0:00 Music playing. 0:30 Let's turn to Luke's Gospel in chapter 16. 0:51 Luke's Gospel, chapter 16. And verse 10 to 12. These verses are talking about money. 1:19 We are still got some noise here. Can you turn off that fan? 1:41 Okay. Let's turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 16 and verses 10 to 12. These verses are talking about money, our attitude to money and wealth and material things. Because this is a very, very important area. 2:04 And I believe this is an area where we need to be balanced. Balanced in the sense we have two extremes in Christendom in the area of money. In the olden days, people thought, if you are poor, you are a wholehearted Christian. 2:27 All wholehearted Christians must be poor. And now we have a new teaching that all wholehearted Christians must become millionaires and have plenty of earthly goods and comfort, etc. It's amazing how the devil swings people from one unscriptural extreme to another unscriptural extreme. 2:57 Why is this so important? In Luke, chapter 16, verse 13, Jesus said, There are only two masters. And you've got to actually hate one to love the other. You've got to be devoted to one and despise the other. 3:19 And the two masters are not God and the devil. They are God and mammon. And mammon meaning wealth, which is money, property, whatever it is. These are two masters. And Jesus said, you cannot serve both masters. 3:42 Many people know that in order to serve God, they must give up sin. You cannot serve sin. And they know the verse which says, sin shall not rule over you. And they wonder why they don't make spiritual progress. Because money must not rule over you either. 4:05 If money rules over you, you cannot serve God. You may get to heaven, I hope you do, but you certainly won't be able to serve God. You certainly won't be able to be effective. And not only that, here Jesus said that if you are not faithful, verse 11, with unrighteous mammon, 4:31 you, who will entrust the true riches to you? When I hear a preacher with no revelation from God, I may know nothing about his private life, and I can say that guy has not been faithful with money. When you are not faithful with money, the only revelation you will get is second-hand revelation from some other person who got first-hand revelation. 4:58 God will not give you true riches. What are the true riches? The true riches are revelation from God's word, transformation into Christ's character, anointing for the ministry. If these things are not present in your life, there are two areas where you need to check up. 5:22 One was what we considered yesterday about the use of the tongue. Maybe you are careless with the use of the tongue. And secondly, you are not faithful with money. Whatever you may say, God sees your life and says you are not faithful with money. 5:40 Of course, you will understand many things being taught by other people who have revelation. You can read their books and listen to their tapes and go to their meetings and conferences and understand such a lot, but it is all second-hand. 5:56 And many Christians are satisfied with second-hand. I have learned a lot from many, many godly people, but I would never be satisfied with second-hand revelation. If God is not showing me things which I have never read in any book, which I have never heard from any man, 6:18 which I have never heard on any tape, I would say something is wrong. Does all of my life have to be always dependent on others? I am not saying that we can't receive from others, but surely there must be some things that God is saying to you. 6:37 And also, if you find in your life that there is not an increasing transformation into the likeness of Christ, an increasing anointing in the Holy Spirit in your life and ministry, and you wonder why, perhaps you should ask yourself whether it is in this area of money 6:56 that you have a love for money that hinders you from loving God. Many people don't realize that. We know that we cannot love sin and love God. We know that we cannot love Satan and love God. But my guess is that 95% of believers believe deep down in their heart 7:16 they can love money and love God. And that's how the devil fools them. How did they get this idea? Even though Jesus said so clearly that do you know how to hold on to God? To be devoted to God? If I were to ask you how to be devoted to God, 7:37 what would your answer be? Jesus said, to be devoted, the last part of verse 13, to be devoted to God, you've got to despise money. I wanted to be devoted to God and the Lord told me, you've got to despise money if you want to be devoted to me. 7:55 You tell me if that's a wrong interpretation of scripture. The Lord told me, you must come to the place where you gain money, it doesn't excite you, and you lose money, it doesn't depress you. Then you despise it. Then you can be devoted to me. 8:16 I said, Lord, I want to be devoted to you. I cannot manage this myself because I'm a child of Adam and like all children of Adam, I've got a flesh which is a fantastic lover of money. And even if I support myself as a Christian worker 8:37 and don't depend on others for my financial support of myself and my family, it's been like that for 30 years, but yet I can be a lover of money. Sure, you think all people who support themselves are free from the love of money? 8:52 Almost everybody here supports themselves. Does that save us from the love of money? He doesn't. You have to despise it. Despise in the sense, I will not be excited when I get money. And you've got to be very honest with yourself. 