A friend of mine from Australia shared with me this incident that had taken place.

A young woman went to see her pastor and she announced that she is leaving the church.

A pastor expressed sorrow at this news and then he asked her, I said,

do you mind telling me why? She said, yes, very simple.

Your congregation are constantly gossiping against each other. They're constantly critical of each other.

They are constantly criticizing the leadership. They're constant backbiting taking place.

Terrible things behind the scenes. They're constant backbiting taking place, terrible things behind the scenes.

And of course, I can understand, as he shared with me, that pastor's heart sunk. I mean,

you know, no pastor wants to hear that. And the pastor become discouraged, but then he quickly recovered. And he asked her if she would do him a favor.

He said, I want you to do me a favor before you leave. Can you take this glass of water? It was filled to the brim. It was right at the edge, filled with water. He said, I want you to take this glass of water and I want you to walk right around the church building, right around

the church plant, just keep walking around without spilling any of the water. And it was a big church,

so she did. I mean, she just kept going

right around and came back and brought the glass of water, and she did not spill one drop of

water. And so he asked her, he said, how come, how come you never spelled any of the water as you're

walking around? She said, well, the answer is very simple. I kept my eyes and my focus and my

attention on the glass of water. And if I had to feel my way, I stopped, but I kept my eyes on

a glass of water and never

spelt any of it. And so the pastor wisely said to her, please, whatever you do, wherever you go,

make sure that you never take your eyes off of Jesus. For when you take your eyes off of Jesus,

spillage will take place. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Now, my beloved, the moment we take our eyes

off Jesus, there's going to be all kinds of problems, all kinds of offenses.

Now in this series of messages from selected Psalms, I have sought with all my heart to teach you.

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