Don't be someone
buried in the world, but barren in your soul. Nothing here profits,
nothing here fulfills your heart. Your heart is too big
for this world. Listen to a man (Solomon)
who has tried everything and he has the means
to achieve it but he says,
"emptiness of emptiness." Many people are
still blinded, seeking, looking for fulfillment in life. In their heart of hearts,
they feel like, "Everything is empty." "I've tried it, it's empty!" You are hungry on the inside!
You're crying for something. That something is found here. It's a Someone (Jesus)! Hi, this is Joseph Prince.
Thanks for tuning in. I just want you to know that you
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Be blessed as you feed on God's Word today! Your pastors are in this
church to love on you, all right? If you wanna know
real quick how I feel when I stand up here, I just wanna
worship the Lord. I want the session to continue, you
know? When I worship the Lord, I just see His glory,
His beauty, His perfect-- His perfect beauty, amen?
His exact symmetry. I mean, everything you can describe,
you know, you see the place of shekinah glory. And as I
worship the Lord, I'm telling you, so many times
He impart to me His heart for all of you. You know
what I feel inside for you? Compassion. I feel His
compassion. He lets me feel His heartbeat and I'm just,
you know, feeling just a portion of His heart. My
heart is not so big to feel completely the goodness and
the largeness of His heart, but I feel it for you. So I
want you to know that when I'm here, it's not about me.
It's not about the pastor. It's about the Lord, and the
Lord allows the pastor to have that in his heart,
amen? Even all the healings, always remember, okay, none
of us can heal, none of us, all right? It is the Lord
who heals, but the Bible uses the word "Co-laborers
with Christ." Old King James, "Co-workers with
Christ." You know, we speak, He does it. He says, "In My
name, if you ask anything--" and the word "ask" there
actually in the Greek is actually you demand, you
command. You command a situation. This is different
from asking the Father in Jesus's name. Another place
in that upper room, He says, "If you ask," or the word
there is "demand," "anything in My name, I will do it."
Just like Peter and John, all right, the man was lame.
He says, "In the name of Jesus Christ." He demanded
the healing. Why? The healing has been purchased.
It is the enemy that is holding you in bondage,
amen? So we are believing God, and pray with me that
more and more, more and more in the days to come, all
right, this will be a healing center. And all the
cases out there where, you know, people have given up
hope and all that, this will be the healing center. This
is God's house, amen? And in the father's house, what
brought the prodigal son home? This thought, "My
father's servants in my father's house, they have
bread enough and to spare, and here I am eating food
that actually belongs to the pigs, and the food looks
good to me now." And that's what we are imploring. All
those who are out there, come home to your Father.
Come home to where there's true love. Another thing
that is in my heart and I've been just feeling this in my
heart for the past few days is the discussion that I had
with some of my pastors last week about the number of
young people that are taking their lives, even in this
country. It's on the increase it seems, you know?
And you see, with all the tools that we have today,
with all the advancement of technology, with all the
social media that is at their fingertips, they are
hurting. They are hurting. You know, knowledge today is
so accessible. I mean, you can ask any question, but
sometimes I feel like ChatGPT can just be like a
knowledge of good and evil, amen? The problem with the
knowledge of good and evil is that it tells you the
knowledge of good even, but also the knowledge of evil,
amen? And some knowledge God knows will destroy us. You
see, the knowledge of good will destroy you as fast as
the knowledge of evil. God doesn't want the knowledge
of good. God wants the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ that produces true goodness in our lives, amen.
Because what we think is good is very subjective. So
when you think about it, a lot of things-- by the way,
what does God want us to eat from? The tree of life,
which Adam and Eve never took from, never took from.
What is the tree of life? Tree of life is that you
know from within. We are to have our senses exercised to
discern, not know. Know is with your head; discern is
with your spirit. It's faster than lightning. It's
faster than ChatGPT. It's faster than any AI. But
those things, because they are so exact, they are--
they operate with mathematical precision.
That's their problem. They are too exact, they are
dead. It's predictable. They cannot go beyond what is,
you know, spontaneous. But life is spontaneous. Life is
flowing. Life cannot be predicted, amen. I'll tell
you this, when your prayer--and that's what we
shared on last week. Life is something that only God can
give, so God wants man to partake of the tree of life.
So Adam and Eve was alive biologically with a breath
of life, and yet God wanted them to partake of the tree
of life, which is a picture of Christ, the eternal life.
And eternal life is not the quantitative, you know, it
goes on forever, the idea of eternal life in the English,
but it's actually a quality of life, the very life that
God Himself lives by, which is eternal life, amen. It is
the highest form of life. One day I was praying and,
you know, I'm very careful about saying I see visions
and all that, but this happened to me many years
ago and I don't have many visions like that, but I was
praying and I saw a pyramid, like a food pyramid. You all
know what's a food pyramid, right? Like a pyramid. You
all don't know, you all know what's a pyramid, okay? All
right, how good I preach today depends on your
response, okay, just to let you all know. You're not
awake yet. But in any case, I was just telling my wife
the other day that people--you know, my son was
talking about--I was telling my son to respond to some
things that we are saying. Indicate, you know, when you
hear us. You know your children sometimes, at a
certain age, like 11 years old, 10 years old, right,
they come to the age where they are not actually
teenagers yet, but they need to be taught manners, you
know, courtesy, and speak out, right? So we are at
that stage. So we're just telling him, "Speak up,
speak up, all right?" And because when we talk to you,
right-- but I'm hearing that he quote back to us
everything that we said, so he's hearing, but he doesn't
look like he's hearing. So I said, "You must learn to
notify your face." So church, notify your face,
all right? So because--but I tell them, "Look, I'm used
to it, many years of preaching already." I know
when you look at people and they can look a certain kind
of look, which I won't want to show, all right, but they
are listening, amen? But it'd be good to notify your
face, amen? Turn to your neighbor and say, "Notify
your face." So, your response, come on. Back to
the food--all right, something like that. Just
the other day, someone, I think my daughter, reminded
me when she was with me in America, right, and I was
doing the book signing in one of those book stores,
and we had people come up and all that, and the
response, as well as the church that I'd preached at,
all right, a church that had such an explosive response.
