On that day, every soul is paid for what it earned, and none shall be unjustly treated. No, God is swift to reckon. And upon his family, the good and the pure, and his companions, the faithful. Praise be to Allah, Who made us from the righteous, with the help of the Lord of the Lord, and the Lord of the Highest. Our son, Abu Talib. Praise be to Allah, Who guided us to this. And we were not to be guided, if Allah had guided us. As for what Allah says in His Noble Book, In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Say, I will not ask you for a reward except for the material in the near future. The first of Abu Salawat is the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad, peace be upon him. The second is the Prophet of the believers, Ali Ibn Abi Talib. The third with your loudest voices, and one of the Imam of our time, Imam Sa'hab Al-Asri, was Zaman. Respected scholars, brothers and sisters, peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah. Imam Muhammad Ibn Ali Al-Mahdi. Salawat Allah, peace be upon him. Imam Muhammad Ibn Hassan Ibn Ali Al-Mahdi was born on the 15th of Sha'ban in the 250th year after Hijrah. Revealed by many as the Messiah of the religion of Islam. His life has to be examined in depth, for he is the awaited savior of the religion. The one who will bring justice and remove all forms of oppression and indeed all forms of cruelty and tyranny. You find that the discussion concerning the Imam is a vital one which affects each and every one of our lives. A discussion from which many a lesson may be learnt and indeed many examples may be derived. Principles may be gained theological, ethical as well as jurisprudential. And a discussion with a historical basis and a contemporary significance. Contemporary on the idea that every religion in the world today believes in a Mehdi. Every religion in the world today believes in an awaited savior. If you were to study the scriptures of each and every religion in the world, you'll find within their scriptures there is the discussion concerning an awaited savior. A savior who will remove all forms of tyranny, will remove all forms of oppression and instill justice and peaceful equality within the world within which we live. For example, if you were to study the Avesta, the Zoroastrian scripture, you'll find that it mentions a man by the name of Saushiant. Saushiant is the awaited savior, the one who will come and bring complete goodness in the universe. If you were to study the Bhagavad Purana, the Hindu scripture, you'll find that there is a man by the name of the Kalki and that this is a man who will come at a time when the politicians will be corrupt and full of deceit and will be abusing the innocent people, he will come and remove all the corruption and all of the deceit. If you study the Ravada, the scripture of the Buddhists, you'll find that Buddha Guatam speaks of a final Buddha, a Buddha who will bring enlightenment at a time of darkness to the earth. If you look within Jewish scripture, you'll find that there is a discussion of a messiah from the children of David who will come and remove all types of tyranny and injustice. If you look at Christian scripture, there is the second coming of Jesus as the messiah who will come with the word of God and will bring justice and equality. In other words, we find that the belief in the Mehdi is a belief not just for Muslims, but a belief of every religion in the world today. Every religion believes in an awaited savior. Likewise, when you look within the religion of Islam, you find that Sunni and Shi'a have more in common than they have differences on this issue. It is obligatory on every Muslim, Sunni and Shi'a, to believe in the Mehdi. The only difference is being concerning whether he is alive or whether he is to be born. Other than that, you will find that there are numerous traditions, both in Sunni literature and in Shi'a literature, which refer to a man by the name of Mehdi from the sons of Fatima whose name is the name of the Prophet who will come and bring injustice and remove all types of injustice. Therefore, on the first level, the need to dissect the biography of the Imam is because this is the topic which refers and applies to every religion in the world today. And on the second level, the famous narration we have from the Holy Prophet, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the famous narration which states The one who dies without knowing, the Imam of his time dies the death of someone in ignorance. Naturally, every Muslim has this belief that there is a need to know the Imam of our time. There is a need to understand his biography. And many questions arise concerning the Imam today. As in many times, people ask the question, how many people did Imam al-Asqari tell about Imam al-Mahdi? What is the origin of Imam al-Mahdi's mother? Was Imam al-Mahdi with his parents for the first few years of his life or no? What was the need of a minor Ghaiba and who were his representatives? What was the wisdom behind a major occultation? What are, for example, the signs of his reappearance? You find that these are all questions that are being asked today. And would you believe there are certain elements within our own communities today who have begun to question the position of the Imam? But this allows for free thought. There is no harm. Let the people come and discuss with evidence, with texts, in order that we are able to get acquainted with the biography of the Imam of our time. As we said, when we come to discussing Imam Muhammad ibn Hassan ibn Ali al-Mahdi, we begin that he was born when he was born on the 15th of Sha'ban in the year 255 after Hijrah. The question arises, what was the environment surrounding his birth? As we know very well, his father, our 11th Imam, was around 22 when he received his Imamah. There were two factions of people who were interested in understanding who his successor was. The first of them were naturally going to be his own adherents. Naturally, they were going to be the people from his own school, from the religion of Islam and from the school of Ahlul Bayt. These people had traditions at the time, which had spoken about the fact that there will be 12 Imams after the Prophet. Or that there will be 12 Khulafa after the Prophet, as in if you were to dissect from the time of our 6th Imam. When people around that time, like Abu Sa'id al-Asfari in his Asal, which is available until today, people such as later in the time, Imam Al-Bukhari in his Sahih, Imam Al-Bukhari was living in the time of Imam Al-Jawad, Imam Al-Hadi, and Imam Al-Asfari. You find Al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim al-Rassi in his book Al-Rad'ala Al-Rawafiz, Fadal ibn Sha'dan, all of these had spoken of the names of the Imams of Al-Muhammad or had spoken about the number of the Caliphs after Rasulullah or had spoken about a Mahdi being born from the line of the Prophet. As in you find Imam Al-Bukhari, his Sahih, Sahih Al-Bukhari is with us until today. Imam Al-Bukhari was living in the time of Imam Al-Jawad, Imam Al-Hadi, Imam Al-Asfari. Imam Al-Bukhari in his book Sahih Al-Bukhari has written down about the fact that not only there will be 12 Caliphs after the Prophet, but that there will be a man by the name of Mahdi from the line of Fatima who will come and bring justice and remove all forms of tyranny. In other words, there were many texts which were available, which at the time were already discussing the Mahdi. The Shia of Imam Al-Asfari were wondering when is the Mahdi going to be born. They were one faction who were interested in the birth. Another faction that was interested in the birth was the Abbasid Khulafa. Naturally, today you will find some people who say, what's your evidence that Imam Al-Mahdi was born then? Imam Al-Mahdi is not born. Imam Al-Mahdi will be born later. Our reply is that number one, you already had texts which mentioned 12 Imams and his name. But that number two, if Imam Al-Mahdi there was no sign of his birth, then why would the Abbasid Caliphs put Imam Al-Hadi and Imam Al-Asfari on the house arrest? Imam Al-Hadi and Imam Al-Asfari, what did they have? Huge armies, did they have 100,000 people standing outside their houses? If you look at the life of Imam Al-Hadi and Imam Al-Asfari, they had relatively few followers who had access to them. Therefore today when someone says to you, I don't believe Imam Al-Mahdi was born. What's your evidence? Alongside texts such as the texts of Fadal bin Shadan or Abu Sa'id Al-Asfari or for example the texts which mentioned the Imams, say to them then why were the Abbasid Khulafa standing outside his house? Waiting for one of the women of the house to give birth. If there's no such thing as Imam Zaman, then why would the Abbasid Khulafa put Imam Al-Hadi and Imam Al-Asfari on the house arrest? In other words, these two groups were surrounding the house and I need to make something very clear for you. This discussion is the most vital discussion of all the Imams which I need you to understand because it has some delicate points. Imam