0:06 Let's just pray before we start. Heavenly Father, all good things come only from you. And the best of us can do nothing without you. We're all in the same boat. As the branch cannot bear fruit except 0:25 it remains in the tree, we cannot say one thing useful if it is not from you. Help us never to forget that. And also in the way we hear. It's not easy to hear exactly what 0:44 you're speaking. Help us to cut out all other distractions. So that what we hear does not just enter our mind, but goes beyond our mind into our spirit. For otherwise, it becomes wasted. Help 1:04 us, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. >> [clears throat] >> Here in NCCF, we've been We've begun a study in the Sermon on the 1:23 Mount week by week. And they're all on YouTube. So if you put my name and put Sermon on the Mount, you can listen to it also. Just sort of half an hour studies. We [clears throat] just covered about four or five sessions so far. 1:41 But the reason why this is important is because uh at the end of the sermon, Jesus said that if you hear this hear these truths 1:59 Let's if you turn with me to Matthew 7 and verse 24 to 27. He says if you hear this and don't do it. You can understand it. You can explain it. 2:17 You can preach on it. Memorize it. The only thing is you don't do it. Your whole life is built on sand. And now many of us in children sometimes sing, "Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ." 2:37 And uh we say that is the firm foundation. Christ is the rock. In one sense, that is true. But here in the Sermon on the Mount at the end of it, Jesus says it's only if you obey everything that he spoke here in these three 2:55 chapters that you're building on the rock. Now, I don't know how many of you believe that. Well, I'll tell you my personal experiences. Among born-again believers, I'm not talking about nominal Christians. I think among all the Christians in the 3:14 world, there are probably 10% who are born again. Okay. Among those who are born again, it's only probably less than 10% who believe that we have to obey everything spoken in the Sermon on the Mount. So that means you'll find one among 100 3:33 Christians who are serious about obeying what is written in the Sermon on the Mount. And if you yourself will read through Matthew 5, 6, and 7, you may be amazed to find out how you've not taken many things there seriously. 3:55 And yet Jesus said if you hear these things, you understand it, but you don't obey it, you're building on sand. So I my conviction is that 99%. Yes, I mean 99% of those who call themselves Christians are building on sand. 4:13 There's probably 1% of people who are building their lives on rock. Can you imagine how many even Christians sitting in good believing churches, their life is built on sand. Now, if you want to check up whether that applies to you, 4:33 >> [clears throat] >> you just have to read Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and meditate on each verse and see whether you're obeying it or not, each verse. Now, I'm not going to go through Matthew 6, 5, and 7 now. I'm just giving that as a suggestion to 4:49 you. If you're serious about building your life on unshakable foundation that the storms and the wind and all the trials of life and the final judgment of God will leave you still standing. You will not collapse. That the judgment of God itself in the 5:04 final day will not affect you. That's what he said. He said if you obey this, then the is built on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew, slammed against the house. That's the judgment of God. 5:20 It did not fall. Can you imagine standing at the fierce judgment of God coming and I'm still standing at the end of it? That's what I want in the final day. And the final See See a description of the final judgment of God, Matthew 7:24 5:35 in the middle. The rain falling, the floods coming, the winds blowing and slamming against the house. That's a picture of the judgment of God. And yet my house doesn't fall. My life stands when the judgment of God slams 5:50 against me. That's amazing. Will your life stand when the judgment of God I mean whatever impression you may have conveyed on all the others in this little group that you're quite a spiritual person because you may be sharing some wonderful 6:07 thoughts. So many people think they're spiritual because they get some bright ideas and share some wonderful thoughts from scripture or they come to a meeting like this and they have some very clever comments to make. It's all garbage 6:22 if you don't obey everything written in this Matthew 5, 6, and 7. So my dear brothers and sisters, if you want to evaluate your life, I would encourage you to take my Matthew 5, 6, and 7 seriously. I can testify before God 6:39 that I've taken it seriously for almost 50 years. And battled and battled. And I didn't succeed in every point at the beginning. In fact, many times I was slipping up, but I was determined. And boy, in these 50 years, 6:58 I've come a long way. So I want to tell you this is very, very important. And it says if you hear all these things like you're hearing now and you don't take it seriously, that means you don't obey them. Then Jesus says 7:11 in Matthew 7, you're like the person who's built his house on sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against the house and the house just collapsed and there was nothing left of it. We don't want to be We don't want to be 7:24 in that category. So and the one in in this study I'm as I said, I'm not going to go through all of that. You can go to the internet and you'll listen to what we studied there. But just one thing I want to emphasize and that is 7:39 the first verse, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Now, throughout, you know, this is the first book of the New Testament, remember? And God And God in his great wisdom has made the Gospel of Matthew to be the 7:57 first book of the New Testament. And it speaks about the kingdom of heaven. And then if you turn to the previous chapter 3, John the Baptist came preaching and saying 8:16 in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 2, What is the message of John the Baptist? The kingdom of heaven is just about to come. It doesn't yet come. From the time of Adam after he got thrown out from the time 8:33 when he was outside after he had sinned, right up to the time of John the Baptist, the entire history of Israel was a kingdom of earth. They were only occupied with earthly things. 