9:09 I remember many years ago, somebody gave me a gift, money. And I said, thank you very much. And when he went away, the Lord asked me, are you happy? I said, yes, Lord, unfortunately I am. unfortunately, 9:30 a little increase of money has made me happy. But Lord, I'm honest with you. Because I'm honest with you, I believe you'll help me. I want you to free me from this. That if anybody gives me any gift, it will not increase my happiness 9:48 because my joy is in the Lord. I want you to do it, Lord. I have fought a battle here for many years because I want to be devoted to Jesus. I want to get true riches from him. And I saw from this passage, I can never get true riches. 10:05 I can never be devoted if I don't have my attitude to money right. I have to despise it. I have to despise it to love God. If I get it, it has to be as though I didn't get it. If I got some gain in my business, it must not increase my excitement 10:28 even so much. I worked on it. I worked on it. And I tell you, I'm pretty close to getting there. And then, the other thing is, the Lord has taught me by allowing me to lose money. 10:48 Initially, many years ago, it was only small amounts of money. Like my pocket will get picked in a bus. I said, well, praise the Lord. There wasn't much in it, but the guy deserved it because he did such a neat job that I didn't even feel it. 11:08 But I also need to pray for him because the guy's going to hell. Let me, I'm sure nobody in the world ever prayed for that pickpocket. Let me be the first person to pray for him. So I did that also. Initially, it was small amounts. 11:23 And over the years, God began to increase the amounts which I would lose. And I would say, why, Lord? Don't you want to be devoted to me? I said, sure. Okay, praise the Lord. If that's the reason, you're teaching me to be completely free 11:43 from attachment to earthly things. Lord, I'm serious. I'm not playing games here in the Christian life. I'm not just one of those preachers who wants to get up in the pulpit and preach some message. I'm not interested in that. 11:58 I want to be connected to you. And everything I speak must flow from my life. If it doesn't flow from my life, I don't want to say it. So, over the years, I'm sure God has not finished with me. He's probably got to teach me 12:17 many more lessons as I go higher, but I'm determined to be completely detached from all attachment to money and earthly things because I know I can never, never serve God if there is this attachment. If you're serious 12:38 as I was, God will deal with you in the same way. He'll give you the same anointing, the same victory over sin, the same revelation and everything because there is no partiality with God. But, if you are not faithful with unrighteous wealth, 12:56 God will not commit you through riches. So, I want to share with you some principles in this. I think all of us know that as the children of Adam, we find it very difficult to give. It's true for you and for me. We find it very easy to receive. 13:19 When somebody gives you a gift, do you have to think about it before you receive it? Not usually. You say, thank you very much. But have you noticed when you want, when you're thinking of giving, you have to think about it 13:36 and pray about it and why? I'll tell you why. Because you've got a flesh. Recognize this. A flesh which loves to receive but is very reluctant to give. 13:57 There was an old writer in the last century called George Bernard Shaw in England. He said, he wasn't a Christian but he was a very shrewd observer of mankind. And he said, there's one thing I've noticed about all these fellows 14:16 who call themselves Christians and born-again Christians. they love to get things free. That I've noticed about. I mean, maybe it's because they got their salvation free so they think everything in life must be free. Anything that's free, 14:35 Christian, here I am. I'm ready to receive it. Is that true of you? You'll be tremendously poor spiritually if that's your attitude. I have seen people 14:56 through the years wanting to do Christian work. They spend their life in some government service and they retire when they are 60 years old and get a pension. And they say, okay, what shall I do the rest of my life? Join some Christian organization 15:13 and make some more money. Yeah. And there are lots of Christian organizations that are willing to employ these retired people and give them a salary. One would have thought at least after they are retired, at least the rest of their life 15:27 they can serve God without receiving a salary but oh no. Money. Do you think any one of those people will get revelation in a thousand years? No. Do you think any of them will have an anointing on their ministry? No. They are out 15:43 to make money out of Christian organizations. I've got letters like that. Brother Zach, I've just retired from somewhere. Can we join your organization? I say, welcome. We don't pay anybody. I never get a reply after that. 16:00 See, we have a built-in filter. We don't pay anybody. Immediately we know who wants to serve God and who wants to serve money. But that doesn't mean even though we have that filter that everybody who's come through the filter 16:15 is necessarily serving God. Oh no. You can be here and you can still be loving money. Ask yourself whether this phrase is true of your life. That's what I ask myself. As a little phrase, I want you to keep that phrase before you. 16:36 It's in Luke's gospel chapter 12. It's a little phrase in Luke chapter 12. If you keep that before you all the time, ask yourself. It's not a question of how much money you'll give to God. A lot of people have got plenty of money 16:48 to give. Some people don't. It's a phrase in Luke 12 verse 21. So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. That's the phrase. Rich towards God. When God looks at your life, 17:11 can he testify that you are rich towards him? It's not a question of and it's not just a question of money. It's a question of one's life. It's a question of one's time. It's a question of one's energy. It's a question of convenience 17:32 in one's home and so many things. To be rich towards God is to be, to say, God, you deserve everything. I'm not going to withhold anything from you. because the law is give and it will be given to you. 17:53 The more you give to God, the more God gives back to you. You take a little spoon and give something to God and that's what you're going to get back. Because in the measure in which you give, in that measure, you receive. 