Al-Asfari, did he tell a lot of people about Imam Al-Mahdi? I don't believe he did. I don't believe Imam Al-Asfari told many people about Imam Al-Mahdi and I believe if you research the sources you'll find Imam Al-Asfari did not tell many people. If you count them, I am even willing to go as far as saying that some of Imam Al-Asfari's closest confidants and advisors did not know about Imam Al-Mahdi's birth until the day of the birth. Someone will say, what do you mean? I'll say who are the ones who knew about Imam Al-Mahdi is only a very close group of people. Who are they? You find, for example, amongst them, Abu Hashim Al-Jafari, he knew about the Imam. Ahmed bin Ishaq, he knew about the Imam. Two ladies, Imam Al-Asfari's aunties, Imam Al-Asfari had two aunties from his father, Imam Al-Hadi's side, Hakima, who was buried in Samara, and Khadija. And amongst the other close confidants, people like Abu Al-Adiyan, other than these, I don't think Imam Al-Asfari told many people about the birth and I will go a step further in saying that I do not even believe Hakima knew about the birth of the Imam until even the day of the birth. Someone will say why? Because Imam Al-Asfari had to be very careful who exactly knew about his son. Imagine, your son is going to be Hujjat Allah fi Ardi. Your son is going to be the proof of Allah. Do you stand outside your house and say, everyone, my son is born, please come and visit him. We will have a baby shower or something. You are more than welcome to come. On the contrary, Imam Al-Asfari, no way would he tell that many people. Even later on, people when they asked why Imam Al-Asfari didn't tell because Imam Al-Asfari knows there are certain people we can't trust even from our own family. From our own family, there are certain people we can't trust about Imam Al-Mahdi. And even there were people in the house of Imam Al-Asfari who did not know which of the ladies in his house would give birth to Imam Al-Hujjat. What do I mean? This is the first important point. There were a number of ladies in his house. There was a lady by the name of Narjis. There was a lady by the name of Saleek. In the books of Hadith, we have traditions about the wife of Imam Al-Asfari. Saduk says and Tusi says and Ibn Rustam Al-Tabari says and Masoudi says she is Narjis Khatun who is of Christian ancestry. Kulaini says that she is of African ancestry. The question arises here that today some people have come and said is Narjis of Christian ancestry or is she of African ancestry? Let's look at Narjis firstly. Narjis and Saleek were the two women who people had claimed were in the house of Imam Al-Asfari when it was the time to give birth. Narjis who was she? Narjis, Imam Al-Hadi one day told his companion Bishr. He said Bishr, you are of the people of Medina, of the Ansar.  I want you to go to the river Forat on the banks of Baghdad. Here take 220 gold dinar with you. Bishr said why, O Imam? He said go there and you will see that a ship arrives and that there is a man who takes out a number of slaves. And when this man takes out the number of slaves, the man's name will be according to different narrations you find that his name was Omar bin Yazid and you find that this person will come out with a number of slaves. When he comes out you will see one particular slave who will come out. People will be bidding her and he will try and make her move her veil but she says to him please do not touch my veil. And when the people are bidding she keeps rejecting whoever bids, she keeps rejecting, she keeps rejecting until eventually you will find someone will say I bid 300 dinar and I'll give you whatever you want and she turns around and she says that even if you gave me the kingdom of Suleiman I will still not come towards what you want. Then you go forward and you pay 220 gold dinar and give this letter to her. When she reads the letter you will see that she kisses it and then she will come with you. Bishop says I went, the bidding began. I went, I gave the letter, she kissed it and she came with me and then she began speaking in Arabic her whole story. She said my name is Malika or Malika. I am the daughter of the Caesar of Rome. I am here and I will tell you my story. My father wanted me to get married to my cousin. He invited more than a thousand dignitaries, priests and all of the holy personalities came. On the day we want to get married there was like a shaking in the building. The wedding was called off. Again there was a day when we want to get married there was a shaking in the building. Again it was called off. My father was worried, why is this bad omen happening to us? She narrates that in my dream after all of this had happened I saw a dream where I saw the Prophet Jesus come with all of his companions towards the Prophet Muhammad and all of his sons. And the narration says that the Prophet Muhammad said to the Prophet Jesus we want to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage for our son Hassan al-Asqari. The Prophet Jesus said it was our honor. She said I woke up from this dream and fourteen nights later I saw a dream having accepted this dream in my head I saw a dream where I saw Fatima al-Zahra speak to Maryam and in this dream I asked when will I see Hassan al-Asqari and Fatima al-Zahra said to Maryam when your daughter when she comes towards the religion of Islam then there will be a union between the two of them. She said I was waiting to see when this union will be and I was told by Imam al-Asqari when I saw him in a dream that you will come there will be a war between the Muslims and the Romans you will come on the riverbank and you will be sold for this amount when the person offers this much and there is a Roman letter accept it and that is how I came and Bishar says I took her to Imam al-Hadi and when I took her to Imam al-Hadi as I took her to Imam al-Hadi Imam al-Hadi said to her that you are on it by Allah on this earth this is the narration about Narjis now there is a question here and I need you to understand these delicate points in order that we understand the basis of our Imam's biography Al Kulaini mentions that the mother is from Africa Sadoq has a narration like Tusi, like Ibn Rustam al-Tabari they all talk about the fact that she is from Rome why would one say from Africa the other would say from Rome even the close confidants of the imams themselves they knew there were a couple of women present in the house of Imam al-Asqari one was called Narjis the other was called Saleek when the Abbasid soldiers were surrounding the house of Imam al-Asqari Saleek came forward and said when they asked is there any woman who is pregnant here it's as if Saleek knew that she wasn't the pregnant one she came forward and said I am the one who is pregnant to defend the life of Narjis very important point and that's why the Abbasid soldiers kept on watching Saleek until after a year and Abaidullah bin Khakan passed away that's when the Abbasid soldiers finally gave up on Saleek and watching her some people came and said, for example that the only reason you say Narjis is because Narjis was of high nobility and you didn't want to say that Imam's mother was a slave girl on the contrary we in the school of Ahlul Bayt before Imam Mehdi there were other imams whose mothers were slave girls we could have easily changed their story others say you only made it a story related to Christians because at the end Jesus and Mehdi will come together so you try to make it this happy story this romantic story of the togetherness on the contrary we believe in Jesus even before any of this story our Quran spoke about Jesus 250 years before this story in other words what you find is that the first vital point is what the first vital point is those who come today and say but Al-Kulayni mentions this and so on there wasn't only one woman in the house and that's why the Abbasid soldiers were led into thinking that it was the lady of the African descent this is number one number two so what happened you see on the night of the 15th of Sha'ban Hakimah the auntie of Imam al-Asqari herself says I did not know which of the ladies is the one who's going to give birth she says I don't know Hakimah says I don't know do you know why because Nader just did not have the signs of pregnancy on her someone says how can you not have the signs of pregnancy what are you talking about Musa's mother had the signs of pregnancy did Musa's mother have the signs of pregnancy or no no why did Musa's mother not have the signs of pregnancy because Far'aun would have cut the baby into pieces with the mother isn't it so didn't Allah subhanu wa ta'ala conceal her pregnancy if Allah can conceal the pregnancy of the mother of Nabi Musa why can't he conceal the pregnancy of the mother of Imam Zaman Hakimah says I did not know which of the ladies was going to give birth until Imam al-Asqari my nephew came up to me and said auntie tonight you're going to come to my house break Iftar at my house and I want you to stay in my house for tonight Allah's proof on earth will be born say the