8:51 They wanted earthly wealth. They wanted earthly comfort. They wanted to defeat their earthly enemies. And they wanted all types of blessings on the earth. Zero about heavenly things. 9:09 Then came John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets. And he proclaimed in Matthew 3 and verse 2, "Turn around." Repent from what? Who is he speaking to? He wasn't speaking to all the worldly people. 9:28 He was speaking to Jewish people who had spent all their life just trying to keep the Old Covenant law, the law of Moses. And he's saying, "Turn around from that. Repent means turn around from that. And you you listen to the law of Moses, but 9:46 you're still full of sin in your life. Turn around from that because now the kingdom of heaven is near. It hasn't yet come." Matthew 3:2, "It is at hand means it's about to come. And then 10:06 you find in the Jesus next chapter you read about Jesus being tempted and the very next chapter is the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5. And the very first thing he says is the kingdom of heaven is here. John the Baptist said it is going to 10:24 come. And then Jesus says in Matthew 5:3, it's here but not all are going to get it. Not all are going to enter into it, only those who are poor in spirit. Those who have a very low estimate of themselves compared to other 10:40 people. And poor in spirit. And uh in our study here I illustrated it. We can see that on the YouTube as well. By the number zero. To be poor in spirit is to recognize 10:58 yourself as worth zero in God's eyes. And I showed a picture of 10 people standing with zero zero zero who are very capable in all types of other areas of their life but totally worth 11:16 zero. And I said if one of these zeros stands aside and puts Christ who's a number one in front of him then that zero has a value. Because when you put one in front of zero it becomes a 10. Only then we have a value. You remove 11:35 Christ, that mean one is the one Christ is gone, you're again a zero. As long as you keep Christ in front of you as your head you have value. Otherwise you're a zero. That to be poor in spirit 11:52 is to recognize that I am a zero. And all my life I'll be a zero. I've been a Christian 66 and a half years. I readily say I'm a zero. You remove Christ, I'm the same zero I 12:09 was 66 and a half years ago. No difference. All the Bible knowledge I've acquired through the years, all the service I've done for the Lord and everything else and all the things I may have overcome, I'm still a zero without Christ. 12:27 Do you recognize that my brothers and sisters? Some of you may be unconsciously comparing yourself with other believers in your church and feeling you're a little better than them. That's why you don't progress spiritually. 12:44 Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who will constantly till the end of their life recognize I'm a zero. I have value only that if that number one comes in front of me then I become 10. That is Christ comes in to be head of my 12:59 life. Apart from that, I'm a zero. And then we think uh then I was also speaking about building the body of Christ. So if this one brother who's a zero gets Christ in front of him and he adds one more brother, it's not 10 plus one doesn't become 11. 13:16 No. When he adds one more zero, the 10 becomes a hundred. Just one brother. That's amazing. But he's got to be a zero. You put two zeros together and then one in front you get a hundred. So 10 becomes a hundred with just one 13:33 brother. You get one more zero, it becomes a thousand. It's that's how it multiplies. Fellowship, that is a picture of how fellowship is a very powerful thing. It makes us extremely strong. So I used that as an illustration to 13:49 show and it's absolutely true. Because you know Jesus said that if two or three come together, I'm in the midst. There's a tremendous power in fellowship which is not there when you're all alone. So that's the thing which 14:11 what does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means to have a very low estimate of ourselves compared to others. And Lord, I'm I'm a zero. Despite all my Bible knowledge and how much I think I'm better than others. You know, we have a 14:26 It's quite possible that many believers when they look at other believers in their church they secretly congratulate themselves, well I'm a little better than that guy and that other guy and the other person and the other person because I'm 14:39 I do so much for the Lord. And there are many married people where the husband feels I'm a little better than my wife or my wife feels I'm a little better little better than my dumb husband cuz I at least can testify something and he 14:52 just keeps quiet. Can you imagine what type of woman that is who despises her husband? He's she's not a zero, she's minus something. So people we don't realize what is value in God's eyes. What is it that value is that has value in