18:13 Many Christians are so poor spiritually because God is giving them little teaspoons. Other fellows are getting buckets and here you're getting a little teaspoon. Do you know why you're getting a little teaspoon? Because that's 18:28 what you give to God too, a little teaspoon. It's not a question of what you make me think or what I make you think. Over a period of time, you'll be able to discover in people whether they are rich towards God in their private 18:45 life or not because you'll find God making them fantastically wealthy spiritually. And you know there, and there's a grace upon their life, there's a growth in their life, there's an anointing in their life and you know 18:58 boy, God is amazingly rich towards this person. Why? Is God partial? No, he's not. I have studied the lives of lots of godly men and I've tried to see the secret but even as a young 19:18 man, I said, Lord, I want to be a godly man and let me try and find the secret of these men. I read about Hudson Taylor who went to China, C.D. Stud who went to Africa, John Lake who went to South Africa, different people and 19:36 I saw one thing that was common about all these people. They really were rich towards God in the financial area. we want God's blessing without being rich towards them financially, it just doesn't work. 19:57 You want the anointing that somebody else has and you think that you'll get it by fasting and praying. You can fast and pray for a hundred years, you won't get it. You've got to be faithful with mammon. So this is a very, 20:15 very important area. We can ask ourselves, why are we so reluctant to give to God? And there is a reason, because we haven't understood what Scripture teaches. I believe the great failure in many Christians is because their teachers 20:36 have not taught them clearly what God's Word teaches in this area. Let me tell you a few things. First of all, I want you to know that everything on earth, including your money and your bank account and your property, belongs to 20:53 God. It doesn't belong to you. And I'll show you that from Scripture. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 26. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 26, it says, the earth is the Lord's and everything 21:14 that it contains. Everything that it contains means your bank account, what you've inherited from your father, your property, your house, everything that the earth contains belongs to the Lord. 21:35 Have you recognized that? Number one, or do you possessively say, this is mine. That's your number one mistake. You know, there are a lot of people who preach the gospel like this. Won't you give your heart to Jesus? There he's 21:55 standing at your door and knocking. Don't make him stand outside in the rain and get wet. Open the door. He's standing at the door and knocking. How long will you make him knock? He's been knocking for so many years. Please, 22:09 oh, I beg of you, please open the door. Give your life to Jesus. And finally the big Maharaja opens the door. Okay, come in. And he feels for the rest of his life, almighty God must be grateful to him because he allowed 22:24 Jesus to come inside from the rain and he gave him a house. That's not the way I preach the gospel. I preach the gospel like this. You're a thief. You've taken away from God what belongs to him. God created you. You don't 22:40 belong to yourself. How dare you keep what belongs to God as your own. Give it back. It's like if you stole somebody's wallet. What would I tell you? You're a thief. Go and give it back to him. And when you give it back 22:53 to him, don't expect him to say thank you. You be grateful if he forgives you. Give back to God what belongs to him. Not only that, he not only created you, on top of that, he went and died and redeemed you. You belong to him 23:07 twice. You don't belong to yourself, you wretched thief. Go back to God and be thankful if he accepts you and forgives you. Give your life to him and don't expect to thank you. Be eternally grateful to him that he doesn't 23:20 smack you and send you to hell for being a thief for 25 years. Receive Christ now. That is the gospel. Have you heard it preached like that? All this business of please come to Jesus, please come. He's waiting, he's waiting, 23:38 he's waiting. What type of converts does it produce? Third rape, good for nothing, useless, fellows who think they are Maharajas. We don't want people like that in God's kingdom. We want repentant thieves who say Lord, I stole 23:56 what belonged to you for so many years. I'm so grateful that you didn't send me to hell. Thank you for accepting me. I return to you what I have stolen. The same thing with money. What am I asking you to give to God? 24:17 What belongs to him? You wretched thief, you thought that money was yours. You thought that property was yours. See what God's word says. The property deed is in his name. The earth belongs to the