People would stand up there with their handkerchief, and
you know, some parts, and they will stand on there
like... You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, I
don't know how to describe it, but they love it, you
know? They would nudge the other guy and, you know, if
they love something. You can tell that they are in the
flow, and that makes something like, ooh man,
more comes out of you. You know what I'm saying? Are
you all listening or not? All right, now if you all
want me to get back to the food pyramid, all right,
respond. All right, so this is a life pyramid. So I saw
this vision many years ago when I was praying, and I
saw that the first level, the base, is actually plant
life, which is the lowest form of life. There is still
life. They are living. When they die, they, you know,
they wither up, become brown, and fall off, right?
But when there's life, it's green, right? But it's the
lowest form of life. Then we have insect life, the next
level up. Insect life. How many agree insects have
life? Then we come to animal life, all right? And the
larger the animal, the life-- It can be a whale,
but it's a mammal, right? Still not human life.
Neither do the chimpanzees have human life. Then we
have the bios and the psuche in the Greek, which is human
life. Say, "Human life." That's still not what God
wants us to have. And God gave Adam and Eve that
choice. God gave them that human life, which is higher
than any other life by itself, but then God says,
"Do you want the life that I have?" That's called eternal
life. In Greek, it's called zoe. If you think it reminds
you of a girl's name, they got the name from the Bible.
Zoe is the life by which God lives. And because there's
no adjectives for it, no expression that man can
really typify that word, so they put down, "Eternal
life." But then those who go to hell also are there
eternally, when you think about it. So "eternal life"
has its limitations, but of course it's eternal because
God's life is uncreated. It's eternal. Are you with
me so far? So God says, "That's your choice. I won't
force you to receive. I give you a free choice. You can
either live by the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
which means you use your bios life. You trust
yourself. Be self-confident. You are yourself, but you
are limited to yourself and to your knowledge of good
and evil," amen? That's why man is religious. They have
the knowledge of good and evil, all right?
Christianity is not a religion, okay? It's life.
"I come that you might have--" Not rules and more
rules, "Life, and life--" Jesus says, "I come that you
might have life, and have life more abundantly," amen.
People with abundant life, shout! Hallelujah. Okay, so
Adam and Eve nearly touched it. And then after they
sinned, they took the wrong tree, all right? The devil
persuaded them to take from the wrong tree. Now they are
cut off from God. They choose the wrong tree. God
cannot just come in and say, "Ah, let Me stop you. Let me
pull your hand back." That would be unjust, because God
is a just God, a holy God. God cannot, you know, renege
on His Word when He said that, "The day you eat of
it," the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
dying," in the Hebrew, "dying you shall die." You
don't die immediately. You die in your spirit, and in
future it will manifest in your body as well, okay? So
after that, the Bible says--God said this. Now,
read carefully in Genesis. Don't read now, okay? I'm
telling you. God said this, "Lest they put forth their
hand and touch the tree of life." In your King James,
there's a long hyphen. It's almost like God stopped, and
God says, "Now, lest they partake from the tree of
life," which means--" But Pastor, why don't God
just--after they fell, they eat from the wrong tree, why
didn't God just let them--" No, that means they will
remain perpetually-- that life, huh, listen, they have
chosen already. They don't want the God part, the moral
excellence part. They choose to have their own morality,
knowledge of good and evil. Are you listening so far? So
God says, "If they now eat the tree of life, they will
live forever in that state." Can you imagine all the bad
people in the world, all the dictators of the world, the
evil people in the world, they are still alive today
and cannot die? No, so God had to stop man, okay,
because God knew that it's gotta come through His Son,
the true Tree of Life. Can I have a good amen? Okay,
we'll go right to 1 Peter 1. We were here last week and
we're gonna continue. To remind you, this is where
the Lord is emphasizing to us today, all right, the
rhema Word that He has for you. "In this you greatly
rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be,
you have been grieved by various trials." So the
Christian life is a wonderful paradox. We live
in two worlds, right? Our--in terms of our
condition and our circumstance, we are in the
world, subject to all the trials, the vicissitudes,
the challenges that comes on just normal life. Am I right
or not? But then the part--but there's a part of
us that greatly rejoices, the true self, new man in
Christ rejoices. No, no, no, sorry, not rejoices, greatly
rejoice! Greatly rejoice, all right? But then it goes
together with various trials. So in our
condition--listen carefully. In our condition and our
circumstance, we are still in this world. There's
various trials. But in terms of our spirit, our heart,
and mind, our spirit, our heart, and mind, we are in
that world. That's the way God wants us to live our
life. In other words, we are seeing beauty all around.
One reason why people give up on their life or they
take their own life is because they see all kinds
of imperfection in themselves. They see all
kind of darkness in their mind. They cannot see the
light. They see everywhere around them, you know,
everyone have the best life, or at least they
personify--or they present the best life to the social
world out there. But it's all a lie. It's all a lie.
Are you listening? So when you look around, you see
nothing but ugliness. You see nothing but pretensions.
You see nothing but people trying to outdo one another,
so much hatred, so much anger. And social media is
pumped by people who are angry. Angry people,
compared to loving people, get more hits, more views,
and more shares. So they look around and this is what
they see, all right? No one is sharing their weaknesses.
No one is sharing hope. We have the message and we
gotta win this generation. Obviously, the devil is so
afraid of the young generation that's coming up
that he is attacking so many of them. So I want you to
know that I believe you are an ambassador wherever God
has placed you. You're not just there, number one, to
get money, to supply for your family and you, amen.
No, no, that's too low an ambition to live for, okay?
You are there as God's ambassador, amen, on your
way to heaven, amen? Praise the Lord. There's work to be
done. Don't be in a hurry to go to heaven. But we can
live there already, how? "Greatly rejoice," because,
drop down, it says, "whom having not seen you love."
