the trials that when we're going through, but we look at the the Lord who's behind it and he's testing us and you know when he stops 26:39 when the gold is refined and refined and he sees his image in that gold. He sees his image coming out of that testing uh us after we have gone through the testing he says now my child is ready I won't test her sometimes the testing 26:56 trial is a big sometimes is just a sandpapering just a mild testing but whatever it is he is not going to be uh testing us forever and he uses different things you know uh there's a verse in the old testament like wheat is threshed 27:13 with the harder harder instrument but fine things like mustard and fine grain they do the threshing is through a gentle instrument. So God knows which instrument to use for us. We are he we leave it leave that decision to him and 27:33 he will do the threshing and the refining for us. Praise God that we don't have to be discouraged but we can leave in commit ourselves in his hands that he will see us through. Then purity always also means 27:51 that there's no mixture no alloys in it. You know when you think of pure pure gold you're not mixed with other metals is pure gold. And sometimes I think of pure ghee, you know, though we know what ghee is. It's clarified butter. And 28:10 sometimes we buy ghee from the shop, from the store, and you open it and you smell it. It doesn't smell like pure ghee. But when we make the ghee at home, you take the unsalted butter and put it on low heat, and you keep stirring it 28:25 and stirring it till the brown sediment comes and it's just right. Oh, what a smell. What a flavor that is so different. That is pure ghee. And I think when when we think of purity, pure ghee is an example of that. There's no 28:42 mixture. There's no adulteration. Our life should be like that. There's no adulteration. There's no hypocrisy. Nothing mixed with us. We're not like one person in church, one person in front of others and different inside. 28:58 inside hard and bitter and unforgiving but outside we made smile at people and we have to teach our children also you know don't be don't have that double standard lot of pastors children I know of who had that outwardly they dress in 29:15 certain in certain way and they smile and they're polite and all but deep deep down they are the parents allow them to go their own way and be worldly as long as others don't see don't know about it. 29:33 So when we think of purity, we should think we should remember that also that we should not have that double standard especially our children who are so teachable and so young and fragile we they can see that hypocrisy in us maybe 29:51 and they think oh mom is doing like that so maybe it's okay it's okay and to tell a small lie. So we should be good examples that that uh double standard hypocrisy doesn't come in our life in our in our lives and in our children's 30:08 lives. And also another example I can think of is you know when you make yogurt or curd um uh we we used to make it from starter yogurt you know just some previous good yogurt curd we put it in a 30:27 clean bottle and you add some warm milk and next day if the temperature is okay you get uh healthy yogurt. So sometimes if we are we don't wash that bottle properly and then um a little bit of the old yogurt is still 30:47 there and we try to make then the whole thing gets spoiled. Jesus said hypocrisy is like a leaven even if a little bit is there in the in our life it spoils our whole life. I think of that when I make yogurt if I don't wash that glass jar properly and 31:05 if there's little bit of that old thing and you smell it even sometimes it may not be there when you smell it but then when you make the yogurt it gets bad and I think it's like that if a little bit of that hypocrisy is in our life and we 31:20 try to live our Christian life then it's of no use it's only fit to be thrown out and so Um Jesus said about uh Nathaniel, here's a man without any guide. And that's our prayer. That should be our prayer and that's my prayer. Lord, don't 31:40 let there be even a little bit of hypocrisy. Especially now when I'm speaking to sisters, I can act as if I have things okay with me and whatever I speak is okay and I've gone way ahead and say, "Lord, I want to humble myself. 31:56 You see in my heart if there if I am really pure I'm talking about purity. If you see anything in my life which is impure unforgiving or desire for worldly things and anything even a little bit of trace of it Lord please show it to me. I 32:14 know there's plenty but as much as I can bear Lord show it to me so that I can cast it off. I can cleanse myself of that hypocrisy or whatever it is that impurity. And that's my constant prayer and that should be our constant prayer 32:29 for us and for our children. Lord don't let them they are hearing such high standards in the church and they they they think that being in such a good church everything is okay. Lord please help me not to deceive myself not to let 32:48 my children be deceived. It's so nice to hear our children say the verses. But sometimes I think like afterwards we I need to tell the children Lord help me to tell them this verse you said it beautifully but let it be in your heart 33:05 my dear daughter my dear son let it be in your heart that you will be disciplined by the Lord and you will love the Lord with all your heart and soul. Let let God write that word in your heart. And thank God we can teach 33:20 our children scripture but not more than that they they can obey and put that scripture in their life. Thank God for putting us in such a wonderful church that we can not only teach them scripture