Lord and everything it 24:36 contains. Why do you overlook that verse and go to other verses on speaking in tongues and evangelism and all that? Why do you skip this verse? That's why there's a shallowness in your Christian life. And that's why when 24:52 you give some money to God oh you think God should be so grateful to you for the next 50 years because you put a little bit more in the offering box last Sunday. What do you mean? You already keeping 90% of what you have 25:12 stolen with you and you give some 5% to God and thousand rupees from somebody it's like I heard somebody who had stolen money sent anonymous money order back to that chap and say I stole 25:32 a lot of money from you here's a little bit if I'm convicted a little more I'll give you a little more of the rest that I've stolen from you what is that that's exactly how some Christians live God I've stolen everything 25:45 from you but I'll give you one percent and some people say if I get ten percent oh you steal a thousand rupees from somebody and you return a hundred rupees and you think the guy has got to be grateful to you because you 25:58 returned a type of what you stole fundamental problem among Christians is they have not understood that everything on the earth belongs to the Lord but you say I worked hard to earn it no you didn't God gave you health God 26:18 gave you intelligence God gave you the ability to get a degree to get a qualification God gave you a job God gave you all that that's how you earned your money so who deserves it I I hope you know at least now do you know 26:32 there are people your age who are paralyzed who cannot work do you know there are people your age who live in the slums who are still carrying bricks today when you're earning money so much because your parents gave you 26:44 a good education don't ever congratulate yourself on that don't ever think your income is your own it's not we are such thieves that's the problem you say well I inherited it who gave the intelligence and ability and 27:04 health to your father or grandfather or great grandfather to get that money it was God recognize him don't be a thief be rich towards God recognize that everything belongs to him I'm I'm not asking you to give back 10% of 27:21 what you have stolen I'm asking you to recognize that all that you have belongs to God and when you give something to him or his work or his children you are not doing him a favor you are giving back what originally 27:42 belonged to him which he gave you as a loan to use if you recognize that at the beginning it will completely change your Christian life I really believe many many people all over the world they ask me question time why is 28:00 it I don't seem to be able to make progress I've attended so many meetings I tell you the reason is in 95% of cases it's their attitude to money they fast they pray they go for meetings they read this book that book secrets 28:13 to the Christian life five steps to victory all that nothing happens because the issue which is fundamental they don't deal with I hope you'll deal with it this morning I don't know how many of you will I'll tell you according to 28:27 the law of averages 90% of you will just nod your head and go back and still do the same old thing that you always did but I hope there'll be a 10% who will respond and whose lives will be transformed from today India needs 28:41 anointed men and the devil is robbing God's people of that anointing by giving them a wrong attitude to money there is no partiality with God do you think it is God who is making all these preachers preach boring sermons 29:01 in our churches Sunday after Sunday don't blame God for that be honest those preachers love money they're not committing other sins but they love money they're not rich towards God they feel their possessions are their own 29:16 okay well then that's the result God does not give them true riches according to his word so that's the first thing that we need to recognize and so once we recognize that everything we have belongs to God then we can start 29:33 working on being free from this let me show you another verse in 1 Timothy chapter 6 it's very clear here 1 Timothy chapter 6 it says it says here have you ever wondered why when a 29:53 man leaves the world he cannot take his money with him you know you've seen people dressed up in suits and all that in a coffin haven't you just examine the pockets of those coats and see if there's any wallet or money inside 30:12 that nothing why is that why can't he take his money with him when he goes I mean if you go from India to America and you take your own money with you nobody will object India will not object America will not object you can 30:28 transfer your money from here to America the Indian government will not say no you can't transfer it is God more unrighteous than the Indian government that you spend so many years accumulating money and you want to transfer 30:41 it to heaven and God says no not one pie why is that have you ever thought about it now I'll tell you the reason 1 Timothy 6 verse 7 when we came into the world we brought nothing and that is why when we leave the world 31:00 we can't take anything out got the answer how much was in your wallet when you came out of your mother's womb you didn't even have an underwear when you came out of your mother's womb leave alone anything else at least you 31:18 got some clothes when you go into the coffin you didn't even have that when you came out of your mother's womb that's why you can't take anything when you go because you came without nothing God says you go without anything 31:31 you heard me use this illustration it means one of the