God's eyes? Not how 15:08 well we can speak. Not how much our head is use oozing with Bible knowledge. It is humility, poverty of spirit. Lord I recognize I'm nothing in your eyes. I'm a zero in your eyes. So that's good and this is not something 15:26 that I start out like that and 50 years later. I've been a Christian as I said 66 years. And I'll tell you honestly before God the more I've grown in the Lord, the more I'm aware that I'm a zero. And I'll show you what it says in 15:44 John chapter 15 where Jesus mentioned it towards the end of his life. Remember John 15 was spoken just before he went to the cross to the last supper that he gave the sermon. John 14 to 17. Those chapters are all spoken at the 16:01 last supper. And what did he say in John 15? He was teaching his disciples. Verse 5, John 15 verse 5. I am the vine and you are the branches. If you abide 16:20 in me you'll bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do zero. So does that mean after 20, 30 years of serving the Lord I become valuable? No. I believe even today after 66 years of 16:38 being a believer and after 60 years of full-time Christian work in many, many countries, I can honestly say deep down in my heart I'm a zero before God. Now that's not a false humility, don't misunderstand me. A lot of people can say that with a 16:57 humility which they don't really believe. I'll tell you how you can know whether you are a zero and nothing before God. It says here, without me you can do nothing. So you must abide in me like a branch in the tree. This is the 17:14 best illustration I've always used myself. Whenever I have to speak I say, Lord uh I don't know what to say, but if I can remain in you uh helplessly the sap will flow from the tree into the branch and amazing fruit will come. 17:33 And you know, you look at these beautiful apples on that branch and you ask the branch, how in the world do you produce such wonderful apples? And the branch says, I don't do anything. I have no ability to produce apples. 17:47 But I helplessly depend on the tree and the tree sort of pours in some sap into me and that produces the apples. So where that connection between the branch and the tree is not good that's why you find some branches maybe 18:04 there's only one rotten apple there. The connection was not good. And another branch in the same tree produced such a lot of luscious apples. Well, what does that prove? Same tree. The connection was good. So when you see a a believer 18:23 whose life is I don't mean preaching. No, that's not whose life is manifesting the beauty of Jesus Christ in the way he speaks, in the way he conducts himself and his relationship with others, in the way he runs his home, the way he brings up his 18:39 children and everything. There's a beauty about the whole thing which is something Christ-like about the whole thing. You say, well that's it's not because of his cleverness or ability. He's obviously learned how to helplessly 18:54 depend on Christ. And the other person whose children are all wayward gone astray. What is the difference? The chap is not abiding in Christ, that's all. Children are like the fruit in the branch. And you look at the fruit in the branch 19:12 and say, why is this fruit so rotten? Don't blame the fruit. Don't blame children. So many parents uh do this foolish thing of blaming the children. Oh brother, what to do? My son is like this, my daughter is like this. 19:24 Brother, don't ever say that. Say, I'm like this, not my son or daughter. They are perfectly okay. But I'm such a rotten branch that I'm not abiding in the vine in the tree properly. So I never allow the sap to flow through, so the fruit is all bad. 19:40 This whole business of blaming other people for our failure is a [clears throat] classic uh characteristic and a tactic of Satan. As long as he keeps makes you blame other people. Oh, my children got in the bad company and became like the brother, 19:56 sister, that's not the reason. You were a useless father or mother, that's it. That's why your children are wayward today. You made your children want to run after money. Or all types of worldly pleasures, that's the reason. You acknowledge that 20:10 honestly, maybe one day your children will come back to the Lord. But you keep blaming the children that keep blaming the bad company they had and all these 101 reasons, your children will remain lost forever. But there's a great need for parents to 20:24 take that seriously. And say, "Lord, I'll never blame anybody else. My connection with the branch is bad. That's why the sap is not flowing properly and that's why the apple is a rotten apple." But that other branch has got good 20:41 apples, why? Not because of any difference. Not because that those children went to some other school or had some other friends. No, no, no, no, no, don't let the devil make you give all those reasons. That man had his helplessly depended on the branch and 20:56 said to the Lord, "Lord, I'm a zero. I cannot do anything. I want to depend on you all the time. I want to live a life of helpless dependence on you." That's what prayer really is. You know, prayer is an expression of a 21:09 helpless dependence on God. Let me show you this verse in Luke chapter 18. I say this because, you know, sometimes I read about some great man of God who'd spend 4 hours in prayer every day. I used to read that as a young 21:28 Christian. And I used to get discouraged, I'll tell you honestly. Because I could not spend 4 hours in prayer. I'd get discouraged because I'd kneel down and my mind would be wandering all over the place in no time at all. 21:42 I couldn't concentrate. And I said, "But what am I doing? I'm And I remember one I'll tell you what happened. Well, I