0:36 Okay. Yeah, that's right. Thank you. So easy to blame other people when the fault is with yourself. And we don't even know it. The Christian life 0:56 is a walk of constantly getting light on oneself. How easy it is to slip back into living in according to the flesh even unknowingly. I have thought of this verse in 1 Peter chapter 4 1:16 many times when I think of the New Testament church. The mark of the household of God 1 Peter 4:17. It speaks of the household of God. 1:33 That's the church. And I see is a very important verse. It's time for judgment to begin in the household of God and it begins with us first. This has been a guiding 1:54 verse for me as a mark of those who are part of a new covenant church. You know, you know that verse in Acts 17 where people said these apostles have come and turned the world upside down. Uh these people who turned the world 2:12 upside down have come here. I've thought of that, you know, there's a truth in what they said out there, I think it was Thessalonica. Uh Paul and Silas had gone there. The world is actually became upside down the day Adam sinned. 2:30 He was on his feet when he went into Eden and he was upside down once he listened to the devil. And from that moment every child has been born upside down into the world and they've lived upside down. And Jesus came and turned man right side up. 2:47 So in a world of upside down people when somebody walks erect, they think he's upside down. And they themselves are erect. There's a problem there and that's what happened. That's why we look odd to the rest of the world. 3:00 They we our values are exactly sometimes. 3:45 Thank you. Yeah, 1 Peter 4 verse 17, it says judgment must begin with us first. And um 4:03 a world which is upside down, our calling is to invite those who want to get on their feet to respond. It's repentance is turning around. Getting right side up. 4:21 So in an upside down world the nature of Adam's race is to put themselves first in everything. Take care of number one in everything. Take care of yourself and your family 4:40 and then if you have time, think about others. Uh but most of the time you don't have time, so you just think about yourself and your family and that's how the whole world lives. But there is one area where all the race 4:52 of Adam put other people first and that is in the area of judging people. When it comes to judgment others are always first. We have an opinion on our neighbor, we have an opinion on that group over there and the other this person, that person, the other 5:08 person, the way that person's brought up his children and everything else. Judgment, others are first. So what happens when you get right side up? Going to be the opposite of the race of Adam. We put other people first in 5:20 everything except judgment. In judgment, we put ourselves first. So that's one test of whether we've been really converted, whether we really repented. Have you 5:37 learned to judge yourself first before you judge your brother or pass an opinion about him? Uh sometimes I've asked people in our church can I suggest to you a fast 5:56 of 1 week where you don't pass any opinion about anybody in your home and you sit at home with your wife. Just 1 week. And they find it's tough to fast from passing an opinion about others for 1 week. I said just to show you how much we are 6:12 slaves to this business of passing opinions about many people. Many of many times we don't even know the full story. But there's one person about whom we know the full story and that's ourselves. Sometimes you don't even know 6:26 about your wife. We often judge our wives not knowing the struggles they go through. We pass judgment on others not knowing uh what all problems they are facing in their personal life. 6:45 If we knew a little more we'd be more compassionate. Very often we don't know. We think everything is normal with them and they are having a easy time and then they are behaving like this. No, they may be under tremendous pressure due to 7:00 various circumstances. There may be sickness in their home, there may be financial difficulties and that's why so we must always make an allowance for others and say I don't know what all they're going through. God alone knows. 7:13 You don't even know what all pressures your wife may be going through. She may be having physical problems because she's a woman which men don't understand sometimes. There are things that happen in a woman's body uh at different times and um 7:28 just because she's a woman which we men never understand. When the Bible says um woman is a weaker vessel, it's not just physically weaker, they're weaker in many ways. And it says if a man does not live understanding that 7:45 you know what the Bible says? The man's prayers will not be heard. I don't know if you know that verse, 1 Peter chapter 3. It's just the previous chapter. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 7. You husbands live with your wives in an 8:01 understanding way recognizing that she's a weaker vessel. That's what you need to understand. And if you don't understand that you don't understand that she's to sit with you on the throne as an equal with you as a fellow heir of the grace of 8:19 life and you don't give her that honor. You can pray as much as you like, your prayers will not be heard. That's scripture. Do you know why some of our prayers are not heard? You haven't given honor to your wife. You have treated her 8:36 you have judged her as if she's got as much strength as you have. She doesn't. And you have not given her honor. The place where we have to consider her as an equal is in the matter of honor. But other areas always make allowance 8:51 for the fact that she's a woman and I must always recognize. Don't say to yourself, well, if I can handle that, why she's so upset about it? I'll tell you, it's not because you're spiritual. Because you're a man. I mean, if you can lift a 100 lb weight 9:07 and your wife can't you don't ask a question how can I lift and you can't. We understand that in physically, but it's true emotionally. Why why does a woman cry more quickly than a man? Because she's a woman, that's all. It's not got nothing to do 9:19 with spirituality. They they're more sensitive and they have God has made them more sensitive because they need to take care of children. They have to be sensitive. I remember when we had little babies and a baby would cry, I wouldn't have a clue 9:35 why they are crying and my my wife would know immediately. I'm sure you've had that experience, too. I said, how in the world did she know? I mean, I I'm a clever guy, but I couldn't make out why that baby's crying. Because God's given her that 9:49 a woman that sensitive nature and because she's sensitive, she cries more easily and many other things come in the same package and a lot of men don't realize that. And they have female hormones and many other things which sometimes we think 10:05 that they have the same strength and ability we have emotionally, physically. It's not true. They get tired more easily. They get exhausted. So, this is just one area I'm saying because that's the person we see every day. 10:19 And it's so easy to judge. So, the good place to begin this habit of practicing how to build a household of God is judge ourselves first. What says in 1 Peter 4:17, the time has come in the household of God where we judge 10:37 ourselves first. There may be a hundred and one things wrong with your wife. There may be a hundred and two things wrong with you. If you recognize that, say, "Lord, there are things wrong. Let me cleanse myself first." 10:54 And I often say to husbands, "What does it mean to love your wife as Christ loved the church?" Christ does not go behind the church. You know, close to the house where we live, there's a slaughterhouse where they slaughter the sheep 11:13 for the market. And when I often when I used to take the children to school on the scooter, it's just about a mile away from our house. I would see these sheep being driven to the slaughterhouse. And the hireling was always behind them 11:29 with a stick, driving them to the slaughterhouse. Jesus said, "I'm the good shepherd. I go in front of my sheep." The hireling who's driving them to the slaughterhouse goes behind. And I used to get a lesson from that for 11:46 myself. I'm to be a shepherd in my home. I'm to be a shepherd in the church. And if I'm a good shepherd, I'm not a hireling. I will never try to push people from behind, but always go in front. What does it mean to push somebody from 12:04 behind, whether in the church or in your home? "Why aren't you like that? Why can't you do that? Didn't I tell you? I told you this would happen." This is the hireling with a whip. There are many whips. "I told you. Didn't I tell you? 12:22 Why aren't you like that? I told you a thousand times." He probably told her about two times, but that's how it is. And the good shepherd, how does he do it? He goes in front. Is your wife one who loses her temper quickly? 12:41 Be a good shepherd. Go in front and demonstrate how in provocative situations, you do not lose your temper. You keep your cool. And you can say, "Follow me." You don't say it with words, because you'd be arrogant to say it in 13:01 words, but she look at your example and say, "Boy, that was a provocative situation and he never lost his temper. I'd like to be like that." That's what it means to be a good shepherd. Do you push your wife? "Why can't you see this truth I've 13:20 seen?" And it's not the way. In many, many areas, uh we have we are foolish as husbands. And in in the church, many leaders are foolish. They try to push people from behind. Then they are not shepherds. 13:39 They are hirelings. So, the good shepherd is one who goes in front and Jesus never had anything to correct in himself because he was perfect. But we as leaders or as men leading our wives or older brothers seeking to be an example to younger 13:58 brothers, if you want to build a church in your locality, here is a fundamental law. Judge yourself always. For many years on front of my table, on the covered of books I had there, I had a little 14:17 printout. I printed out a little sentence and stuck it there. Uh the happiest people on earth are those who only judge themselves and never judge others. And I looked at that for 25 years. Now I don't need it. It's written inside my 14:35 mind. It's just to remind me my calling is not to judge others. Because I'm in leadership. I'm leadership in my home. I'm leadership in the church. And I wanted to be a happy leader. So, I said, "I want to judge myself first." 