best illustrations I always love to use it a mother takes a little three year old child to somebody's house to play and to visit the home and the people in that home 31:45 are very kind and allow this little three year old to pray with their little cars and all types of toys and when the mother takes the visit is over and the mother takes the three year old home before leaving the home if 32:01 she's a wise mother she examines his pockets to see if there are any little cars or any little toys inside and sure enough there are a few things inside and she says son why have you taken this I want to take it home what 32:16 does she say son when we came to this house we did not bring anything when we leave here we must also not take anything out while we were here these things now we must give it back and go just like we came it's 32:37 exactly what God says in the day you die my son my daughter when you came into the world you didn't even have an underwear you came with nothing I allowed you to play around with these things for little white property and 32:50 houses and lands to play with it for 60 70 80 years now it's time to go home my son let me just empty your pockets because you came here with nothing right you 33:10 got to leave it I have tested you in these 80 years to see whether you love me or these little toys more what will be the result of that test when we leave this earth we brought nothing we take away nothing 33:31 nothing that means whatever he gave me was a loan it's like you work in an office and you're working there in a very expensive computer and one day you retire from the office you can't take the laptop home can you you can't 33:48 say well I worked on this for three four years sorry this belongs to the office but I used it yeah you used it but doesn't belong to you it's exactly like that with earthly things your house your bank account it doesn't 34:04 belong to you if you can recognize that in an office can't you recognize that in God's earth it doesn't belong to you this is the fundamental problem with a lot of Christians they have not recognized that the earth belongs 34:18 to the Lord and everything it contains they think part of it belongs to them well if it belonged to you listen if it belonged to you God would be a thief to take it away from you when you die that is the proof that it didn't 34:33 belong to you because when you die you have to leave it behind but is there something that you can take out of this earth when you leave yes that is your character that is yours for all eternity the denied yourself and 34:54 partaken of divine nature that is yours for all eternity God says that is yours these earthly things are not yours and he allows you to take that into eternity do you know that all believers are not going to be equal in 35:12 eternity that when we are raised from the dead we are not all going to be the same I mean let me teach you things which you never hear anywhere else I'll teach it you from scripture 1 corinthians 15 it says here 1 35:32 corinthians 15 the last part of verse 41 one star differs from another star in glory you look up at the sky and you see all the stars are not the same brightness they are all 35:52 stars but they are not all the same brightness one star is brighter than the other there are different degrees of brightness next verse so so also is the resurrection from the dead you know how the resurrection from the 36:09 dead is going to be lights there'll be zero watt 25 watt 100 watt believers 2000 watt believers halogen light believers there'll be quite a difference between these halogen light believers and these zero watt believers they've 36:28 all got light can you say zero watt bulb doesn't have light yeah it has a little bit of light yeah we'll all be stars but one star is going to differ from another star in glory you say God why do you make some people so 36:42 bright as halogen bulbs in eternity and some people like little five watt bulbs and the Lord will say I tested them on earth in different situations with temptation to test whether they chose the creator or the created you 37:02 know all temptation is basically do you want the creator or the created that was a temptation in Eden here is something I have created God says tree of knowledge of good and evil I created it's very beautiful very good looking 37:15 very attractive do you want that or do you want me when Eve stood before that tree the choice was do I want this or do I want God Eve said choose this you may be standing in front of money and God says do you want that or 37:28 me the devil says choose this there's not much difference between the choice you make and the choice Eve made in Eden and the Lord says I gave you all these created things on earth to see what you would choose it's a pretty 37:44 woman for example you choose a pretty girl and God says you want that or you want me you can have your choice there are people who will sell God for a pretty girl fine millions of people like that they're not going to shine 38:00 like halogen what bulbs in eternity no not in a thousand years not in all eternity the choices you make on earth determine how bright you're going to be in eternity everything that Jesus taught said that he gave one talent 38:14 each to ten servants and one servant came back with ten talents another servant came back with five the Lord said okay you who brought ten you're going to have much more reward you brought five you get half of that everything 38:30 that Jesus said taught that don't believe the lie of the devil that if you have accepted Christ no matter how you live you're just going to be the same in eternity I tell you in Jesus name you're not because