Hakimah narrates that I went to the house that night and I looked at Nurgis and Nurgis did not have the signs of pregnancy she said even when the Imam said to me tonight is the night I'm looking at the woman that got the signs of pregnancy I came Nurgis came to clean my feet I said to her no I have to clean your feet you are going to be the mother of the Imam of this time she narrates that that night the baby was born and she narrates that we heard a verse come out from the mouth of that baby on that night when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned surah 28 verse 5 when we read to him when we read to him you find that this verse was read by the Imam as soon as he was born therefore on that night we need to understand the concept not everybody around Imam al-Asqari of his Shi'a were told about the birth of the Imam no there were some you can't trust the first of them Imam al-Asqari is brother Ja'far Ja'far do you know what he used to do when Imam al-Asqari would fall ill Ja'far would go behind his back and come home now the Mahdi is going to be surely leading his prayers and that's why there's a fundamental question which I need you to all understand Imam al-Mahdi he's born in the year 255 do you agree 255 Imam al-Asqari when did he die which year 260 excellent so he's born there's something which needs to be asked when a baby is born in a house say the soldiers have been outside that house the soldiers are surely going to recognize after six months after a year 18 months 24 that there's a baby they've never seen before isn't it so how can he live in Samarra that long without no one knowing him hasn't that question ever bothered you if he's born 255 AH and Imam al-Asqari died 260 and we always say that the Abbasid soldiers have surrounded the house haven't they surrounded the house Allah concealed the pregnancy that's how I understand she gave birth that night that's how I understand surely there's going to be a son walking around and we say that he wanted to go back the age of 5 yes? when did it begin? the age of 5 or 4 years and 7 months for example let's say so where is he? you see if you say he's around Samarra this whole 5 years people will turn around to you and say listen are these soldiers blind they can't see a kid walking around it's because he wasn't in Samarra he wasn't his father sent him shortly after birth first he sent him outside Samarra for 40 days and then after that his father sent him to stay with his grandmother Hodeitha in Medina if he's in Samarra the soldiers going to look at the child and say hold on a minute why are we all getting confused there kill the child send him to live in Medina when I'm about to pass away that's when he has to come back from Medina Imam al-Mahdi's first few years in his life were in Medina not Samarra if you say they were in Samarra your whole argument falls it's impossible he was in Samarra Imam al-Asqari has to send him out to Medina and that's why when some of Imam al-Asqari's companions would come and say to him where's your son? he'd say if you go to Mecca for Hajj you'll see him and if you go to Medina you'll see him it's because there was no way his son was living with him in Samarra if I'm Imam al-Asqari and I'm walking in a house and my son's next to me you think the Abbasid soldiers going to look at me and say masha'Allah your son looks good today? so Imam al-Asqari sends his son where? to Samarra and that's why when Imam al-Asqari died you know we always remember the time of 8th Rabi'a and around that period don't we remember Aida al-Zahra and so on when Imam died 15 days before he died do you remember the story I narrated yesterday? he told our Abu al-Adian in 15 days I'm going to die please listen to the wording so we know how the story develops in 15 days our Abu al-Adian I'm going to die here are the letters for my Shia in Baghdad I have answered all of their jurisprudential issues go to them you will see Ahmad ibn al-Hasan there when you go to Ahmad ibn al-Hasan over there go there answer their questions when you come back in 15 days please listen to the wording when you come back in 15 days you will hear that Hasan al-Asqari has died you will have with you the letters and you will see the one who asks you for them and the one who prays over me and the one who knows the answer to how much is in the yellow bag he is my successor Abu al-Adian Abu al-Adian what did he do? Abu al-Adian left he went to Baghdad he stayed in Baghdad after Baghdad Abu al-Adian came back Abu al-Adian narrates when I came to Samara Samara everybody had come out Hasan al-Asqari has died he said I went I went where? and do you know when Imam al-Asqari was ill do you know who told the Abbasid Khulafa that he is ill? his brother Ja'far his brother Ja'far brother of an Imam tells the Abbasid Khalif listen Hasan al-Asqari is ill I am advising you quickly go to the house and check and that's why Imam al-Asqari didn't tell everybody where Imam al-Zaman is because Imam knows you can't trust those close to you Abu al-Adian he doesn't even tell him Abu al-Adian he says look out for these signs see how particular the word is look out for the signs if Abu al-Adian even Abu al-Adian I can't say to him exactly everything I give him signs Abu al-Adian when he returns he says I saw Ja'far saying I am the new Imam he was about to begin his Salah someone came and removed him and I have a greater right on this prayer now question if Imam Zaman was living in Samarra all those years would the people be confused as to who he is? no they wouldn't they'd know who he is but what if someone out of the blue came after living in Medina and came and let the prayers do you see how it adds up now if Imam al-Zaman let those prayers someone can turn around to you and say hold on so you're telling me a 5 year old came to leave the prayer and nobody had ever seen him in Samarra before but he wasn't living in Samarra he was living in Medina he came back to Samarra to bury and to do the Salah of his father because an Imam always prays over an Imam isn't it so when the Imam came he said to me I have a greater right Abu al-Adian said Ja'far was being used who is this person? if Imam was living with Ja'far in Samarra would Ja'far be surprised? but because the Imam from a young age went to live in Medina Ja'far was like who is this so he let the prayer everybody quickly because people are all queuing up no one's concerned who's leading people are trying to get there for the meyit everyone's queuing up queuing up then the Imam comes to Abu al-Adian Abu al-Adian says I was just standing there the 5 year old came up to me and he said to me Abu al-Adian give me the letters he said I took the letters I gave it to him because I remember the Imam said to me the one who asks for the letters the one who prays over me and now number 3 by the time of number 3 Ja'far started getting suspicious he went into the Abbas al-Khaliba quickly the Mehdi is here quickly come the chief judge of Samarra came everybody came they entered a person from Qom had entered saying where is al-Asqari they said he's dead they said well we have some khums to give him how much khums is this if you are the real Imam Ja'far said would you think I know the unseen then a person came and said 1010 dinar the people gave it to him Abu al-Adian said I looked at him where are you going he said I'm going back to my Imam al-Hujja ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi Salawatullahu salamu alaykum in other words the first 5 years of Imam al-Mahdi's life are very much understood in our communities and need more clarification many people wonder how did this all occur Imam al-Mahdi was not living in Samarra Imam al-Mahdi was living in Madina as soon as he was born Imam al-Asqari made movements for him to move away if Imam al-Mahdi stays in the same house for 5 years you think the Abbas al-Khaliba will not kill him and that's why from that period Imam al-Mahdi went on what is known as Ghaybat al-Sughra Ghaybat al-Sughra was part of a system which was begun from Imam al-Sadaq what do we mean Imam al-Sadaq began an underground movement called al-Wikala the deputies Imam al-Sadaq knew there's going to be the beginning of imams who are under prison arrest or house arrest or indeed government security so Imam al-Sadaq began Ghaybat al-Sughra someone says what do you mean how could he begin Ghaybat al-Sughra Imam al-Sadaq began the underground movement where if you couldn't get access to an imam because of the imam being under house arrest then the imam appoints someone for you to go and see on his behalf Imam al-Sadaq for example had Mualla ibn Khunais Imam al-Qadim had Othman ibn Isa Rawasi Imam al-Ruza had Safwan ibn Yahya Imam al-Jawad had Abdelrahman ibn Hajjaj Imam al-Hadi had Ayyub ibn Nuh all of these do you know what their role was collect zakat of the shi'a collect the khums of the shi'a and answer the questions of the shi'a on behalf of the imam Imam al-Asqari had families for him the Nubahti family the Mahziar family the Hamadani family they were all working on the imam