One proof that all of you are living on the inside,
and God wants to redeem all of us from deadness. Yeah,
not just sin, deadness. That's one thing that's not
taught, because there are offerings, right? The
Levitical offerings, the five offerings, most of them
are all for sins, okay? There are a few of them
that's for worship, but there's one offering called
the ashes of the red heifer which is all about
sprinkling with water the ashes of the red heifer on
people who have touched a dead-- a corpse, a carcass
of an animal, a bone, anything that's dead. Now,
you think about it, a whole chapter in Numbers is given
to this, just on cleansing from death. I think we teach
a lot on sin, and how to overcome sin, and the
provisions for sin in the death of Christ, but we
forget that He also redeemed us from death. You are
living people. God doesn't want you to have deadness in
your life. Sometimes even our prayers can be dead.
Now, listen carefully. I'm not against people who pray
from books, all right? The prayers are all in the book
and they try to pray. If you are starting out and all
that, it's okay. Nothing wrong with that if you pray
from your heart, mean those words from your heart. But I
believe with all my heart God wants to redeem us all
from everything that's dead. You know, in heaven it's a
resurrection place. A lot of people today think that
heaven is a place of dead people. It's not, it's a
living place. The Living God is there. The source of all
life is there, amen. You see, we--I shared last week,
don't live under the vanity line, all right? The book of
Ecclesiastes, always under the sun, under the sun.
Nothing here profits. Nothing here fulfills your
heart. Your heart is too big for this world. You need an
object, all right? So the next book is Song of Songs.
Now you find an object. In fact, the object is too
great for our heart. We need to expand our heart, amen,
and it's above the sun. That's where you find your
fulfillment. So there is this vanity of vanities.
Everything under the sun is vanity. All the pursuits you
have in your life is vanity. Let's look at that in
Ecclesiastes. The very first words of Ecclesiastes,
written by Solomon, "The words of the Preacher, the
son of David, king--" Hey, son of David. "Son of David,
king in Jerusalem. 'Vanity of vanities.'" Now, who is
that son of David? Solomon, king in Jerusalem. So he's
telling you--why does he introduce himself like this
and not like this introduction in the book of
Song of Songs? Because he wants us to know, "I am a
king in Jerusalem. I can have anything I want." And
he did have access to everything, but he says,
"'Vanity of vanities,' says the Preacher." Or you can
say, "Emptiness of emptiness." How many of you
have found out that the world promised you a lot of
things? What the world does is this. Whatever pleasures
you find under the sun, all right, if it lifts you up,
only to drop you down. The drop is the painful part. So
in heaven, everything is elevation. Everything, all
right, is beautiful. There's perfect symmetry. There's
inexhaustible joy, "Joy unspeakable," the Bible
says. Everything you look is perfection, and best of all,
we get to see the Lord Jesus, amen. The Bible says
in one of the versions, it says, "You are the fairest
of the sons of man." One version says, "You are the
most handsome of all men." That's our Lord Jesus, amen?
Now, you wanna become like Him, amen? When He comes
into your life, He maximizes your manhood. For women,
your femininity, amen? So Ecclesiastes says,
"Everything I--" Now, you think that, "Well, you know
what, he didn't try everything." I have not
tried everything. Listen to a man who have tried
everything and he has means to achieve it or to get it,
okay? Next chapter, he said--okay, by the way, drop
down to verse 3. It says what? Chapter 1, "What
profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils
under the sun?" Now, for this point, we go to chapter
2. It says, "I gathered for myself," so, "I gathered
myself silver and gold." How many think that it'd be good
for us to gather silver and gold, lots and lots of it?
Especially with the threat of war in the world, right?
Hmm? Hello? Is silver and gold still valuable? Is it
still valuable? It is, isn't it? So he says, "I gathered
for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of
kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female
singers, the delights of the sons of men." We still
acquire it. Spotify, yo, you know? We are still listening
to music and all that. We think it will satisfy us,
all right? He's talking about all the pleasures
under the sun. Let's go back to chapter 1 again. I forgot
to show you something, all right? What--"In which he
toils under the sun?" So the whole purpose, the key is
always in the beginning of the chapter--of the book.
It's a book about under the sun. That's why everything
is vanity of vanities, right? So go back to chapter
2. We have him saying he tried the musical
instruments of all kinds. "So I became great and
excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem.
And my wisdom remained with me. "Whatever my eyes
desired I did not keep from them." Can you say that or
not? "Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from
them." No, we cannot, amen? Here is a man unrestrained.
In his day and age, he is the police, he is the chief
justice, all right? He has access. He's the richest man
on earth. Today's standards, all right, he'll be a
trillionaire already. Still the richest man in history,
amen. And yet, he says what? "Whatever my eyes desired I
did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart
from any pleasure, my heart rejoiced in all my labor;
and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked
on all the works that my hands had done and on the
labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity
and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under
the sun." So don't try it. Someone tried it already. He
came back an old man and telling you, "No profit
under the sun." So that's his first book,
Ecclesiastes. It's a good book. "But Pastor, it sounds
depressing if I read it." If you know the purpose for it,
you'll rejoice. Some things we learn from positive
examples, and some things we learn from negative
examples, right? You all can use it. So there is a book.
So now, we see what life is under the sun. By the way,
this is the book that says, "That which has been is what
shall be and that which is is what has been," you know?
Life is like--history repeats itself. This is the
book, a lot of good stuff in it. There's a lot of
scientific--like condensation, and you know,
evaporation. All that in this book. It's an
interesting book. But anyway, let's go to the next
book, the book when he was walking with God. So this
book, Ecclesiastes, was written probably when he
fell away from the Lord, but that's why he says, "My
wisdom remained." But then that wisdom now serves to
torture him because he knows what is right, what God
wanted him to do, and he did not do. So it's in his old
age. But look at him when he was walking with the Lord.