if you if it's 38:45 all going to be the same God would be the most unrighteous master of all to reward faithful servants equally with unfaithful servants even on earth they don't do that no company will reward an unfaithful worker the same 38:59 amount as a faithful worker and we are saying that God is more unrighteous than that that is impossible don't accuse God of that you're going to get a big surprise when you stand before God and discover that the way you 39:12 lived on earth is going to determine your glory in all earth you are making choices on earth in relation to earthly things you may think those choices are unimportant they are not they are 39:33 very very important little little things I told you yesterday there are little little commandments in God's word and you are making choices when you read those commandments whether to obey it and say ah that's a little one 39:45 it doesn't matter God hears that okay you will see your spiritual life suffer correspondingly you won't go to hell you'll still be a good brother sister in the church but your spiritual life will decline I can give it to 40:00 you in writing and I've seen it the people who are careless about the little commandments of scripture and say ah it doesn't matter what is it that makes a commandment big or great I'll tell you who gave the commandment 40:13 if I gave the commandment definitely it's a little commandment if God almighty gave that commandment my brother don't ever call it a little commandment I don't who gave it that's the point so in this area first of all let's 40:31 learn to be righteous with money like Zacchaeus if we have stolen cheated we must return it I remember a man once wrote to me a poor man who was working in the fields from some southwest part of India and said brother 40:51 Zac I have never even met him he just wrote me a letter he said brother I am a very poor worker he couldn't even write it in English he wrote it in a local language and he said I am in debt to 30,000 rupees may not be much 41:05 to you some of you earn more than that in one month but this person was so poor he said I can never repay this amount I'm just struggling to survive with my family month by month I'm in this terrific debt tell me will God 41:20 punish me if I'm not able to repay my debt I wrote to him and I said you listen to me and God will never punish you can you save 10 rupees a month I'm sure you can cut down something don't buy that extra thing save 10 41:40 rupees in a month it's very little 10 rupees in a month 30 pies a day okay pay back that 10 rupees to whom you owe money do a little calculation how long will it take to pay back 30 thousand rupees if you pay 10 rupees a 41:59 month you know how long 250 years I told him that it'll take you 250 years to repay your 30 thousand rupee debt you're not going to live that long you probably live another 10 years and die but God would have seen your heart 42:20 that you try to pay back what you could and in heaven's record your debt will be cancelled because 2nd corinthians 8 verse 12 says that if a man has a desire to do something then God 42:41 will accept it according to his ability and and and not according to what he is not able to do wonderful verse 2nd corinthians 8 12 i hope he accepted it i did not hear from him after that but i set him free pay back what 42:59 you have cheated make an effort if you are in debt you got gold in your house sell it pay back your debt if you don't take these things seriously we cannot make progress in this area i believe that's the number one thing 43:19 that's being righteous then work hard to earn well it says in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 here's the command of scripture 2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 7 Paul 43:41 says you know that you should follow our example because we did not act in an indisciplined way we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it he was an apostle and the Thessalonians some good Thessalonians were giving 43:57 him food every day he paid for it even though he was an apostle he could have said well I'm an apostle it's right for you people to feed me because I'm preaching here every day no he said we'll pay for it he paid for the 44:12 food he ate and we worked hard with labor and hardship so that we would not be a burden to any of you and then to give you an example and then he said because we hear that some of you verse 11 are leading undisciplined lives 44:28 not doing any work and so we say work and if a man does not work let him not eat that's the law work in quiet fashion and earn your own bread and if a man does not follow this 44:48 rule yes it says don't even associate with him so that he will be put to shame the law is there in verse when if a man is not willing to work he should not eat in other words you got to work hard the Lord told Adam from 45:06 now on it's by the sweat of your brow you got to live and so I realized that I've got to work hard to support myself I've got to work hard to support my family I've got to work hard to study the Bible a lot of people don't 45:20 understand that even the bread of life is by the sweat of your brow that you get the bread of life if you are too lazy to study the Bible you won't get it and that's why a lot of people don't have bread the principle is 45:34 by the sweat of your brow you will earn your bread and if you are not willing to sweat you won't know the scriptures and you won't be able to earn your money so work hard no laziness it says some of you are leading an indisciplined 45:47 life doing no work at all it's a pity when young people are lazy fooling around I know there's a need for entertainment