al-Asqari Imam al-Hujjah as soon as he went on Ghaybat al-Soghra why did he go on Ghaybat al-Soghra in order to prepare us that when he is absent there's going to be people who we can go to for all solutions the first of them of his four representatives Ghaybat al-Soghra was how long 69, 70 years the first of his representatives was Othman ibn Said and Othman ibn Said the narration say to us that this Othman ibn Said used to work for Imam al-Jawad from the age of 11 and then he worked for Imam al-Hadi then he worked for Imam al-Asqari Imam made him his first representative you know these four wakala in many cases this Shia would come to them and they would ask them questions because in Ghaybat al-Soghra they still had access directly to the Imam these four wakala Othman later his son then Hussain ibn Rouh Hussain ibn Rouh you know with these four some of the Shia would say if you truly are in touch with the Imam then send us some of our proposals and questions which we have they'd want them to perform miracles Ali ibn Qummi comes to Hussain ibn Rouh the third of the wakala of the Imam third out of the four he comes to him and he says to him O Hussain my name is Ali al-Qummi he says yes he said I'm trying to have sons from my wife but I can't have any can you ask the Imam to pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the Imam to pray to Allah that Allah honours me with sons Hussain ibn Rouh said what Hussain ibn Rouh said leave this to me I will speak with the Imam and as soon as I speak to the Imam I will come back with the confirmation he spoke to the Imam the Imam that first Ghaybat was getting us ready for the Ghaybat al-Qubra he went to speak to the Imam told him tell him the wife he has now will give him no children but he is going to marry another wife from Dailem who is going to give him three sons Muhammad, Hasan and Hussain Muhammad and Hussain will be ulama of this ummah and truly when he went and told him he had three sons he had Muhammad, Hasan and Hussain his son Muhammad, son of Ali is the man famously known as sheikh al-Sadooq that's why sheikh al-Sadooq was born from the prayers of Imam Sahiba al-Asr al-Zaman all thought of the renowned text so many texts you can mention but arguably the most famous one manlaya hadaruh al-Faqih one of our four main canonical books alongside al-Kafi by sheikh al-Kulani by al-Ahkam and al-Sabsaar by sheikh al-Tusi manlaya hadaruh al-Faqih is arguably the second most important book when it comes to Islamic law sheikh al-Sadooq was the compiler Hussain ibn Rouq spoke to the Imam the Imam's prayers sheikh al-Sadooq was born until the last of them who was to leave that last of them the narrations what do they say is the Imam told him in six days time you will pass away and I am going to go on my major occultation and I will return when the hearts are hardened and the earth is full of wickedness and tell my followers that if they sincerely want me to return I would return for them straight away in that ghayba this long when people ask the question number one the first question can we ever see the Imam in this period and the Imams of Ahlul Bayt tell us in many narrations that the Imam visits a number of people a year and that there are three occasions in particular when the Imam is present of those occasions number one in the period of Hajj this year inshallah it will be my honor to be going with the group from Dara Salam with Hajji Jassa and the group and I hope that every group that goes to Hajj this year has the honor of seeing the Imam of our time that's the first on the second in a funeral of a man who has no deaths and number three when someone is trouble that is when the Imam will always be there for the people someone asks why the ghayba the reason the ghayba came for three please understand these reasons the first reason of the ghayba is that definitely the natural reason that they wanted to kill the Imam because they knew of the prophecy of the Imam so they wanted to kill the Imam Allah to come into ghayba number two so that God will not allow the Imam to pledge allegiance to anyone in his lifetime Imam Al-Hujja will not pledge allegiance to anyone he will be his own leader number three and the most important is that it is a test for the followers of Imam Al-Hujja that this period of a prolonging many people ask the question that we are unfortunate we cannot see our Imam we wish we can see him do you know what the narration say to us one day a person came to our sixth Imam and he said who are the greatest ever Muslim generation the sixth Imam said the greatest ever Muslim generation are the followers and believers in Imam Al-Hujja sixth Imam was asked why he said because that generation believes in a man who they cannot see and that if they work hard to prepare his return Allah will raise them as if they were martyrs alongside the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam number one he was to be killed number two he doesn't pledge allegiance to anyone no government will Imam put his hand on their leg number three as a test for his followers and that's why you find many people today ask certain questions some of them say how could a man so young age of five how could he have such great knowledge we in the religion of Islam believe Jesus spoke from the cradle and when the Imam returns Jesus will pray behind the Imam so if Jesus speaks from the cradle with knowledge and he prays behind the Imam then what knowledge does Imam have someone asks another question if Imam is alive today he would be one thousand more than one thousand and two hundred years of age or in and around that figure they say how can this be we reply the Quran says prophet Nuh alaihi sallam lived for three thousand years didn't he the Quran says Nabi Yunus when he was in the belly of the whale Allah says I wouldn't mind keeping you there till the day they are raised how many years would that be and even there's an existence by the name of shaitan you might have heard of him he's been around for a very long time therefore if someone believes in shaitan for long for that time then why don't you believe Imam in that time someone says how can you believe in an Imam you cannot see I say he's not the first the prophet Jesus alaihi sallam is he alive yes can we see him no prophet khidr prophet Idris other prophets of God as well who are alive can we see them no do the Muslims believe in them yes even our holy prophet on the night of hijra Subhanu wa ta'ala create a barrier where they couldn't see him leave the house if Allah can do that for the grandfather of Mehdi why can he not do that for Mehdi himself and you find that there are many a sign which we have to beware of signs which remind us about the Imam amongst the signs is the appearance of the dajjal that our sixth imam says the day of judgement will not come in the rising until 30 dajjals appear dajjal as in an ideology which represents opposition to the truth of the religion of Islam the Sufiani will appear where he will control Syria and Palestine and Jordan and the Bilad-i-Sham area from the lineage of Abu Sufyan are we aware who the Sufiani may be today who is the dajjal system today and you find that the imam will rise with 40 of his companions at Hajj the year before he rises he will be at Hajj he meets his companions they don't leave Hajj until the 15th of the dajjal and these companions from the 16th until the 22nd of the dajjal with the imam then the imam says to them which one of you is willing to announce and to stand up between the Rukun and the Maqam one of his companions by the name of Nafs al-Zakiyyah the pure soul and you will find that he is killed and it's only a matter of 15 days later most probably on the 10th of Muharram when the imam rises and when the imam rises he calls on an army of 313 generals followed by over 10,000 soldiers will come to follow the imam and the question arises what are the signs that Jabir bin Abdullah al-Ansari narrates that I one day saw him a dream and this dream confused me and when I met imam I told him I saw this dream imam Ali said the signs in your dream are the signs of the return of the imam Jabir says the first thing that I dreamt that I saw pieces of cloth hanging from the sky and people were coming and taking pieces of the cloth but leaving other pieces so I said oh imam what does this mean imam Ali said before the return of the Mahdi Muslims will take some parts of the religion and neglect other parts of their religion ask yourself today have we taken some parts and neglected others there are some parts we are very strict in masha Allah we are strict fasting we are strict other acts we are strict but then there are other acts unfortunately we show no strictness in whatsoever we are showing neglect we have become part time Muslims when we feel like being religious in Ramadan and Muharram all of us are religious whereas when we do not feel like being religious we do not mind breaking the rules in order that we follow our own ways imam said before the Mahdi comes people will take parts of the religion and leave others