was in the navy and I was in a ship, I was a young believer and I read of all these people who pray all night and all and I said, "Okay, I'm 21:57 going to do it myself, too." So, I had a cabin to myself on the ship. And I had a bed and I knelt down beside my bed and I say, "I'm going to pray all night." And it was about 9:00 at night and I started. I prayed and prayed and prayed and 22:13 thought I'd gone through most of the night. I look at my watch, it's only 9:30. Wow. It doesn't have We don't have to I'm gone too far. Prayed and prayed and prayed and there's a struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle. Finally, somehow or the other, 22:26 I stayed on my knees till 6:00 in the morning. It was like finishing a marathon race. I said, "At last, I accomplished it." Did it make me any more spiritual? No. Zero. Because I was trying to achieve a feat. It was like a marathon feat I wanted to 22:45 accomplish. I didn't have any close communication communication with God there. I just wanted to be able to say, "I prayed all night." From 9:00 in the night till 6:00 in the morning. What for? To get honor from men? Or to satisfy myself? 23:02 It accomplished nothing. Well, it accomplished one thing. It showed me how useless it was to pray like that. That it accomplished. And I learned that prayer is essentially an expression of my helpless dependence 23:19 upon God like the branch in the tree. So, it's not a question of how long you pray. I'll tell you. You know, the Bible tells us how many hours we should pray every day. You know, there's a verse Have you found that verse? 23:34 Which tells us how many hours you should pray every day. And you'll be surprised what the Bible says. It's not 1 hour or two 1 hour or 2 hours. Luke 18 verse 1. Jesus said, he was telling them a parable to show that men ought to pray 23:50 all the time. All the time means what? 24 hours. So, what's the use of somebody boasting, "I prayed for 4 hours." The Lord says, "You got to pray for 24 hours." What is 4 hours, man? That's nothing. Those are all like you want to boast 24:07 about some marathon feat you accomplished like I tried to that day in the ship to try and pray all night to satisfy myself. I didn't want to tell others, but I wanted to satisfy myself that I ran a marathon or something like that in prayer. 24:21 But the Bible says that's not enough. Praying all night is not enough. You got to pray 24 hours a day every day. So, what does it mean when it says men ought to pray at all times? I believe it it's expressing the fact that Let me use an illustration. The 24:39 branch must be in the tree 24 hours a day. At all times. The branch doesn't sort of fix to the tree for 3 hours and then take off and go somewhere else and come back after some time and pray 3 hours and stick to the tree 3 hours. No, that 24:55 branch is in the tree in every tree, a fruitful branch is in the tree all the time. At all times like it says here. And that is what prayer is. Prayer is an expression of my helpless need of God all the time and it doesn't have to be 25:14 always with words in our mouth. Can be the expression of our heart. It's depending on God and say, "Lord, I cannot do anything without you." Like it says in John 15 verse 5, "Without you, I can do zero." And so, you see, we've got to eliminate all 25:32 these wrong ideas of prayer that we get from the boasting of various people and so many preachers tell us to pray so much and all that. Prayer is an expression of my helpless dependence upon God. Picture the branch in the tree. 25:47 There'll be fruit in your life, fruit in terms of your children becoming godly, fruit in terms of overcoming sin in your relationship with your husband and wife, fruit in terms of being an overcomer in terms of the habits in your life which are sinful. 26:06 The secret is always helpless dependence upon God. So, that is the very first thing that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5. That's what it means to be poor in spirit. It means I I'm just so unable to have anything 26:25 apart from God supplying me. Now, if you can learn that one lesson, it says here the entire kingdom of heaven is yours. Or the kingdom of God, all of God's kingdom becomes mine if I learn this one secret. That's the very first 26:42 sentence of the Sermon on the Mount. And you can hear that and you don't do anything about it, you'll build your house on sand. But if you say, "Lord, I'm determined to understand what this means." And what did Brother Zach say? I want to 26:55 understand it in my life. Not just intellectually, I want to experience it in my life, what this life of perpetual dependence upon you. Because I know that is the secret. If I get it, I've got the kingdom of God in my life. It's going to 27:08 change my life, it's going to change my family life, it's going to change everything. You know, a lot of people have a lot of struggle breaking free from the love of money. In the Sermon on the Mount, one of the things Jesus said about money was if you 27:22 turn to Matthew chapter 6. He says about He When he talks about money, he says in Matthew 6 and verse 19 to 21. Don't store up for yourself treasure on 27:40 earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. The principle is storing up for yourself hoping that uh I can be secure there. But instead, store up for yourself treasure in heaven. For where your treasure is, there will 27:55 your heart be also. And then he goes on to say in verse 24, amazing word about God and money. Verse 24, Matthew 6:24. There are two masters. God and money. Not God and Satan. You go to the average Christian anywhere in the world and ask him, "Who 28:14 are the two masters in the world spiritually?" Almost everybody will say God and Satan and you got to make a choice. Well, every Christian has chosen God. There's no Christian who has chosen Satan even for 1 second of any day. 28:29 But that's those are not the two masters. Please remember this, the two masters in the world are not God and Satan. Satan has been defeated on the cross. He's not a master, he has no power. Some people can go and submit themselves 28:45 to that is another thing, but as far as Christian is concerned, Satan is doesn't even come into the picture. He's there to tempt people, but the two masters, Jesus said so clearly, are God and money. God and wealth, Matthew 6:24. 