and relaxation but I believe a lot of our young people are got far too much entertainment and far too 46:06 much relaxation and the standard of their entertainment becomes worse and worse and worse and worse and worse till they are watching movies which even some ungodly people will not allow their children to watch that's what's 46:19 happening because it's a progressive deterioration because they started disobeying the small commandments and God's grace withdrew from their life and they can do such terrible things and watch such filthy movies today and 46:33 it doesn't disturb their conscience now proof that God has withdrawn his grace from them of course they can still sing well and know the Bible and clap and raise their hands and everything else but grace has departed and 46:46 they don't even realize it that's the tragedy the glory of God has departed way and it's a slippery slide before you know where you are at the bottom I can only warn you be 47:06 careful be careful don't become indisciplined and lazy work hard I am older than most of you I work hard and I don't work hard to make money now because God's given me enough 47:26 I work hard to serve God there's hardly a day when I go to sleep before midnight not doing business because I need to be sharp and to know I need to serve people I need to be alert to God I need to know the 47:46 word I need to be available and if I'm 90 years old I still work hard because as long as we are on this earth we have to work hard retirement is in heaven work hard the second thing is there should be no wastage in 48:06 your life don't waste time don't waste money particularly money don't waste it John chapter 6 verse 12 after the 5,000 were fed there was so much of extra loaves and fishes and he who multiplied the loaves and fishes could 48:25 have said ah no problem I can multiply it some more tomorrow no he said gather up the fragments that remain verse 12 so that nothing is lost I want to say to you all of you young people gather up the fragments that remain 48:43 don't waste money don't waste food if you got a refrigerator save the food you say it's not so tasty the next day that's fine you go for taste okay I want to be faithful before God and I tell you it's gone well with me 49:03 be faithful don't waste food don't waste money don't waste time gather up the fragments that remain it's a principle in the Christian life I have seen how people get into debt they get into debt because they don't gather 49:23 up the fragments that remain my wife and I from the time we got married we always gathered up the fragments of everything we tried to save a little money here a little money there and wherever possible we wouldn't you know 49:41 we wouldn't buy anything which we could not afford my wife and I have stood for hours hours and hours in the Bangalore ration queue to buy rationed rice because it is a little cheaper than what you get in the market people 50:01 say ah okay these people who say ah they because I stood in the ration queue you fellas are all bigger aren't you you want the best rice for years we 50:21 used to buy fish about once a year sometimes once or twice we couldn't afford it other people can't live without fish you are the fellows who get into debt I have never been in debt in 66 years never had to take a bank loan 50:34 because when I couldn't we have used firewood at home to heat water so that we could save electricity to heat water I remember once when my wife told some sister in CFC would you like to take some of this firewood to heat 50:54 water so no what do the neighbors think that we are such miserly people using firewood but those are the people whom I have to give money to when they are in need you think they'll get revelation not in a thousand years 51:10 we are so live such luxuriously and get into debt and have to borrow here and borrow there and borrow the other place oh God give me revelation I'm fasting and praying nothing will happen brother be faithful with mammon 51:27 gather up the fragments that remain now if you don't need to burn firewood to heat water if you're a rich person getting 30,000 rupees a month you don't need to heat fire water but I was not earning like that so I'm not 51:39 saying all of you should do it many of you got your financial circle is big you got plenty of money you can use a water heater and everything else I can use it today today today the circle is bigger I don't use firewood 51:50 today but what I'm saying is in the days when I had little we lived with little that's what I'm saying and if you're getting little live with little don't copy somebody else I never bought a car till I could afford one and 52:06 even after I bought one I wouldn't use it most of the time because I didn't have enough money to buy petrol for it now I can but there were years when I couldn't because I had one principle I'm a servant of God I must never 52:19 get into debt now a lot of people don't have that principle can you imagine Jesus going to somebody and saying can you lend me some money I couldn't imagine that with the stretch of my imagination that Jesus would go and 52:33 do that I met believers who say we live by faith God will provide our need those are the very fellows 10 years later they are in debt they need of money and we have to go and help them financially in the church they 52:54 I said Lord I don't have the faith of George Muller or C.T. Stud so I have to save some money I'm not like these super spiritual people some in CFC too who say whoa we trust God and those people who trust God later on they 53:07 are hard up and I have to give money to help them out these fellows who have faith and I I don't have George