then he said oh imam I saw the sick animals and I saw healthy animals and I saw people going and taking and milking the sick animals and not the healthy imam said that's the governments before the time of the imam they will take taxes from the rich and make sure they will take taxes from the poor and make sure that the rich do not have to pay any then he said oh imam I saw sick people for the sick visiting the healthy and the healthy not visiting the sick and the imam looked at him and he said in the period before the return of our imam the qaim of al muhammad in that period before him you will find that the sick are the poor and they have to go and beg the rich for donations then he said oh imam I saw animals with two heads what does that mean? imam looked at him and he said before imam al mahdi comes you will find that the human will have two heads they earn money in halal they earn money in haram they earn money which is in a good way and in a bad way and they will not feel any remorse doing this ask yourself do any of those applied to us today are some of us earning in halal and in haram are some of us taking parts of Islam and rejecting other parts are some of us making the poor beg us for money even though we see so many poor we don't give anything from our pockets are some of us making the poor pay taxes while us the rich are bribing ourselves away without taxes imam gave him all these signs to tell him what to tell him that you want to know when the imam is near what are the signs of his reappearance and that's why you find imam will make his central government in kufa where in kufa in masjid al-sahla may Allah grant all of us the ziyara of masjid al-sahla and also amongst the acts of the imam when he returns we say it in du'a nudba one of the acts which is recommended for us to recite try and wake up on a Friday morning sisters after salat al-fajr try your hardest to read du'a nudba that du'a which imam used to say that the real lovers of imam al-mehdi after salat al-fajr open du'a nudba they stay awake and they read du'a nudba in that du'a there are some memorable lines amongst those lines comes that line when we say ayna al-hasan ayna al-husayn ayna abna al-husayn where is hasan where is husayn where are the sons of husayn salihon ba'da salih ba'da saliq and we continue by talking about where are the sons where are the moons that used to light up this earth and you continue in your talking towards the imam you say about the imam ayna sabab al-muttasil where is that connector between the heavens and the earth ayna taalib bidamil maqtul bi karbala where is that man who will come to avenge what happened at karbala as in when the imam returns his mission is to remove injustice his mission is to remove tyranny never make the imam sound like a person only for Muslims the imam is for the Hindus the imam is for the Zoroastrians for the Buddhists the imam is for the Sikh for the Christian, for the Jew every single religion in their books talks of the imam and the imam comes back as a man who seeks to build the government where the world is a world of justice where the world is a world of equality and where the world is a world where the tyrannical leaders are removed we pray to Allah subhanu wa ta'ala all of us together on a night like this how many examine the biography of the imam Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Allahumma kulli waliyyika al-Hujjat ibn al-Hasan raise your hands Allahumma kulli waliyyika al-Hujjat ibn al-Hasan salawatuka alayhi wa ala aaba'ih in this hour and in every hour waliya wa hafida wa qaida wa nasira wa dalila wa aina so that you can rest we pray to Allah subhanu wa ta'ala the another dua Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Allahumma inna nargabu ilayka fi daulatin kareema tuaizdu biha al-islama wa ahla wa tudillu biha an-nifaqa wa ahla wa tajaluna fiha minad du'ati ila taatik wal qadati ila sabilik wa tarzukuna biha karamata dunya wa al-akhra Allahumma maa arraftana minal haqeef hamilna we pray to Allah to allow us to be amongst the soldiers of iman sahb al-asri wa zaman Ya Allah allow us to be amongst His servants allow us to be amongst those who are raised with the imam of our time allow all our actions to be dedicated to the imam and to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the name of the imam all of us pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for all our muslim brothers around the Islamic world especially those of our brothers who are ill Ya Allah, in the name of al-Hujjah cure them Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem أما يجيب المصطار إذا دعا ويكشب السوء أما يجيب المصطار إذا دعا ويكشب السوء أما يجيب المصطار إذا دعا ويكشب السوء أما يجيب المصطار إذا دعا ويكشب السوء أما يجيب المصطار إذا دعا ويكشب السوء أما يجيب المصطار We pray to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala wa Surat Al-Fatiha But before that the loudest of your salawat And here and here and now we're done Just take the left of the yellow


Hi there, so yes I am a documentary filmmaker and I have a tendency to look for the micro-moments in life and stare outside the frame of reality which often yields unexpected results. In 2008, while walking through the abandoned house linking my block of flats to the parking lot, I discovered a room filled from floor to ceiling with discarded bootleg videotapes. More reminiscent of a wasteland than an archive with titles like Supergirl, BMX Bandits mixed in with Greek pornography, nevertheless I realized I couldn't leave it alone. So I started using the materials in some of my art projects and they were exhibited in gallery spaces. One night during an opening, my uncle who was a chemical engineer approached me and he whispered in my ear, I hope you're not planning on throwing these out because you could recycle them and in the process generate alternative fuel. Here we are. The materials have been moved to a recycling facility and part of the collection is actually going to be put into the burner, much in the same way as a coal fees a locomotive to act as fuel for the facility. And those plastic tapes that are left over will then be put into a shredder, broken down, then into an extruder which heats and compresses them and then broken down into macaroni sized plastic pellets. You can form the plastic pellets into pretty much anything, plastic bags, plastic shoes, plastic chairs, anything really. But for my purposes, I'll be turning them into concrete. They'll be mixed in with cement to strengthen and insulate the material. Hitchcock says in narrative film the director is God. In documentary, God is the director. And in this process I'm very much applying my method of storytelling, of filmmaking by allowing outside voices and sources to direct the narrative. By reclaiming this otherwise obsolete material for future more beneficial use, ultimately my aim is to raise awareness about over production and consumption and at the very least to contribute to the ideas that float, flow and occasionally make waves. Thank you.


So our our next title is spiritual preparation for kingdom work and This is a title. This is a topic. That's very dear to my heart. I For those of you who don't know me I moved to I moved from Pennsylvania to Mexico 25 years ago and I Did not have much spiritual preparation for kingdom work But the Lord's been working in my heart and so I just want to share a little bit of what God has done in my life And I want to inspire us challenge us I'm gonna start out with a story Not far from my home in Indiana just across the state line in Ohio There lived an old woman who was the terror of all who had seen or heard of her She was finally arrested and set sent to the Columbus Penitentiary She broke every law of the institution and they exhausted every form of punishment upon her Times without number. They had sent her to the dungeon and for weeks at a time. She lived on bread and water Finally an old Quaker lady from the same part of the state asked permission to see her The prisoner was led into her presence With the chains upon her hands and feet with downcast eyes. She sat before the messenger of Christ The old Quaker lady simply said my sister The old woman cursed her and she said I Love you With another oath. She said no one loves me But she came still nearer and taking the sin stained face in both her hands She lifted it up and said I love you and Christ loves you She kissed her face first upon one cheek and then upon the other and she broke the woman's heart Her tears began to flow like rain. She rose to her feet They took the chains off and until the day of her death. They were never put on again But like an angel of mercy. She went up and down the corridors of the prison ministering to the ones of others the Quaker lady Had a spiritual River flowing out of her there was grace that flowed out of the Quaker lady Not much in that story about methodology, but there's a lot in there about spiritual preparation and So when I moved to Mexico, I began to share the gospel with people and I just thought that if I could make them