29:00 And he said if you want to love God, you got to hate money. I mean, those are not my words. Please read Matthew 6:24 and see if it is you get any other conclusion. If you want to be devoted to God, verse 23, you got to despise money. That doesn't mean 29:13 you throw it away. It means it has no value for you compared to God. It's worthless compared to God. I've got I've got the real treasure and others. I live for that which is eternal. That's the point of it. So, to understand these things, 29:33 I need the Holy Spirit to explain what it means in terms of daily life. How shall I apply this in daily life? And God will show you. But it all begins if I can start with being poor in spirit. So, that's what I wanted to emphasize today. 29:48 And I trust we will be gripped by it. A low estimate of myself, that means for example, if you compare yourself with another believer in your own church and you think you're superior to him, you're not poor in spirit. [clears throat] 30:01 No. But you think you're better than him. Whereas, the person who's poor in spirit says, "I have no value apart from God. I'm a zero." That brother who came to Christ yesterday, he's also a zero. He's got to be in the tree and I got to 30:20 be in the tree. Maybe I've been in the tree a few more years, so some fruit has come in my life, but it doesn't mean I'm better than that guy who got converted yesterday. No. He's a zero and I'm a zero, too. And so, please remember this 30:34 that all our life we will be zeros before God and then your life will be extremely useful and profitable to God. Because you remain in the tree and let the sap flow into it all the time and you never I'll tell you one of the 30:48 blessings of this is you will never compare yourself with other believers in the church. See what it says in 2 Corinthians 10. If you want to know how to become a 31:08 idiot spiritually you know, in the world they talk about somebody who's an idiot mentally. Mentally, that means the guy can't understand or understand anything. He's mentally an idiot. Well, here in 2 Corinthians 10, it tells 31:20 us how you can be an idiot spiritually. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians in chapter 10. And verse 31:43 12. We are not bold to class or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves and measure themselves by themselves. I I want to ask you, brothers and sisters, do you have the habit of measuring yourself with other believers? 32:01 Do you have the habit of comparing yourself and seeing whether you're more spiritual than that person or less spiritual than that person? The Apostle Paul says, "I don't do it." He was way ahead of all of us and way ahead of 32:15 all the believers there in his time, but he says, "I just don't do it." I don't compare myself with others. Being he says, "Those who do that, they are foolish. They're without understanding." That's what it says in this verse. They 32:29 are I call them spiritual idiots. Spiritual idiots are those who compare themselves with other believers in their church or some other Christians elsewhere and say, "I'm better than them." And we should never do that. 32:48 And he says in the next verse, verse 13, "We will not boast." So, there are many blessings in always recognizing I'm a zero before God because I don't compare myself with anybody. So, please take these things to heart. 33:05 And if we are open to let the sap from the tree, that is the Holy Spirit come into us and constantly instruct us what will happen is he'll begin to show us things in our life 33:23 that we didn't even know were wrong. See, you know, I think the Christian life is like I've often said this is exactly like a child you admit a child in a school at the age of five or six and he's in the kindergarten. And all that he learns there is c a t is 33:41 cat and b a t is bat and 2 + 2 is 4, 3 + 3 is 6. But he doesn't remain there forever. The next year, he's going to learn something more. And the next year he's going to learn something more. This is how Christian growth is. 33:55 And that's how it must be in our Christian life, too. Not in terms of knowledge. Knowledge you can increase even if you're not even born again. There are a lot of unconverted people who are professors in Bible schools. I'm not joking. 34:10 Totally unconverted people who don't know the Lord who are not born again but who are heads of Bible schools on uh on earth. There are a lot of priests and pastors and bishops who are not even converted. Plenty of them all over the world. 