Now, this is Song of Songs. Why is it called Song of
Songs? Shir ha-Shirim, in Hebrew, Song of all Songs.
Like you say Jesus is the King of all kings, Lord of
all lords. The innermost part of the sanctuary is the
Holy of Holies, amen? The rabbis say that of all the
books in the Bible, the Song of Songs is the Holy of
Holies. And they, according to the rabbis, they forbid
anyone under the age of 30 to read it. They say that
you cannot understand it. You might misconstrue it.
It's a love between a man and a woman, and it's very
descriptive, amen? To the pure, all things are pure.
So, they say that only when you come to age 30 you can
read it. Now, thank God you don't have to be age 30 like
me. As far as my son is concerned, all right, my
recent birthday, he says, "Happy 24th." That makes me,
I told him, same age as my daughter. Keep on speaking,
boy. Keep on speaking. You aim for the star, you might
just hit the moon, right? Not hit the star, but hit
the moon at least, huh, amen? So he says in Song of
Songs, this beautiful Song of Songs, which is a
depiction of the love between our bridegroom and
the bride. And see how it starts off, and this is what
fulfills, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth--for your love is better than wine." "Let him
kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." Not, "Let me
kiss him," "Let him kiss me." I want to experience
his love, and I want to experience his love in a
very personal, intimate way. Can you see her cry? She's
not saying, "I wanna know how much I love the Lord." A
lot of Christians are thinking, "I need to love
the Lord more. I need--" Stop looking at yourself.
Look away from your inferior love to the perfect,
everlasting love that loves you without ceasing. And the
reason why your eyes see what God wants you to see in
the Scriptures and all that, and many people are still
blinded, seeking, looking for fulfillment in life,
still serving under the sun, doing things under the sun.
In their heart of hearts, they feel like everything is
empty. I've tried it, it's empty. If only they knew
fame does not satisfy, fortune does not satisfy. I
am not free. I am more in bondage since I became
famous. I cannot go anywhere I want to go. It doesn't
really fulfill. It is vanity of vanities. But then to
know His love is life. And I tell you this, all right, he
compares the love. "For your love is better than wine."
Let me tell you, when you kiss, have you noticed, "Let
him kiss me. Let him peck me." You know what's a peck
and a kiss. A peck is, peck, okay? A peck is not a kiss.
Notice it's "kisses," plural. "Let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth," nonstop, unceasing.
The same way when the prodigal son came home, the
Bible says, in the Greek it's actually, "Covered him
with kisses." And in the Amplified you see it, kept
on, repeatedly kissing him. Remember the son right now,
he reeks of pigs. He's been in the pig pen for a long
time. We do not know how long. By the time he came
back and the father ran to him and hugged him, the
Bible says the father kept on kissing him. "Let him
kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." He wants--she
wants a personal love encounter with the Lord. I
want to know how much You love me. I want to live
knowing how much You love me. When I study the Word, I
wanna study on how much You love me, amen, amen. Even
the judgments in the--you know, when you read the Old
Testament, there's judgments and all that. You always
look at it and say, "Hey, wait a minute." Like in the
Psalms, it says, "God overthrew Pharaoh and the
Egyptians in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures
forever." How can that be? No, not for Pharaoh and his
Egyptians. God gave them many, many chances to
repent. They still want to go after Israel to enslave
them. God warned them, "Let My children go. Let My
people go," right? Am I right or not? Today, He will
say to any force that tries to bind us, "Let My children
go." So if not, God will judge them because He loves
us. See, Israel read that. Israel sees, "Judgment on
them. Mercy endures forever. Mercy for me." It's not that
God doesn't care for them. God gave them chance, but
His love for us. Even when you read the judgment, it's
all because of His love for us, amen? That's why God
gave you your daughter. That's why God gave you your
son, so that you can experience a bit, albeit
it's inferior compared to His love, what it's like for
a father's love for the child that you so delight
in; so that you know also how much He loves His Son,
but only very limited because our human
relationship is a reflection of His love for us, amen? So
he says, "Let him kiss me." He wants a person--when I
say "He," guys are there as well. See, guys are so
privileged. They get to be the bridegroom and the bride
in this story, amen? So we want His personal love for
us. We want to experience His love for us, amen. How
many know He loves you? You know, God says, "Pray in the
Spirit. Keep yourself in the love of God." When you pray
in the Spirit, be conscious that God loves you. You
know, one time I was reading, meditating on this,
and I was overseas I remember, and it was very
cold, you know? I'm not a person who really likes the
cold, but it was kinda cold, but it was sunny. You know
that kind of wintertime when it's sunny? The sun comes
up, but it's still cold, right? I'm walking in
between shaded areas, there were buildings on either
side of me, and the sun was shining but I couldn't
sense-- I was feeling cold because of the shelter. Have
you all been there? But the moment I stepped out, I kept
myself in the sun, and I refused to go under the
shelter or shade anymore, I just walked outside in the
sun, it was really good. So keep yourself in the love of
God. Be conscious that He loves you. I said be
conscious that He loves you. Right now, are you conscious
that He loves you? Are you conscious that today you are
so privileged? Like Jesus today would say, "Blessed
are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they
hear." Do you feel loved? So, I can't seem to leave
this, but we have to go on. "For your love is better
than wine." Wine is a picture of earthly joy,
right? You can put anything down there. Human
relationship, a darling child, or whatever it is you
can put down there. That is what wine represents. But he
says, "Your love, to experience your love is
better than wine." This is life above the sun, y'all.
Life above the sun, hallelujah. To know Him, the
Bible's all about Him, but to know Him is to find
yourself because you are now in Him, amen. So everything
about the Bible revolves around Jesus Christ.
"Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, Your
name is ointment," anointing, "poured forth;
therefore the virgins love you." All right, let's drop
down. "Draw me away!" Notice, it doesn't say that,
"I will run after you," as if it's her effort. No,
unless the Lord draws, none of us will come to Him. It's
always an act of grace. It's always the Lord who draws
us. You think you are saved today because one day I got
so smart, I think I need Jesus. The rest of the
people are blind, lah. No, no, no, we are all--listen,
we are all subjects of His drawing. Unless He draws us,
we cannot come to Him. In fact, one time Jesus said
this and people were offended. In John chapter 6,
He says that, "No man can come to My Father except He
draw him first." And the Bible says the rest of--He
got many disciples at that time, 70, and perhaps even
more than that. All of them left except the 12. They
left because He said, "No man can come to Me unless
the Father draw him," and they think they came to Him
because of their intelligence, you know? I
see that You're a good teacher, yes, yes. "All you
receive is a teaching. You don't receive Me as the
Savior. The teaching comes after, but you gotta receive
Me as a Savior." No, I see myself. I'm okay, I'm pretty
okay. No, we are sinners through and through, but
when He gives you a salvation, it's a complete
salvation through and through, amen? Hallelujah.
So he says, "Draw me away! We will run after you." Only
when you draw. "The king has brought me into his
chambers," private room. "We will be glad and rejoice in
you. We will remember your love more than wine. Rightly
do they love you." Are you with me so far? All right,
so this is the life that God wants you to live, seeing
Jesus and His love for you every single day. "But how
does that help me in my practical life, Pastor
Prince? You know, Pastor Prince, have you heard the
saying, 'Too heavenly-minded to be of any earthly good?'"
When you say earthly--heavenly-minded, I
think what you mean, because you see a lot of people, you
know, their mind is up there, they are being
religious, religiously-minded. God
doesn't want you religious-minded. In fact,
it was the religious people of Jesus's day that
persecute Him. The common people, what He called the
sinners, heard Him gladly. Jesus came among them and
one time the religious guy says-- you know, a religious
group of them said, "Hey, You are eating with
sinners." Jesus says, "Those that are well do not need a
doctor." It's those who are sick, right? "You don't
think you need Me, therefore you don't come to Me,
because you think you are fine, all right? But I'm a
doctor. So if you come to admire Me, you're not
pleasing My heart. If you just come to follow Me,
again, that's not just pleasing My heart because
you can adopt My principles and go and be independent,
adopting those principles. You just see Me as another
teacher. But you come and say, 'I need You to be my
Savior. I need You to be my bread. I need You to be my
living water,' it is Me that I'm giving." "Come unto Me,"
not, "Take My teachings." "Come unto Me," all right,
"I'll give you rest," and then you learn. After you
come to Him, then you learn. Can I have a good amen?
Okay, so, you ask the question, all right, so my
retort to that would be, all right, I think you are
referring to people who are religiously-minded, they are
no earthly good, and there's no power. You know, people
who are like--they might not pray prayers from a book,
but they pray the same prayers every day. The
prayer never change. Probably it began as life.
One time the Holy Spirit gave you that prayer. I
don't know what prayer it is, right, but you pray the
same form, the same style, the same way. In fact, your
mind can go blank and you still can say the same
words. It's a form of deadness, because what began
initially as an exercise from the Spirit of God to
pray that prayer, now you adopt that prayer like the
manna hoarded, and you are using that prayer. No, you
need to hear the Lord how to pray today and follow His
leading. That is living. And whenever you don't know how
to pray, pray in the Spirit. Can I have a good amen? Are
you with me so far? So this thing that when you are
religiously-minded, you are no earthly good, I agree
120%. I agree. Some of the people that are religious
and go to work, I'm telling you, they're talking about,
"Oh, you know, I think that life is short and I think we
gotta make sure that--" No, they're getting religious.
They think that all these things--in their mind, they
think that by sacrificing or doing a lot of good works
and all that, they are meriting points with Jesus,
with the Lord. They are not. I'm referring to Christians
here. So bosses look at them. The best way to
impress your boss is do what Joseph did. Joseph made
Pharaoh wealthy. And Christians say, "No, no, no,
no, you know, my job is not to make him wealthy. I come
here, I'm for the Lord." That's being religious. You
are duty-bound to glorify the Lord in your behavior,
speaking the truth, not lying, not playing, you
know, office politics, amen, but shine. You are sent
there because God honors and trusts you. You wanna work
in the Christian place? What's the point of the salt
being in the salt shaker? Everyone is salt. Salt is
good among things that are corrupted. In those days,
it's the refrigerator. It keeps things from being
corrupted. They salt their fish. In fact, they found--
they unearthed a whole industry of salted fish near
the Lake of Galilee from the time of Jesus. So salt is
their refrigerator. So when God put you in your company
and a lot of corruption, "Why did God put me here?"
What a honor, respect, amen. You are the light of the
world. What's the point of the light all being in the
light? Very, very bright. Light is good in the
darkness. When it's dark, the light shines. Everyone
will look and they wanna find. People who are longing
for hope, some hope in their darkness, will see your
light. But if all the Christians are just
together, together all the time, how in the world are
you gonna be the salt of the earth and the light of the
world? Don't you know you're a city--like a city set on a
hill that cannot be hid, amen? So God put you there
to demonstrate through your life. You know, there's
something very beautiful about a Christian. Like, you
feel like you are presence of someone who is royal, yet
a servant spirit, amen? There is something, like--
this is not religious at all. This is being
spiritual. This is being Christ-like. We think that
royalty means, like, wow, you gotta carry
yourself--everyone is serving you. No, no, no,
royalty is like there's power. Like, you feel like
there's someone who truly walks with the Lord, you
find that there's a royal mint atmosphere around that
person, and yet the person is--shows--demonstrates
humility. But there's power. There's power when the
person prays, yet there is submission. Jesus, at the
age of 12, was smarter than Joseph, His father, and
Mary--His earthly father, that is. We know who His
true Father is--and Mary. But the Bible says Jesus
increased in wisdom, right? He was smarter at the age of
12. He knew where to be, at the Father's house. So is
all of you today. You are in the Father's house. Another
respect, amen? Smart. Wise people still seek Him. So
Jesus is in the Father's house. So yet, when the
father and mother came and said, "We are seeking You
and all that," He was subject to them, the Bible
says. He left the place where He could hear the
rabbis, the best teachers of the day. You know, just like
you, He loved to hear. That's His hobby as a young
boy, to listen to the Word preached. He left all that
to follow His parents. He was subject to them. The one
who is wiser is subject. You know, there's no glory if
someone is stronger than you and makes you submit.