understand that they would believe it and They weren't listening and they weren't accepting the gospel and I thought I needed to figure out how to make this more logical to make them understand the plan of salvation and Finally, I just began to realize that it wasn't about logic They needed the power of God to touch them and For the last 15 years we've been working with indigenous people the Tadumata Indian people Their world view is so different than ours. They don't think logically many times And what they need is the power of God to touch them and there needs to be a flow from Someone to them and that's why I like that song channels only All I can be is a channel through which God's grace can flow and touch people's lives And that's what the world today needs appreciated the sermon that we just heard It's true that the times we are living in are so much different than the times that the Anabaptists lived in but still there are souls being saved and I praise God for each soul that can be saved yet in these times that we're living in so I Have an agenda. I really want to see laborers sent out into the harvest fields of the world And that's been a passion on my heart for a number of years is to help other people get out into kingdom work I would like to see an army of laborers go out and and reap the harvest fields of this world But we need spiritual preparation I've also seen people go as laborers and get burned out and Lose out in the faith and Go home Defeated I've seen that over and over and over way too many times people who are not spiritually prepared for kingdom work and So we want to talk a little bit this morning about how we can be prepared so As a young man, I read a lot of biographies missionary biographies and biographies of heroes of the faith and I used to go around telling people stories of the Biographies that I had read. Hey, did you ever hear of so-and-so and what the great things that he did? And one day God just gently said to me that that was great what those men did but so what are you going to get done? and so It's our turn to step up It's our gender. We're in our generation, right? And this is our time to fight the good fight of faith a number of years ago My mother passed away and we were going through the the stuff at the old home place and and we had a big burn pile We were burning a bunch of junk and one of the things that went on that burn pile was Two great big signs that said revival meetings and we burned those big signs And I was just watching those signs go up in flames and I was thinking Is the time of the revival meetings over? And and again, I felt like God spoke to me and said, yeah The older generation are passing on it's your turn now now It's time for you to step up and do what you can in your generation All right, it is a spiritual war and it's a mortal combat. What did what is a mortal combat? it means we fight it out until somebody dies right and It's a mortal combat the enemy wants to destroy our souls And it's a fight for eternal life Alright, so some of you Know that I have been interested in in church in strategy mission strategy and so I'm not against Strategy I want to make sure that I make that clear right from the start. I am not against strategy and planning however Strategy and planning are not going to make it happen alone We've got to be spiritually prepared to for this great work that That's before us. Okay, so I read the story of the Quaker lady. She didn't have strategy But what did she have she had a flow of the grace of God going through her life and she touched One of the worst criminals in her area. I was thinking of Peter Waldo. He's also one of my heroes Peter Waldo lived and died about 800 years ago. That's a long time ago Now, what do you suppose Peter Waldo must have done how what kind of a person was he? How did he live and what was his character like that? He left an impact and a legacy that 800 years later We still know about Peter Waldo. I Don't know if his strategy was so great But there must have been a flow of God's grace in that man's life In fact people aren't even sure if his first name was Peter But we know that he was a man of God I was thinking of Hudson Taylor. I read about him recently The the place that he lived in in China There was a lot of people there was a dense population and And he didn't have a lot of time throughout the day for personal meditation and Bible reading and prayer He was a busy man. And so what did Hudson Taylor do? He got up at 2 o'clock a.m 2 a.m. He got up and spent an hour with the Lord every night That man had a grace of God in him today. We still know about everyone knows about Hudson Taylor Was it his method or was it the grace of God within him? E.M. Bounds said God's plan is to make much of the man Far more of him than of anything else Men are God's method The church is looking for better methods God is looking for better men Or we could add women So I decided to go through the life of Jesus and pick out a number of Outstanding things from the life of Jesus that we can learn from All right, so Somehow we're missing the one slide here, but The first one that I had was Was his baptism in water and his baptism in the holy spirit That was where his ministry began So The baptism in water Jesus had nothing to repent of he had never sinned And so what did the baptism in water Represent in Jesus life it represented an absolute Public display of surrendering his own will And and doing his father's will How many of you have ever come to an absolute full complete surrender before the Lord? That's where it all starts if you have never come to an absolute surrender in your life Then you are not prepared for any kind of Kingdom work very little You've got to come to an absolute surrender before God And that's that's a one-time thing But it's also has to be maintained day by day.  I'm going to read Luke chapter 11 verses 5 and down to verse 13 It says and he said to them which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him friend Lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey And I have nothing to set before him and he will answer from within and say do not trouble me The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you I say to you though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend Yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs So I say to you ask and it will be given to you Seek and you will find Knock and it will be opened to you for everyone who asks receives And he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened If a son asks for bread from any father among you will get he give him a stone Or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent instead of a fish Or if he asks for an egg will he offer him a scorpion If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children How much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him? So A friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to set before him There are many friends that come to us on our journey through life and we In our own selves have nothing to set before them. I have no love for the heathen. I have no compassion I have no grace to give the hurting and the depressed and the The sinners and I have nothing to give them in my own self. Absolutely nothing And so what do I need? I go to God and I say God I need these three loaves Jesus said I am the bread of life The three Many times in scriptures The father the son and the holy spirit this person is going to God and he's saying God I need you I want to be filled with God himself So that I have something to give to the people that I come In contact with on my journey through life And he from and he will answer from within and say do not trouble me the door is now shut And my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you All right, so does God not want to give us? When I began to really seek God to really know God and to really walk with God, this is what it felt like It felt like God got further away Did God get further away was God not really happy with my request? We have to be tested and And God has to bring us to a place where we get desperate and we really really seek the Lord And as we get as we get in that process of really being desperate and seeking God God does a breaking work within us He empties us of ourselves I say to you though, he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend I'm not some special friend of God I'm not more special than anyone else. No Yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs Persistence is the key keep coming back and keep Develop that habit of seeking God develop the habit of rising early and praying develop the habit of Of bible reading and just seeking God's presence day by day every day That's what God wants So I say to you ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened Praise the Lord we can come into the presence of our heavenly father And then in verse 13 if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children How much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him? And