34:27 Foolish people go and respect them because they say, "Oh, he's a bishop." I say, question is is he born again? Is he Does he know the Lord? I don't have any respect for anybody spiritually if he doesn't know the Lord. My respect for a person spiritual 34:43 spiritual respect is because he knows the Lord better. Not because he calls himself a bishop or an archbishop or professor in some school. It means nothing. So many values, you know, many of us are Christians, but we don't have these 34:57 values clear in our mind. Is the person poor in spirit? That to me is the most important thing. So when we come to the Lord and we want to see what are the real values you find in the Sermon on the Mount, 35:16 it'll show you what it means to be built on the rock and not to be built on the sand. And as we grow in the Christian life, God will give us teach us more and more. For example, as I said, you go to the first standard and you learn something more. 35:29 Then you go to the second and third. Every year we want our children to go from one class to the All of you are parents. Don't you want your children to go from one class to the next every year? You'd be very disappointed 35:40 if your child remains in the same class for one more year. I want to ask you is your spiritual condition today the same as it was last year? You're still losing your temper like you 36:00 did last year? That means you're still struggling with how much is 3 + 3 and then how much is 6 + 7 and how much is 9 + 10? You're still struggling in the kindergarten. Anger. [clears throat] Getting offended with somebody. Getting 36:17 offended with someone is a kindergarten lesson. If you still get offended with somebody, brother, get out of the kindergarten quickly. See, we don't take these things seriously. God wants us to progress and progress and progress. He wants us to get a 36:33 spiritual PhD one day. So if you are really eager, God will give us light on things that we don't realize are sin in our life. So, I was reading an article the other day. It's not 36:52 written by me. It's written by a very godly man who died some years ago. But let me tell you something here. It may give you a little light on it as you listen to it. It's a very brief article and I just want to read some points in it. 37:10 Listen to this. Whenever you see something right and good in another brother which is better than what you have. Are you listening? When you find something right and good in another brother or sister 37:29 which is better than what you have it minimizes you. It makes you smaller. Because that guy has obviously got a quality that you don't have. And that is a very good thing. Because then you can have a proper relationship with God. 37:47 Otherwise, all the time you may be thinking you're better than that person. But you see something in him that makes you feel small. Be thankful when you see a good quality Christian quality in another brother that makes you feel small. 38:02 Because that minimizes you. And then you can have a proper relationship with God as a creature to the creator. That's the first sentence in this article. The opposite of that is when I see something wrong in that person. 38:21 And that is more frequent with all of us. I see something wrong in that person, then I'm in danger. Because that exalts me. Hey, I don't do that stupid thing that person is doing. I don't have that bad habit that that person has. 38:37 And when that happens my fellowship with God is broken. Did you know that? Why is it broken? Because you have exalted yourself over another person who you feel is inferior to you. And yet there are believers doing this all the time. 38:56 And they wonder why their fellowship with God is broken. Here's the reason. And so you can do something right and there when you when you're right, you can be wrong. So, I call this article title this 39:16 article, "When I'm right, I'm wrong." Because you have a wrong attitude to the other person. You've done something right. But then you look at that other person and I see something wrong in him. 39:35 And then I exalt myself. I'm right, but I'm wrong. What you did was right. But because you compared yourself with that other person, you're wrong. So when I'm right, I can be wrong. Meditate a little more on that and you'll understand more of what it really 39:51 means. Because in the midst of doing what is right, if you exalt yourself over others, your fellowship with God is broken. You may not realize it. So he goes on to say, "Listen carefully, there's nothing wrong in being right. 40:10 But it is wrong to have the it it but it's wrong to have the wrong attitude in being right. We must be right. I'm not saying we should be wrong. But if I'm right in such a way that I despise another person, then I'm wrong. 40:22 I'm wrong when I'm right. And that's a wrong So we must be not only be right, but have the right attitude towards others. And therefore my my attitude towards all my fellow believers and fellow men, human beings, must always be characterized by humility 40:42 and respect. You must look around at everybody else in your church and respect them. That's a mark of a man of God or a woman of God. I'm not saying you agree with what they do. But if you see something good in you 41:01 which they don't have, you give the credit to God. You say, "I can't take any credit for that. It's what God has done in me. What can I It's like the color of your skin. We did not determine the color of our skin. And if you think the color of your skin 41:17 is better than somebody else's or you think your face is more handsome or prettier than somebody else's, who did that? You didn't manufacture it. Give the glory to God and don't despise anyone. And the other thing he says is, the 41:30 Jesus said that we must love our neighbor as ourselves. And so, if you love your neighbor My neighbor means anybody. You remember first one man came to Jesus and said, "Who's my neighbor?" And Jesus told the story of this 41:46 man who was beaten and fallen on the road and nobody bothered about him. And the Samaritan went and picked him up. And it was total stranger. Picked him up and took care of him. And Jesus said, "That that's the meaning of 42:01 That's your neighbor. That that person who was in need." So he