There's no glory there. But if someone is smarter than
you, stronger than you, and they submit, like women to
their husbands, whew, there's glory there. It's
because--that's why God writes to women first,
because you are smarter. It's a fact. You--yeah,
yeah, don't clap. You are taking my time. If you--if
you don't think that is so--if you don't think that
is so--some people are like, "Oh, bless God, Pastor
Prince. I believe we men are called to be the head."
Yeah, yeah, but listen, listen, even the devil knows
that. Who did he approach first, Adam or Eve? I rest
my case. Okay, so, the Bible says in Song of Songs, "The
king brought me there to his secret chamber where he
shares intimacy with me, the secrets of his love," amen?
Drop down. This is only chapter 1. We are still on
chapter 1. "Tell me," now she's talking to him, "Tell
me, you whom my soul loves." She's addressing him now,
because she's seen his love. He has kissed her. She has
experienced his love. You cannot love Him unless you
know His love for you. And you know how much He loves
you? Like this on the cross. God's Son, King of kings,
don't have to give His life. God didn't send an angel to
die for you. God sent His Son, the one that He loves,
to die for your sins. You know, would I give my son
Justin to die for you? No way, amen? He didn't give
His Son for good people. He gave His Son for people who
didn't care about Him, who were wicked, who were
sinners. And God loved them, and they said, "This is what
we think of Your love." They took His Son and put Him on
the cross, and they lift up the cross for all the world
to see, right? Both Jew and Gentile. It's not just the
Jews. Jew and Gentile are represented at the cross. He
died for our sins. What did God do with that, the
greatest expression of hatred? When the perfect
goodness embodied in human flesh came to earth, what
did man do? Put Him on the cross. What did God do then?
In the natural, we think God would say, "I'll smite you."
God took the cross and God says, "By this, I'll save
all of you if you want My love, if you respond to My
love." I'm not saying everybody will be saved
automatically. "If you accept, if you believe My
Son," amen? Are you with me so far? You know, the Bible
says, "He was in the world and the world knew Him not,"
all right? "He came into his own, and his own received
him not." In the Greek, it's very interesting. "His own"
here, and the second part of the verse, "his own," are
two different "own." One is, "He came into His own
possessions, own things." Nature, everything that's
created by God, responded. They received Him. The water
blushed and turned to wine. The waters of Galilee hushed
and were still before the Master, amen. Sickness bowed
before Him, because there was sickness in the land of
Israel. The land of Israel responded to Him. Even
the--a donkey that has never been sat on-- which, like a
horse or a donkey never sat on will usually
rebel--responded to Him. All accepted Him. He came unto
His own possessions, they responded to Him. "He came
unto his own, but his own," the next one, "received him
not." His own people received Him not. So don't
be numbered among those people, amen. Some people
want His miracles but not Him. He is the one. You get
the one, you get everything else He has, amen. Amen?
Okay, so she asks, "Tell me, you whom my soul--" I'll
close with this, okay? How come nowadays I'm always
preaching my introduction? "Tell me, you whom my soul
loves, where you pasture your flock." Tell me your
secret, where you pasture your flock, "where you make
it lie down at noon," when it's really hot. "For why
should I be like one who veils herself," cannot even
see your beauty because I am veiled? The problem is not
in your beauty. The problem is not in the display. It is
all there, but I cannot see. I'm like one who is veiled,
"besides the flocks of your companions?" There's so many
of them, and sometimes instead of looking at You,
Lord, I'm veiled. I am distracted by the flocks of
Your companions. "You know, Pastor, this pastor did
this, you know. This pastor did that. This pastor is
preaching this. This person is doing that. This
person--and some of the Christians, have you notice
how she wears her makeup like that? Oh, look at this
Christian down there. Oh, it look like--" you know? Stop
looking at the flocks of His companion and look at the
Shepherd. Forget the flock. They will just distract you,
hmm? You are still under the vanity line when you look at
other people, amen? Look to Him. Look to Him. See His
beauty. Look at His love for you. Want to experience that
love intimately, okay? And the answer comes. He answers
her, "If you do not know," that means you do not know
where I pasture my flock, where I make them lie down
at noon. You know sheep, right? After they graze,
they lie down when it's really hot under the shade,
any shade they can find. A large rock or under a tree,
they will all gather together and they'll be
there. So she wants to know where she can find food,
where you pasture your flock, where she can find
green pastures. Hey, listen, today you are getting green
pastures, I'm feeding you, but every day you ought to
feed yourself. Spend time in the devotional, in the Word
of God, because you-- don't be someone buried in the
world but barren in your soul. You are so immersed in
the world and you are hungry on the inside. And you think
that, "Ah, I'll go for the next movie that comes, ah."
At the end, for awhile you are distracted, but you get
back there again, vanity of vanities, empty, all right?
You are crying for something. That something is
found here. It's a someone. In this case now,
Ecclesiastes, the heart, right, is too big for the
world. Here, the object, the beloved, is too big for our
heart. Lord, enlarge our hearts, Lord, that we may be
able to see You, Lord, in Your beauty. So he answers
her. Would you like to know the secret where he pastures
his flock? Come on. "If you do not know," he says, "O
most beautiful among women." I love it. He can say, "If
you do not know," and go to the next line, "follow in
the tracks," right? He didn't say that. He says,
"If you do not know, O most beautiful among women." That
tells me you can be ignorant and in His eyes you are
still most beautiful. He doesn't say, "Why are you so
stupid?" So He addressed her like this, "O most beautiful
among women." Your very desire to want to know from
me where I feed my flock makes you most beautiful in
my eyes. If you do not know, while ignorant, most
beautiful. "If you do not know, O most beautiful among
women," Wendy, if you--that's a special one
just for her. It's her birthday, you know, so.
