Stunning serene of the second day of the Summer Fast began with loud praises to the Lord. All the people rejoiced, “The joy of God; I am glad, rejoice in Him my soul,” inspired and led all the people into a special joy and celebration.
Pastor Serbuk Ruslan continued the service with a prayer for our Apostle Sunday Adelaja, for his family and for the whole of Ukraine.
Then the audience stood up with a thunderous applause greeting the Senior Pastor of the church “Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations” Sunday Adelaja.
Before watching the movie “Radyans’ka Istoria (Soviet History)” Pastor Sunday gave a brief sketch of the Second World War, the Soviet role in it and about the politics at the backstage in those years. The film revealed to us the terrible truth about the brutal regime of government leaders of the two totalitarian states of the USSR and Nazi Germany: Hitler, Stalin and Lenin. While watching the film, we witnessed the terrible massacres of innocent people. The conclusion is clear: when there is no understanding of truth, the love of it, we will repeat history and its mistakes. We need to break free from the lies we had before, which have been passed on for centuries. Until we begin to love God and the truth more than our flesh – we will remain slaves. The pastor underlined that we should not gloss over our historical truth, and it must be held in public, in school, at least optionally give lessons on restoration of historical truth and justice. “We should not be satisfied with the achievements of our social organizational activities, if we do not solve the problem at the root in the country, solve it with a proper systematic approach then we will not open people’s eyes to the true history of our country. Silence about this is a crime! We are responsible for ensuring that this does not happen again,”- said the pastor. After a discussion of the film, the church had a minute of silence for all victims of totalitarian regimes, prayed and repented for not defending the truth of historical justice.
Then Pastor Sunday taught on the topic: “HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO THE TRUTH?”
Truth shows the cause, the root of what needs to be changed.
For example, if a person has cancer, it is necessary to agree to the operation, although others may start feeling sorry for the person. But baby talk and smoothing of the situation will not cure cancer, if the surgeon does not intervene, the tumor will kill the patient! We help the person only when the tumor is cut out – it can be painful, frustrating, but healing comes!
Root of all evil is condoning.
Often we do not want to hurt a person, “to do surgery without a knife”, but that’s what hurts people. Pastor Sunday also behaved that way for 15 years and found out that it does not help people; rather it destroys them. “Do not hate your brother in your heart, wisely rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him” (Lev.19: 17).
Our task is to speak the truth, because with our own words, we can save someone’s life. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John.8: 32).
Liberation is possible only when the people know the truth. But if one person does not say anything, they remain as before.
Not telling the truth in the eye, keeping silence is to encourage the lack of love for the truth, lies.
Example: a lady has a bad makeup. But the surrounding is in silence and nobody tells her about it, nobody has an idea that the truth would help her get better. People usually argue from a position of soul: “How does she feel now?” – Without thinking about the value of truth.
Soul mentality – is to think about how a person feels at the time when the remark is made, rather than to seek the truth and defend it in this situation. Soulish mentality, tolerance of good and evil blurs boundaries. If you do not clearly define what is normal, it is easy to compromise (here come the roots of homosexuality).
All carnal wisdom is “earthly, sensual, devilish” (James 3: 15).
In our culture, if a correction is made to someone, no matter if it is true or not, many people start to comfort and butter the person instead of supporting the truth; thus we don’t allow the truth to rule in the life of this person.
BEHAVIOR 1– comforting the person, who is being punished.
In this case false solidarity is expressed. People instinctively rally around the man who is disciplined, believing that it is necessary to resist the authorities and “cover” each other.
If someone makes a comment, regardless of whether it is true or not, most people have included the program of emotions: sympathy, pity, to smoothen the correction rather than to support the truth – so we cross out the truth that was said to the man.
We live in the subconscious: we need to defend. Thus, we provide “a disservice” to the man. He claimed in his own righteousness and is rooted in the fact of what he would have to change. From this flow all the problems of society: theft, crime, and corruption. When a man finds sympathy, he is convinced that he is fine, but the one, who corrects, is wrong – and these are the strongholds in the mind that are hard to shake off.
BEHAVIOR 2 – to condemn.
If the leader corrects someone, and one of the team starts to support it, it is considered that such a person is a boot-licker, trying to find favor with the authorities, fawns, showing off.
How should we tell the truth correctly?
First we need to support the position of the truth, and then to support the person. The main thing – to obey the truth, but not how people will react, how he’d take our word – that is his problem.
How should you deliver truth to the person?
When telling the truth, do not humiliate people, but do it with honor and respect for them. The main motive should be the desire of good for the man. Anyone will be grateful for the words of truth, if he knows that he desired only the good. But if it is done in order to disgrace the man, it will be obvious.
Mark Twain: “The truth must be served as a coat, and not thrown in the face like a wet towel.”
If, during the correction we sit in silence,without helping the pastor to correct person, then we become complicit in sin. If the pastor is explaining something to someone, and I can explain our position, then silence is a crime. But we are afraid of human response. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than a lie that soothes and then kills.
Fear of public opinion.This may perturb only one who is not concerned about the truth: the truth is not authoritative for it. The only foundation for an action should be the truth, and not the public opinion. If a person is afraid of public opinion, what people would think, and then they have no love for the truth.
How do we respond to the remarks and correction?
The main task of man is to accept criticism and change. Being thankful for the fact that there is someone who cares enough to correct you, and teach you a good sense. Change the response to corrections: try to understand what you say, it helps to see the situation from the outside and start to change. Search for the problem in yourself, but not in others.
Trying to ignore the truth
Everyone has pluses and minuses, but the society has taught us to pay attention only to the pros. Instead of detecting what is wrong, look truth in the eye, and then do something about it; people prefer to “hide their head in the sand”, ignoring the obvious things.
Inability to tolerate the pain of corrections
Example: A man left the church because the pastor was making corrections to many people, and the case could come to him. Were the remarks fair? Yes, but the person is experiencing discomfort from how he made the comments – so there is no love for the truth. When he was corrected, the person felt as if he was hated.
Another example is to tell a fat person that he needs to lose weight, which makes them very upset, as if there was a tragedy, although he does not say anything new.
Questions for homework:
1. What is your understanding of “love for the truth”?
2. If in your presence a correction was made to someone, what is your slyness in? Is it to just “sit” and to remain silent, without attempting to whitewash the one who made the correction and not support the truth; or to express an opinion on what is happening and not to support the point of view of someone who makes a comment?
3. What is the benefit of public comment? Why don’t you need to avoid or be afraid to make corrections in public? – Justify the benefit of public comment
4. What should be the right attitude to a person who makes a correction that hurts a person at the moment and even makes them cry? What should be the correct reaction of those present?
5. How should we support the person, who made the correction, and not be impatient or cover their shortcomings, and not having to engage in connivance?
6. Why is God Himself, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, send the spirit of deception and confusion to people who do not like the truth? Why is God so “hard” and “cruel”?
From the Summer fast
July 30, 2013, Kyiv, Ukraine
Press Center of the Embassy of God Church