says, "If I love my he If I love human beings the way God wants me to love them, I will really long that that person should be what on the basis of what Jesus has done 42:20 for him, should be able to come to the same type of life that I desire for myself. I want a godly life for myself. What about your unconverted relatives? Do you desire that they should have a godly life also? That is true Christianity. Otherwise, 42:37 you're not loving them as yourself. If you love them as yourself, and you want a godly life for yourself, you would want a godly life for them, too. So you see how if my desire for another person is not that he should also be 42:51 godly, then my communication with God is broken. Many believers, they don't realize that their communication with God is broken. Reason? They don't love their neighbor as themselves. You say the standard is high. 43:12 It's not high. It is impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit. The standard that Jesus taught is impossible without being the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what will drive you to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. 43:27 And say, "Lord, I can never come up to this." But the Holy Spirit can help you and me. So, even if somebody around me is totally wrong and I'm totally right, what shall I do then? I see somebody is totally wrong 43:47 and I'm totally right. You know, 1 Corinthians 13 is the great chapter on love. And one of the qualities of love is 1 Corinthians 13 verse 6, "Do not rejoice in unrighteousness." One of the characteristics of love is 44:12 Let me read that verse to you. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 6. "Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness." You read it? 1 Corinthians 13 verse 6, "Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness." In other words, you don't feel happy that someone is 44:31 doing something wrong or that someone is wrong. Because then you're rejoicing in unrighteousness. So then the problem is not only with him, the problem is with you. You don't have love in your heart. You don't have the love of Christ. 44:44 "Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness." Do you feel happy that you're better than that person? So, when you find another person is wrong, I'm just reading this article. We must not rejoice in that person's unrighteousness and glory on the fact 45:02 that I'm better than him. So in the last paragraph, he says, "How careful I must be then whenever I'm in a situation where I see that somebody else is wrong." Listen carefully. How careful I must be 45:21 every time I see a situation where I'm I'm right and I see that somebody else is wrong. I don't try to scramble into a superior position over that person and feel I'm better than him. Instead, I must remember my proper relationship 45:39 to him as a fellow creature before God. We don't have to become like him. Jesus was the most spiritual person that walked on the earth. But he never despised anybody. He valued all him. 45:59 He exposed wrong. Look at the way he condemns the Pharisees. They were all wrong, but it was not in a spirit of pride. Jesus did not say, "You are a hypocrite, but I am not." That's not what he was saying. He was exposing wrong. 46:15 But then a few days later, he went and died in order to save them from that wrong. That's why he had the authority to speak like that. Many people say, "Hey, Jesus condemned the Pharisees." But don't forget that Jesus died for those 46:27 Pharisees, too. So that's the person who's got the right to condemn them. The one who's willing to die for them. Jesus had that right. But we have to be cautious. So, you know, so often we know a little bit of the Bible and 46:46 we've grown a little spiritually and we understand certain truths which other Christians around us don't know. And the great danger is that we can suddenly think that we have become very spiritual. So when you read less something like 47:01 this that a man got light on and wrote, it really humbles us and we say, "Lord, there's so much of light I need to get to become like Christ." It doesn't condemn me. Not at all. I don't condemn myself. Condemning myself is a no entry road. I never go 47:20 there. But to have a sense of need, that's very good. I believe we must always live with a sense of need. That is what Jesus meant. "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Out of his innermost being will flow rivers of 47:36 living water." What is the thirst for? Thirst is, "Lord, I'm not yet like you. I want to be like you and I will thirst every day that I might be a little more like you, Lord Jesus, and love others. And if you've made me 47:52 overcome in some area, I want to give you all the glory for that. I don't want to make what you've done in my life uh a reason to compare myself with other people and say I'm better than them. I I have to leave that to God. 48:09 So, if we have I mean, I've had a desperate passion in my life for quite a long time to say, "Lord, I don't want a false spirituality. I don't want to fool myself that I'm a spiritual person when I'm not. So I want you to expose any type of 48:26 unreality or any type of unrighteousness or any type of hypocrisy in my life. I'm really determined that I want to be free from that completely." And then I find I mean, I believe that God allowed me to read this article because 48:40 he wanted me to take me a little higher because I wanted to go a little higher. And God will keep on showing me more and more if I want to continue growing. You know, you go from second grade to third grade to fourth grade to fifth grade and 48:52 you go to the 10th grade and you go to college and you go to postgraduate. There's no end to growth in the Christian life. We must not be static. That's what I am want to emphasize today. You must not remain in the same place. 