the holy spirit in the scripture is compared to to a wind to a river to fire Wind cannot be wind unless there's movement Our river cannot be a river unless there's movement if it if it ceases to flow it becomes a pond The holy spirit needs to be flowing flowing into us and flowing out through us In Ezekiel it talks about the river flowing out of the temple And it says that everything will live wherever the river flows, but It says the swamps and the marshes will not be healed A swamp or a marsh is where the river flows in and it doesn't flow out. It just sits there And when God flows into your life, you must let that flow out to this world Praise the Lord All right, then we have the fasting in the desert and Jesus fasted 40 days was tempted of satan. I've never fasted 40 days But I have done some fasting And I have come to the conclusion that if we're going to be a vessel in God's hands If we're going to be a An effective kingdom worker, we will have to fast. That's part of it. We will have to fast and So Luke 4 13 and 14 says now when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time Then Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee and news of him went out through all the surrounding region He had to go through that And we have to go through the testing also. We have to go through the desert the The temptation the dry times and after the testing it says he returned in the power of the spirit And so yes, we need the the infilling of God's presence But that has to go through the time of testing And that's part of the spiritual preparation going through the time of testing So jesus Had regular prayer and bible reading How do we know that it was regular? over and over the bible talks about jesus prayer life and so Jesus prayed regularly Years ago the lord laid on my heart the need to Get up in the morning and spend at least a solid hour with the lord in in prayer and in bible reading And And that actually changed my life it did it transformed my life There were people in the church that I would have attended That said that they don't have a regular devotional life. They just Read the bible and pray when they when the lord inspires them to do it And they felt like regular prayer in the morning is maybe legalistic While the lord got ahold of me and showed me that I have to Take the first hour of the day in prayer and bible reading And I am very convinced of that How do we know that jesus read the scriptures? People talk about the big scrolls they have and they were in the synagogue and all of that I don't know exactly how it was but When jesus went into the synagogue he says he stood up to read And he found the place in isaiah where it's written He was familiar with the scriptures and he was good at reading That means he read the scriptures a lot All right, let's go to galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23. This is the fruit of the spirit Galatians 5 22 and 23 says but the fruit of the spirit is love joy Peace long suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness Self-control against such there is no law The last one there is what I want to talk about the self-control Now self-control sounds like i'm controlling myself right But if it's a fruit of the spirit then he's doing it right so who's doing it? Am I controlling myself or is he controlling me? Well, it's a it's a combination I make a firm decision to exercise self-control, but I don't have the power and so he empowers me in self-control There has to be self-control in our lives if we're going to be an effective kingdom worker We've got to develop habits of self-control in our lives Payson says god gives his answers more to the habit than to the act of prayer Sometimes we don't really pray very much, but then we come into a crisis and then Suddenly we want to pray through and we want to find answers about something because now we have a crisis But church we've got to be praying and walking with god every day And when you are in the habit of prayer you will find much more Answers to prayer than when you just pray during a crisis moment Ian bounds says the men who have done the most for god in this world have been early on their knees He who fritters away the early morning its opportunity and freshness in other pursuits than seeking god Will make poor headway seeking him the rest of the day If god is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning He will be in the last place the remainder of the day You want to be prepared for kingdom work get up in the morning and spend the first hour or two with the lord And I don't really see any other way to really be a kingdom channel than that And I know there are other people that have factory jobs and work in the night and I did there's a lot of A lot of variation, but somehow we have to find our way in This habit of prayer David Brainerd is another of my heroes I I read through most of the diary of David Brainerd John Wesley In talking to the younger preachers He told the younger preachers. He said if your zeal ever begins to To to grow cold And you find there's just not as much zeal in your life anymore And you just don't have that passion that you had at one time He said just go back and read the diary of David Brainerd That was his advice Anyway, so David Brainerd He was uh He was trying to work among the american indian people And and he would just pray and pray and pray that's about all he did was just prayed And he would spend whole days in prayer And then he would be in such intense intercession that his shirt would be soaked with sweat Just from the intense intercession And after several years of that the power of god came down in a very tremendous way. There was one lady that he said She was under terrible conviction of her sins. He said a half hour before that he doesn't think she knew that she had a soul And god came down and was working so Zig ziggler says if you don't plan your time someone else will help you waste it Pretty true Jim ron says success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day While failure is simply a few errors in judgment repeated every day Spiritual preparation A lot of it is just uh a repeated Habit that you learn this is not that's not all of it, but that's a huge part of it Now this isn't christian, but I think it's I think it's uh just a universal principle What we we are what we repeatedly do excellence then is not an act but a habit I think there's a lot of truth in that Next we come to calvary and i'm not going to make a lot of comments on calvary Calvary is is a very sacred Thing that happened in in the life of jesus but uh But at calvary our lord laid down his life Our brother just got done telling us about the anabaptists who also laid down their lives We must be willing to lay down our lives Jesus said that if we want to save our life, we'll lose it And whoever loses his life will save it And if you're going to do if you're going to be effective in kingdom work We've got to come to the place where our where your own personal life Where our personal lives Are completely on the altar completely surrendered We've got to give up our comforts. We've got to give up our reputation. We've got to give up Our own will and there's got to be a death to ourselves We sing the the song the old rugged cross It talks about I will cling to the old rugged cross. What does it mean to cling to the cross?  That's not easy But if we're going to be effective in kingdom work, I think every single one will have to go through the complete death of our reputation That has to be in place Next of all we come to gethsemane We're missing some slides here, but that's all right All right gethsemane. Now here's something else that I don't understand Our lord went through gethsemane and it's beyond my ability to understand but there's a few lessons I think we can learn from gethsemane um I just listened to a sermon recently by david wilkerson called the making of a man of god If you ever have an opportunity, I recommend that message. It's a very good message and he talks about Our cup of pain And he says drink it We've got to drink the cup of pain and then he talks about Our night of confusion Let's go to psalm 77 There was a time in my life where I was just in complete desperation to Come into god's presence and to experience god and to be Further prepared for his work And I was I was up in the night just praying I went out to the Meeting house and I was just walking around and I had my hands up and I was just crying out to god And I opened my bible up and this is what I read I cried out to god with my voice to god with my voice And he gave ear to me in the day of my trouble I sought the lord my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing And it was like that just jumped off the page at me. It's like, well, wow, that's me My soul refused to be comforted I remembered god and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed sila You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak I have considered the days of old the years of ancient times I call to remembrance