and to repeat them but they 33:36 can live that scripture out in their life and they can be godly in their schools also. Then um uh another thing which I when I think of purity is uh there's a verse in 1 Peter 2 say verse two says you long for the 33:55 pure milk of God. God's word is like compared to go pure milk you know pure milk where the cows have been fed on good pastures where there's no antibiotic or hormone given to the cow as we used to get in the former days um 34:14 and the healthy cows that milk is good for babies older people adults pregnant women for all people that milk is good and God's word is pure milk like that for all ages. For children, for mothers who are 34:33 struggling with their children, for older people like me who are getting weaker physically, but God's word encourages us and and nourishes us and we think, "Oh, I don't have to fear that some sickness will come, some cancer 34:48 will come up or some COVID or anything. I can get strength from God's word. I can get nourishment from God's word. Praise God. Like God's word is like that pure milk. And we can say, "Lord, speak to me. Help me to long." It says there, 35:05 "Long for that pure milk." And if you read Psalms, especially Psalm 119, there are so many verses about God's word. Lord, your word is like a lamp. Your word is like a light. Your word is like sweeter than honey. to read Psalm 119 35:21 especially it once I read it and I it challenged me and I said Lord your word is so wonderful I never realized your word is I never took it your word so so seriously and give me a love for your word and God is answering my prayer more 35:38 and more so in the beginning we read God's word like a routine and we read and sometimes we'd get hardly anything but as we read more and more one verse here and one verse there comes to our mind and later on we think yeah that's 35:53 the verse I need for my situation now what I'm facing so we should long for God's word and every day when we read God's word open it and read it and say Lord I know you have something to tell me today please speak to me speak 36:09 something to me today from your word and lastly I want to say about uh in this topic about uh purity we should uh there's a verse in 2 Corinthians 11:3 which says 36:28 the serpent deceived eve by his cunning and led her astray and God uh Paul says that we should not be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 36:44 So just like the serpent deceived Eve, we can be easily deceived. Deceived by um the wrong ideas we hear in the world and what people say, deceived by what we read in the news or whatever else is 37:02 there. We can be easily deceived. We can and just like Eve because she didn't submit, she was deceived. she didn't listen to God's word and she didn't spend time with uh listening to God or maybe she didn't wasn't there with her 37:19 husband she didn't seek unity with her husband whatever way she was deceived and so Paul has this burden that we should not be deceived and go astray from having a pure devotion to Jesus Christ yes we should have that pure 37:36 devotion to the Lord all the time and keep that pure devotion. It's not complicated that we should do this and that and we should um what other Old Testament people did is just a simple and pure de devotion to 37:54 the Lord which we must cherish and we must hold on to and that's my longing to as I grow older Lord make my devotion to you more pure. Let it not be tarnished by any of these worldly things or things of the past or my interfering in other 38:13 people's lives or judging other people or anything that displeases you. Let me have a pure devotion. And I thank God the GR God has brought us here where I can spend more and more time with the Lord and I can cleanse myself and I can 38:29 get closer to the Lord. Really God has been so good to give that uh opportunity for me. And dear young sisters who are struggling with your children is harder for you. But take the opportunities which you have fellowship with each 38:43 other, texting each other, talk to each other and warning each other of the subtle impure things which can come in our lives, in our children's lives. In closing, I just want to um share this beautiful song um just to the first 39:02 verse and the chorus of it. Oh to be like the blessed redeemer. This is my constant longing and prayer. Gladly I'll forfeit all of earth's treasures. Jesus thy perfect likeness to wear. Oh to be like thee. Oh to be like 39:21 thee. Blessed redeemer. Pure as thou art. See that says pure as thou art. Come in thy sweetness. Come in thy fullness. stamp thine own image deep in my heart. That's our longing for purity. May God bless each one of you dear 39:40 sisters and fulfill our heart's desire that we will have that purity as Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. see God even while we are on earth. That spiritual revelation of 39:58 the Lord more and more and that insight. May God bless each one of you. Amen. Shall we close in prayer? Our heavenly father, we thank you for this time which you've given us and 40:16 thank you Lord for your great purpose for us that we you want us to be pure in our heart. Help us Lord to have pure thoughts and keep our eyes away from looking at impure things. And we pray especially for our children Lord as 40:35 they're growing in this world and hearing so many confusing things. Give them discernment, Lord, so that they too might be pure. And we be a church and a family, families of your people pure who are 40:54 ready to meet with you. Lord, have mercy on us and give us that desire every day of our lives. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. [Music]