49:08 We've come to this the last month of the year. Have you overcome something in 2025 which you were defeated by in January 2025? And now you come to December 25, 2025, you've overcome something. If not, you say, "Lord, 49:28 I failed. But I don't want 2026 to be like 2025. There are things I'm defeated by today, Attitudes I'm not getting light on myself. I wanted to be completely different in the next 12 months of the new year. That I'm going to continuously get light 49:47 more and more on myself and become more and more Christ-like. I believe God is there to help us. That is the main purpose of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, in conclusion, let me turn to John what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit. 50:05 He said in John 16, when the Holy Spirit is come, John 16 and verse 8, when the Holy Spirit is come, he will convict the world concerning 50:23 sin. One of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to convict people concerning sin, of sin, because because they don't depend on me. I believe That's meaning of believe in me. You didn't The sin is I don't depend on him. And therefore the Holy Spirit shows me 50:42 there's some sin here in your life because you're not depending on the Lord sufficiently. Well, praise the Lord. I got some light on that. Some area in my life. Maybe you got some light today. Some area in your life and the Lord says 50:54 that's not That's because you're not depending on the on Jesus. You're not depending on the Holy Spirit as you should. So, if if what you hear makes you cast on the Lord and say, "Lord, it's easy for me to fool myself that I'm 51:06 growing spiritually. To fool myself that everything's all right with me and everything is not." Thank you for light. That I can lean upon you more and esteem others as more Not as more spiritual than me, no, but esteem others as more important 51:23 than me. You know, Philippians 2 Jesus in the Bible says, "Consider other people." Philippians 2 and verse 3, as everybody else is more important than yourself. You may be more spiritual than all of them in your church. You may be the most 51:42 spiritual person in your church, but consider all of them as more important than you. Philippians 2:3. That's the mark of a godly man. Jesus on the last day of his earthly life, he was the most spiritual, never sinned, and he looks at his 12 disciples who got 52:02 so much wrong in them. They're arguing as to who is the greatest. Can you imagine a greater sin than that? And he looks at these people with all that defilement of considering who's the greatest at the Last Supper, and he kneels down and washes their 52:16 feet. You should keep that picture in your mind always. I have a picture of that in our sitting room of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. Yeah. It's a wonderful picture. It's one of my favorite pictures. 52:33 And it is he considered them as more important. That was the job of the slave in Jewish households to take the bucket and wash people's feet. And that was the last day of his life on earth. He washed the disciples' feet to say, 52:53 "You are more important than me." And he said it in those words also. In Luke chapter 22, he put it like this. Luke 22, verse 27. Have you read this verse? Luke 22:27. Who is greater? 53:14 The one who sits at the table or the servant who's going around serving people at the table? "All of you are sitting at the table," he tells his disciples. "I am the servant." Is he asking who is more spiritual? Well, then there's only one answer. 53:32 Jesus was a million times more spiritual than all those people sitting there. This is not a question of spirituality. Who is more important? Who is greater? Consider others as more important than yourself. 53:51 Value every brother and sister. They may You know, may not be spiritual at all. I mean, Jesus washed the feet of Judas Iscariot. Can you believe that? Who is greater? Luke 22:27. Isn't the one who sits at the table greater than the one who's serving? 54:09 Well, "I am among you as one who is serving." My brothers and sisters, if any of us have got a blown-up balloon, I hope it got punctured today. All the air has been let out of your 54:27 balloon and you're down to earth. I hope you see your need. I want to live I'll tell you honestly, I want to live constantly aware of my need. All the time. Supremely happy. I never condemn myself. I I'll tell you honestly, I never get discouraged. 54:46 And I never condemn myself. But I'm constantly aware of my need. I say, "Lord, I see I want to be more like you. I want to be more dependent on you. I want to esteem and value other people as more important than myself." And any thought 55:02 comes in my mind that I'm more important, I'm going to put it to death. I tell you, if you are like that, you'll be a very, very useful and effective member in your local church. God bless you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, 55:23 we thank you there is no condemnation in Christ. When you give us light, it's like asking us to be promoted to a higher class, teaching us something which we did not know. Thank you for the promotion. That we can see something 55:42 to overcome. Some new lesson to learn. Help us to take it seriously that we don't slip back and backslide to where we were at the beginning of this year. We want to move on. Help us to take our Christian life seriously, each one here. 56:00 Thank you, Father. You'll help us, I believe. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, brothers and sisters, for listening patiently. >> [music]
