And I read, Luke chapter two, verse 36. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Fanel of the tribe of Ase. She was of a great age and lived with an husband and a husband seven years from her virginity, 37. And she was a widow of about four score and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayer night and day. Let's pray. Our dear Father in heaven, we thank you, we bless you again for such a wonderful day. It's almost at the end of the year. You have been faithful to us and we can't even thank you for how far you've brought us. We are grateful to be in your presence today. I pray that you take me aside, and fill me with the Holy Spirit, and speak through me, so that your message that will come out from my mouth will be a blessing unto your children. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. The story is about Anna. According to the Bible, it says she was a prophetess. And in the olden days, As I used to say, God always speak to his people through the prophets. So a lady being called a prophetess, it means she did a great job. And it was not his time like now. It was in the olden days that somebody has to preach to you about God. Somebody has to come and warn you from your bad deeds and tell you, God said you should move from your bad deeds and follow him. But in this case, She was able to record her prophecies. And if you look at the background of Anna, it said she is a daughter of a great man of God, even though the Bible didn't actually say a lot about the father. But her father was called Fanoel, which the meaning is face of God. And I said the last time that in the olden days, When before somebody gives a name to his child, he prays over it. So Faneuil was a man of God, and he gave a name to his daughter as Anna. So you can feel the impact. She was raised from a Christian home, and she didn't depart from it. She hold on to the training that she gained from the family. And at the end of the day, It was recorded by Luke as a prophetess. And Luke was one of the greatest writers in the New Testament, because he was a doctor or a physician. And he always tried to look for the truth and defend it. That is why I keep on saying the Bible we have, it's not a common book, it is inspired with the great people and with the spirit of God leading them to write. So we don't have to take Bible as something like ordinary reading book that we read. So Anna was a prophetess. And before somebody become a prophetess or a prophet, it starts from somewhere. You cannot just get up and say, I'm a prophet, because prophets are the people that hear the voice of God and communicate to God, from God to them, to the other people, that God said this, God said that. So before you go out to somebody to say something, you should be very careful. So they are very, very, very conscious and listen to God Is it better now? Okay, sorry. Sorry for the interruption. So before you go out there to talk to somebody about God, and you are not careful, because those days, if you're a prophet, and you go and challenge people that don't believe in God, and whatever you go and say, goes different way, you are dead. Because Elijah, from the Bible, had a battle with Balaam, the priest. the fake priests, and he challenged them that there wouldn't be any rain for three years or something. And the people said, no, we can also pray that there will be rain. Our God will give us rain. And according to the Bible, there wasn't any rain until Elijah came back. And the day he came was the day that it rained. So to be a prophet, you should be in a very good terms with God. So this woman built herself up to that level of hearing God, of listening to God, that she even had a feeling that Messiah is going to be born. And she was hopeful. She was very hopeful to see this person before she dies. Hopeful. Because she was a prophet. And she had a good connection with God. So when you come back to say the tribe she's from, said tribe of Asa. And Asa tribe is from the line of Jacob. And last time I was saying, if you read Matthew, it gives the generation of the people, so it comes to Jesus Christ. So Jacob was a tribe that we had a 12 tribe of Israel. It's them that Joseph came out from. They had to go to Egypt and that story, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it tells you that she was from a great family line. So she had a chance to know more about God. So she capitalized on it, and she made good use of her time, good use of the things that she has learned from her infant age, so the time she was old. So when I go on again and again and again to explain whatever happened, she got married. And unfortunately for her, when she got married, For only seven years, the husband died. So let's say if she's like even 18 years and she got married, for five years, or seven years, which would be 25 years, then the husband died. Very young lady. Very young lady. If it's at this time, 25 years, she can get married again. But according to the Bible, She said she was a widow of about four score. When we talk of four score, it's like 80. So it's four score and four years. So 84 years. She was a widow. If I don't want to remind anyone who has lost their husband, but I know it is difficult when you lose a husband. And the pain she might go through, very young lady. gets married for seven years, and she lost her husband. Look at how it is going to be. She didn't even give birth. The Bible didn't tell her she had a child. She didn't give birth. She didn't get a chance to enjoy marriage, enjoy kids crying or holding her kids in her arms. Because there are a lot of people, when they don't even give birth, the kind of stress they go through because of friends and family. But this lady, after she got married for only seven years and her husband died, She turned her pain into something else. She could have gotten married, got some responsibilities, but she decided to marry God. She didn't marry again. She devoted her time for God. And from the chapter 27, the 27 is also saying that, but she, which she departed not from the temple. She departed not from the temple. She married God. She took the temple as a husband, or as a house, yes, and God was the husband. The temple as a house, and God lives in the temple, or that's what we all think. But even though Jesus Christ came to tell us that we have to worship God in spirit and in truth. But this is where we, when we come, we feel the presence of God. So she decided to marry God and stay under his presence, not to move to anywhere. She departed not, but served God with fasting and prayers. She didn't only stay in a temple, but she did extra, she went to the extra mile. She added another duty. Instead of cooking, washing, and stuff for the husband, now she started to add another stuff. So that's the fasting and prayer. She added fasting and prayer in serving God. People serve God through singing, praises and stuff, but this is what she was trying to do. So if the Bible tell us that she was a prophetess, there's no doubt because she took her time to fast and pray to God, communicate to God every time, all the time, as a widow, that she's supposed to be crying, supposed to be going around looking for help and stuff. She never departed from the church. I have been wondering how she was even eating. I was wondering how she was being supported. Who was supporting her? How did she survive? From 25 years, roughly, let's say, to that 84 years or 100, and when we add 84 to maybe 20 years or 25, it means she's above 100. How did she survive? Just tell us that when we put our hope and our trust in the Lord, He supplies us all our needs. God is faithful. In the moment we try to be faithful to Him, He will do everything for us. Everything. Because she never departed from the temple, So God will never close his eyes on her. That is why she was very happy. And let's read the 38th. It said, she and she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and speak of him to all them that looked for their redemption in Jerusalem. So she has a clue of who the Messiah was. So when she saw it, nobody told her that this is Jesus. She had the insight from God. So when she saw the child, she knew this is the Messiah. So she proclaimed, she told the people the good news, that the salvation is here. This is the child that is going to redeem the people in Jerusalem. So God have a way, a plan for us. God has a plan for us all. And it is good that we are in his house today. Many are those who could be somewhere else, but we chose to be here today. And God will not close his eyes on us. Whatever blessing he's sharing to his children, I pray that he visits us today.