Wendy-- Wendy, my lovely, lovely lady. A picture of
such beauty is His gift to me. All right, don't use the
song, okay? It's copyrighted here, okay? "All right, get
to the point, Pastor Prince, you know?" Hey, relax, bro.
Relax, amen? He that believeth shall not make
haste. He says, "If you do not know, most beautiful
among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and
pasture your young goats," or in the King James, your
kids, "beside the shepherds' tents." What is he saying?
And we'll close with this. He's saying, "You wanna
follow after Me? But don't forget, where I am found is
the church." And this is where I think sometimes we
have this personal thing. People say Song of Songs is
me and Him. "Let him kiss me," you notice that? Yes,
it starts with the personal, but it ends up--this is the
last part of the chapter 1. It ends up with the church.
You cannot live a solo Christian life. You cannot
just say--you know, everything in the Bible is
like, "Teach one another. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching one another," not
just teaching yourself. "Love one another. And they
were all in one accord in one place, and the place was
shaken. And being let go, they went to their own
company. How good and how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity." It's like the dew of Herman
and the dew on the mountains of Zion. "There in Zion, the
Lord commands his blessing--life forevermore."
Where? Zion, the place of the church, where the church
is, new covenant. Don't forget, you cannot live the
Christian life on your own. You come together, we--it's
not the building. It's not the building. It's when we
come together, there's something there. So he's
saying--go back to Song of Songs again. We'll close
with this. He says, "If you wanna know where I pasture
my flock, where I make them to rest when it's really
hot," when the trials, the various trials come in, and
you are going through the fight of life, and you find
that it's so hard, you know, and the Bible says, "This is
the secret. This is where you find rest and food,
where I pasture my flock." Where? "Follow in the tracks
of the flock and pasture your young goats beside the
shepherds' tents." There are proven track before us. Men
and women of God have gone before us. Are you
listening? The old doctrines we call new covenant, they
are old by now actually, right? Not old covenant, but
new covenant, but God is saying, "Find the old
paths," the path where the great men of God all went.
Read the book of Acts, and the book of Acts says, "This
is the path of the flock." In Acts 2:42, right, it
says, "Those who receive the word," how many of them?
"Three thousand souls." Mount Zion. Three thousand
people died when God gave the Ten Commandments, the
law. Three thousand people were saved when God gave the
Spirit, not the law, huh? On what mountain? Zion. This is
the one. "And they devoted themselves--" this is the
path of the flock. "They devoted themselves," number
one, "to the apostles' teaching." So even when you
teach the entire Bible, it must always be new
covenant-based, the apostles' teaching. Number
two, your church has got to be based on fellowship.
There's power in fellowship. When the devil wants to
bring someone to destroy him, what he does is he cuts
him off socially. He cuts him off from the people of
God. There's something that happens, sometimes we don't
even have to encourage someone, just being together
over coffee or whatever, there is an uplifting. There
is an enlivening. There is something that buoys us up,
like a buoy in the water, you know, just being
together. "If two of you are gathered in My name, there I
am," amen? Something about being together. There the
Lord commands the blessing. And I wanna encourage you,
if you can, come physically. Follow the footsteps of this
flock, amen. Number three, the breaking of bread. Find
a church where there's the breaking of bread. We aren't
the only ones. Find a good church where there's the
breaking of bread, and the prayers. I chose this
translation because it is true to the Greek in this
verse. The prayers. It's not just prayers. Many versions,
even King James, put down there, "And prayers." It's
actually, "The prayers," definite article, "The
prayers." There's a definite art--definite prayer in mind
in the New Testament. You're all getting it already.
There was a prayer that didn't exist before in the
Old Testament that is now called "The prayer." And
many times, it's not translated in the English
Bible. They just leave the definite article out, but
there's a definite article there, "The prayers." What
is that? Praying in the Spirit, which is unique for
people under the new covenant. [speaking in
tongues] Come on, come on, church. This is the path,
proven and tried. And you do that, what's gonna happen?
"Awe came upon every soul, many wonders and signs were
being done through the apostles." Drop down,
"Praising God--Day by day, attending the temple
together, breaking bread in their homes, they received
their food with glad and generous hearts." This is
the Lord's Supper, by the way. NLT brings it out,
because the breaking bread earlier is the same Greek
word as this one, all right? NLT says, "They met in homes
for the Lord's Supper." Go back again to the ESV. All
right, "Praising God and having favor with all the
people." "But Pastor Prince, we need souls to be saved."
"And the Lord added to the church daily such as should
be saved," amen? Here is where you find rest. Here is
where you find pasture. In the Father's house, there's
more than enough. It's like I can see it, but we are so
flesh-bound, so physically limited in our minds, in our
understanding, we think that this is real. The spiritual
realm is more real because it was a Spirit being that
brought forth-- God Himself, that brought forth the
physical. And the physical is dying. The physical is
becoming decrepit, amen. It waxes old. But the spirit
cannot grow old. Even those who are in hell, the
demons-- Satan will be in hell one day and they will
still be there. Spirit, there's no wear and tear.
And what happens to you when you come to God's house?
Well, it says that you will become strong. There's a
verse that says, "When you appear in Zion-- Blessed is
the person whose strength is in You, in whose heart are
the roads to Zion!" Even if you are thinking of going to
church-- Zion is where the temple is, the church for us
today. Even thinking about going to church, this is
your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
even thinking about going to church. And God always
plans. For the believer, it is like this. Your ultimate
day is Sunday and the rest is a journey through the
wilderness. And there's a song called the Fifteen
Psalms of Degrees, or Ascent, ascent. It is a
psalm's psalm that they--the Jewish pilgrims would sing
as they go up to Zion, and it's literally, physically
going up. Zion is on a mountain. They are going up
from the lowest place in the Dead Sea. They go up and
they sing Fifteen Songs of Ascent, amen. For us today,
it is as you contemplate going to church, even what
happens in your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, this will happen. "You pass
through the Valley of Baca." What is Baca? Tears,
weeping. Sometimes there's weeping in your weekday, but
God says you will make it a fountain. You will make it a
spring of water. And God will also pour out His early
rain and cover your wilderness with blessings.