Muller or C.T. Stud faith I will save a little I will save a little so that when my children have to go to college 53:20 I don't have to ask anybody for money go to the ant the Bible says you lazy man see how that ant can you see can you imagine the size of the brain of an ant and the ant itself is so small what's the size of its brain inside 53:37 that brain the Bible says it thinks there won't be enough food in winter let me store up some for the winter the Bible says go to the ant you lazy man and be careful store up something for the future so that you don't have 53:52 to depend on other kind believers to come and help you so that you can help others I'm glad to help others even so that's the other thing and once we don't waste our time 54:13 and we work hard and save and if God when God gives us an abundance that's the time we need to learn to give have you learned to give to God to be rich towards God you got to go through step one and two before you can come 54:32 to step three you always be waiting with a handout for people to come and give you something if you don't if you are not faithful with little things if you try to live beyond your means if you try and look at other people 54:45 and see how they live my brother and sister are millionaires I've never taken one rupee from them and they were millionaires when I was struggling financially I never wanted to live like them I never wanted my children to 54:56 wear the type of clothes their children wore it's not my business do you compare yourself with your brothers and sisters and say I want to live like them I didn't I said God has drawn a very small circle around me I live 55:06 within that brothers and sisters God's riches will be given to you if you are faithful in little things faithful with money don't waste money there may be emergencies where we have to borrow money from somebody I'm not saying 55:26 you shouldn't do that I wanted to always avoid it because I have a special position as a servant of God I have to be very very careful we have removed elders from some of our churches because they are in debt no man is in 55:41 debt is fit to be an elder of any church no how can he be when the Bible says in Romans 13 8 oh no man anything ah that's a little command that's how it goes with a lot of people little little 56:02 don't feel that you must get grand clothes and all types of ornaments for your little girls be careful I find nowadays a trend I noticed that in CFC too there are two streams among the young girls 56:22 one is the fashionable stream and the other is the simple stream I'm talking about their dress and you who have little girls growing up those little girls come and see you tell them there are two streams some are on this 56:40 stream some on the other stream my little girl you choose which one you want don't judge anybody we're not here to judge anybody in the world God is the judge of all people but you can tell your little girl if you look carefully 56:53 not everybody is in one stream some are in one stream and some are in the other which one do you want to follow we don't want to be just good singers and clappers at the end of our life we want to be holy people who are 57:07 a testimony for Christ and teach your little girl to choose what you think is best for her and I'm not going to tell you that if I had a little girl I would know what I tell her but your little girl is not mine and you must 57:24 decide what to tell her that's your choice but these little little things they're large there's a saying in the world that big doors swing on small hinges big doors swing on small hinges and sometimes big things 57:44 result from little little decisions that you and very often it's in relation to material things I'm not here to you know many of you have known me for CFC for many years I don't lay down the rule for anybody I don't decide 58:02 what you're to wear or what you're to have in your home or what type of home you rent or build or how you spend your money I'm not even bothered my duty is to proclaim to you the principles of God's word whether you follow 58:16 them or not it's up to you don't think that anything you see in CFC is endorsed by me a lot of it is not it's not endorsed but endured because I do not believe in being a busy body in other people's matters I believe in 58:35 proclaiming God's word and leaving it to the people whether they want to obey or not because that's how God sent Adam into Eden here is the commandment Adam and Eve go and do what you like it's exactly what I say too exactly 58:48 like God these are God's standards do what you like that we can't escape and there will be consequences if we love money if we are not faithful we're going to find ourselves in violation of 59:08 a lot of commandments we'll find ourselves gradually deteriorating our conscience not even troubling us about things that troubled us just ask yourself this little question is your conscience troubling you or is your conscience 59:24 not troubling you today about certain things that it did trouble you about 10 15 years ago then you know you're going backwards dear brothers and sisters let's be careful with what we have so that 59:44 we can recognize that almighty God is our master not money not anything else but God is our master let's be faithful let's pray heavenly 1:00:09 father help us to honor you in all of our life in everything we do give us grace to do your will to please you in all things not to be taken up 1:00:29 not to follow the examples of those who are not good examples around us but to be faithful before you so that we can earn your good pleasure and get the true riches from you we pray in Jesus name amen Amen.