my song in the night I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search Will the lord cast off forever and will he be favorable no more Has his mercy ceased forever Has his promise failed forever more Has god forgotten to be gracious has he in anger shut up his tender mercies sila And I said this is my anguish But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high I will remember the works of the lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds We go through times Where we don't feel god we are tested and we are brought through the fire or through the testing And so what should be our response the psalmist says this is my anguish, but I will remember And so in those moments whenever we don't feel god We remember the faithfulness of god in generations past We remember the stories of the bible and the stories of god's people throughout history and we stand by faith On those promises and on the god's faithfulness in history We remember the works of the lord And now let's go to Job we have Job chapter 23 verses 8 through 10 Job 23 8 through 10 Look I go forward, but he is not there and backward But I cannot perceive him when he works on the left hand I cannot behold him when he turns to the right hand. I cannot see him And so Job lost the sense of god's presence. He couldn't find god He couldn't perceive god's presence. He couldn't feel god anymore. The feelings were all gone Verse 10, but he knows the way that I take when he has tested me. I shall come forth as gold Church, we must go through a Gethsemane. We will face knights of confusion And it's just normal We must not think at a fire a strange thing the fiery trial, which is to try us Years ago I went through a very difficult situation and I I told my wife. I said it feels like I went through a sausage machine And just recently I heard someone say A situation they had going through it felt like they went through a meat grinder Well, that's about the same thing, right? And god will take us through those situations But church we've got to go through them We've got to go through and come out on the other side And then it's what god in his word calls resurrection life And that's the only thing that counts in god's economy is resurrection life And that's what the world needs is for us to be a channel of that resurrection life Let's read in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 Versus 7 to 11 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of god And not of us we are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed We are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken Struck down but not destroyed Always carrying about in the body the dying of the lord jesus that the life of jesus also may be manifested in our body For we who live are always delivered to death for jesus's sake that the life of jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh This is what Is going to build the kingdom resurrection life. There has to be this daily Maintaining this position of being dead to self And the life of christ flowing through me In god's economy, that's the only thing that has of any value. That's what is going to impact the world I was thinking of jacob Jacob wrestled with the angel there at penile And it says that the angel of the lord touched his thigh and it was out of joint and from then on jacob limped and I feel like I know something of that There's a place where god wounds us deeply enough that it leaves scars in our life And we limp But jacob became a prince with god jesus Had the the nails driven into his hands and feet and after his resurrection the scars were still there But he was resurrected and he had a glorified body and when we go through Tough things there's going to be scars left in our lives But church let's not focus on the scars. Let's live in that resurrection life of jesus christ Many of us have been through church situations. We've been scarred. We've been uh, we've gone through hard times But we've got to find emotional healing jesus said in in in luke chapter four that he's come to heal the broken hearted I think there's people here that have gone that have a lot of emotional Scars in their lives. I really believe that it's something that's very common nowadays Church, we've got to find healing for all of our emotional scars Jesus came through gethsemane and calvary and he found And he was resurrected and and received a glorified body And spiritually god wants to do that in our lives And and the fullness of that will take place On the other side in our glorified body But for now god does want to work healing in our lives And if we're going to be An impact in this world if we're going to plant churches if we're going to evangelize people if we're going to shepherd people We've got to find healing you can't shepherd someone if you're not healed of your emotional wounds praise the lord We must face and conquer Pain we talked about the cup of pain I feel like I don't know much about this at all But I've experienced some emotional pain not much physical pain Some of you probably have much more experience with physical pain But church we've got to face it and conquer it and embrace it and go on and find god's grace rejection I've gone through rejection and loss of reputation And you have to come to the place where you don't grind an axe And you're not bitter and you're not going over all those things in your mind You've got to find healing through the grace and the power of god Confusion it's just part of it when jesus was in gethsemane There was a certain sense in which There were forces and there were things happening that were just like beyond his comprehension almost in a sense and yet He went through all of that apparent failure and this is one that has been The lord has been working in my heart isaia 49 And let's start in verse one And this is a prophecy To a certain extent of jesus And I don't know exactly what all Is in this passage, but but let's um let's read isaia 49 verses one through Six Listen, oh coastlands to me and take heed you peoples from afar The lord has called me from the womb in my bible I have the new king james version that word me is capitalized They are taking it as a prophecy of jesus christ The lord called me from the womb from the matrix of my mother He has made mention of my name and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand He has hidden me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver. He has hidden me And he said to me you are my servant. Oh israel in whom I will be glorified and so perhaps it's also It includes more than just jesus. It's also god's people right It talks about israel and I believe that in in uh in the dispensation that we're living in That would include us verse four. Then I said I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain Yet surely my just reward is with the lord and my work with my god How many of us have felt like we've poured our lives out in vain? We've tried to plant a church. We've tried to witness to someone We've tried to do something in god's kingdom and it feels like it's all been in vain And there's like a death that happens in our lives But now let's go to verse five And now the lord says who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring jacob back to him So that israel is gathered to him for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the lord and my god shall be my strength Indeed he says it is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of jacob And to restore the preserved of israel I will also give you as a light to the gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth And I really believe that's a prophecy about jesus. He did not just die for the israelite people. He also died for the whole world And there are times in our lives where there is apparent failure Give it to the lord and out of that out of the ashes god will bring resurrection life so Spiritual preparation for kingdom work There is a lost and dying world out there. There are demonic powers There are there's a mortal warfare to be involved in And we must be prepared seek the lord develop habits Seek the lord early in the morning if at all possible let the lord heal you and It is exciting to be a part of god's Kingdom It is exciting to be part of of this work part of this army of taking the gospel out I really really desire and I hope the god will bring many of us into A place of fruitfulness in his kingdom I'd like to just pray yet and then i'll turn the time back to the moderator. Let's pray father in heaven We give you our lives. Thank you so much lord for your word Thank you for the example of our lord jesus christ and the lessons we can learn from his life And I pray god for each individual here in this room I pray lord prepare us spiritually for the work of the kingdom lord Do a deep work within us and fill us and flow through us lord It's so exciting to be a vessel in your hands A vessel through which you can flow and I pray lord god make us fruitful in your kingdom Bless us. Oh god. We worship you. We praise you in jesus name. Amen