As long as your heart, your strength is in Him, you are
conscious of Him, you look to Him, and your heart is
always looking forward for church, hallelujah, you're
looking forward for Sunday, you're looking forward. I
know some preachers don't like this part here, all
right. They say, "Oh, Sunday again," ha ha ha. You don't
understand, it's a private joke among the pastors, all
right, because-- "Oh no." Because you know why? You
all are such vociferous appetite. You want--better
preach properly, yeah? You know? So you all, pray for
your pastors, okay? Pray for us. So God says, "If your
heart--" New King James says, "Your heart is set on
pilgrimage." That means the whole idea is that I'm just
going through this journey, but I can endure it because
Sunday is coming where everything is-- Father's
house, there's more than enough to spare. There God
says, "I will clothe My priests. There I will
satisfy the poor with bread." There's abundance
there. There God commands His life forevermore. When
we come together, right, something happens, you know?
You don't have to talk sometimes. You just feel it.
There's an enlivening. There's a lifting up, amen?
Watch this. I'll end with this. "They go from strength
to strength, every one of them appears before God in
Zion." Make sure it's not Sinai. Only when you are in
church and Zion is a place of corporate gathering, so
it's a picture of the church. We come together,
what's gonna happen to us? We will--listen, you know a
journey like that for them, talking about the natural,
is very tiring. How many of you, when you go on a
journey, even flying to a place, you feel tired
already? You drive, sometimes you drive, you
drive from place to place, you feel very tired. So
under normal circumstances in a journey, you get more
and more tired. But over here, as long as your heart
is to Zion, amen, you increase from strength to
strength. Ah, you didn't hear me. From strength to
strength! And there's no casualty among the pilgrims.
"Every one appears before God in Zion." Now,
after--God gave you health for what? Ever ask yourself?
To make more money. The longer I live, more money I
make. That's called stupid. Read the book of
Ecclesiastes. What is that that you get? You will leave
it to the next generation. Where will you be? "What
shall it profit a man," Jesus says, "gains the whole
world but lose his own soul?" Why did God gave you
the health and the strength? My time is up, come on. Help
me, come on. Why did God give you the strength? For
you to use it for His glory, serve Him, amen. Give the
best of your youth, your strength to the Master, as
the old hymn says, amen? You go from strength to
strength. By the way, in the Septuagint, the Greek
version of this verse, you go from dynamite to
dynamite, dunamis to dunamis. You come to
church--by the way, let me--ha ha, let me close.
This is the last close, I'm serious. You all don't laugh
like that, lah. Laugh like polite, ah ha ha, okay. Last
close, really. I'm gonna show you this, then we'll
close with this. Studies show amazing population data
from this group, a team from the UCLA and Vanderbilt
found a significant association between church
attendance and mortality among adults 40 to 65 years.
People who attended church more than once a week had a
55% reduction in all-cause mortality compared to
non-churchgoers." I think it's referring to physical
attendance as well. I think this was probably done
before COVID. "On one measure of stress,
allostatic load," which is the wear and tear of chronic
stress, "churchgoers tended to far better than
non-churchgoers." You will go--look up here. You will
go from strength to strength, from dunamis to
dunamis, dynamite to dynamite, hallelujah. Where?
In Zion, amen! Come on, church. Praise the Lord.
Every head bowed, every eye closed. If you have never
put your trust in Jesus Christ, oh, I'm so glad. Can
you say, "I was glad to be in the house of the Lord
today"? I want you to put your trust in Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved and your house. If that is you wherever you are
right now, you say, "Pastor, I wanna give my life to the
Lord Jesus. In other words, I wanna believe in what
Christ has done." Remember, His love, He can love you
and you turn your back. His love is still shining on
your back, but you're not enjoying it because you
haven't received it. You must receive it for
yourself, so I'm gonna help you right now to receive
that gift of eternal life. Say, "Father in heaven."
Say, "Father in heaven, I thank You for giving me the
gift of Your Son. What an awesome gift. Jesus Christ,
who died on the cross for all my sins, punished for
them all, rose from the dead when I was acquitted because
His work is finished. I confess Jesus Christ is my
Lord, my Savior, and my God, in Jesus's name." And all
the people said... If you prayed that prayer, you are
now a child of God. I wanna encourage you, we have some
gifts we wanna place in your hands to help you walk this
pasture of the flock, amen, where your needs will be
provided by the Lord, especially your innermost
needs, amen? Praise the Lord. And don't give up. The
Lord brought you here because He loves you, amen,
whatever you're going through. Praise the Lord.
Let Him shepherd you and love you. Stand to your
feet. Lift your hands all across this place,
everywhere that's watching this right now. The Lord
Himself demonstrates His love to you with the kisses
of His mouth throughout this week. I pray in the name of
Jesus, Father, that every single one of them will
experience that love in a personal way, and then
demonstrate that love, Lord, in the church, learning that
in Your house, there is abundance, more than enough
for all their needs. Father, I pray that this revelation
becomes so real, but especially, Father, the
revelation of Jesus Christ in all His infinite beauty
at the Father's right hand. Help us, Lord, to live above
the vanity scene into the Resurrection scene where
everything is living. And cause us, Lord, to walk in
ways, Lord, that we don't touch death, but in
everything that we do, say, and think, it is living. It
is living, led by Your Spirit. Led by Your Spirit
throughout this week. In Jesus's name, and all the
people said, "Amen." Love you, love you, love you. God
bless you. We'll see you again. I hope you enjoyed today's
episode! But don't go just yet. If you'd like to
receive prayer, share your testimony, or find out more
about Gospel Partner, just click the link on this
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