14:50 And God is my witness. I've tried to do that for more than 30 years. And I'm an extremely happy man. Extremely. I've even challenged people in India in our church saying, "If you find a happier man than me in India, let me know. I'd like to 15:03 meet him." I doubt because that means that man is judging himself more than I am. I'd like to meet such a brother. I really would. It says here in this verse that we just read about judging ourselves, 15:22 in the case of Jesus, as I said, there was no question of his having to judge himself because he was perfect. But in our case, Hebrews 5, see what it says. A leader it's referring to the high priest, but it can refer to us as a 15:34 husband or as a leader. Just the first two verses. Let me read it as a leader. A leader, an elder, is taken from among men and is appointed on behalf of men. An elder brother in a church, 15:54 in things pertaining to God. In the Old Testament, they offered gifts and sacrifices. We are to lead and pray for them. But here is a important qualification. He must be able to deal gently 16:10 with the ignorant and the misguided. Because, here's a big because, he himself is beset with weakness. I like this translation. Beset means I'm surrounded. 16:29 Everywhere I look, I've got weakness in me. I look here, I look front, I look at the back. It's weakness, weakness, weakness. I'm beset with weakness. And if I recognize that, how much weakness there is in me, and how many foolish things I do, 16:45 um I can deal gently with my flock, with my wife and my children. And I don't treat them as stupid. I treat them as ignorant. Do you know the difference between an ignorant person and a stupid person? 17:04 I don't treat them as rebellious. I treat them as misguided. It's what it says here. Do you know the difference between a misguided person and a rebellious person? It's a world of difference. Very often we look at others as 17:21 "I've got a rebellious wife or a rebellious flock or uh stubborn and disobedient." Well, then you'll never be a good leader. Look at them as ignorant. Like a kindergarten teacher, or whatever you call it, your nursery class or whatever it is. 17:40 The first day a child comes to school, it doesn't know a simple thing like c a t means cat or b a t means bat. It doesn't know that. It's not because he's rebellious or stubborn. Ignorant. We need to look at those whom we 17:59 shepherd as ignorant. Many times when I've stood up to speak, before I stand up to speak, not always, but many times the Lord has told me, "The people sitting in front of you 18:16 are people who should be kings and queens, but they are slaves. The devil has made them slaves. Your job is to put them back on their thrones and make them kings and queens in their life, reigning over their sins, reigning 18:36 over their lust. Don't just yell at them and they're slaves. I mean, think of the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt. What's the use yelling at them? The Egyptians taskmasters yelled at them. If you yell at your wife, you're a 18:53 Egyptian taskmaster. If you yell at your flock, you're an Egyptian taskmaster. What they need is to be set free. What they need is someone like Moses with a supernatural power of God to come and set them free from the bondage of Pharaoh. 19:10 Treat them as ignorant and misguided. And judge yourself. Because we are beset with weakness ourselves. And we make mistakes. If you uh get upset with your wife because she didn't pass on to your phone message 19:29 that she received, mark my words, in a few words, you'll forget to pass on a phone message that somebody gives you to give. God has a way. He's got a tremendous sense of humor by making us face the same thing. I remember 19:43 a time at home where uh I got upset with one of my children for spilling a glass of milk. And sure enough, the next day I spilled my cup of coffee. And what the Lord told me was "You are more than 40 years old and you're spilling coffee and you're upset 19:58 with that 2-year-old for spilling a cup of milk." I said, "Lord, thank you." God's given me ample opportunities to judge myself. I tell you, it's made me a supremely happy man and over a period of time has delivered me uh I would say almost totally. I'm still 20:14 working on my salvation from judging others. And uh because Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle." I tell you we need to learn a lot of gentleness. We are not naturally gentle. 20:32 We are hard, demanding, expecting things from others which we ourselves are not capable of from our children, from our wives, from people in the church. And uh we're like Egyptian taskmasters sometimes. We need a tremendous amount 20:48 of repentance and not only repentance, we need to apologize to the people whom we have treated as slaves who are supposed to be joint heirs with us. You know, co-workers. It says about Jesus, here's a good area to follow Jesus. 21:05 John 8, chapter 8, verse 15. John chapter 8, verse 15. "You people judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone. 21:25 And even if I do judge, verse 16, my judgment will be true, because I'm not alone in it, but I and he who sent me." So, the Lord was saying that he would not judge anyone. But then, how would you have an opinion about somebody? He would ask the Father. 21:43 "Even if I do judge, it'll be true because Now, listen to this. Let me paraphrase his words. Even though I am perfect, this is Jesus speaking, verse 16. Even though I am perfect, I've never sinned, my mind is clear with the clarity of 21:59 heaven, I still will not judge because I'm on earth as a man and God has not given man the authority to judge others. But when he becomes a leader, he needs to have discernment and 22:17 opinion, but he must do it in fellowship with his head. In the case of Jesus, he says, "I'm not alone. I and he who sent me." In fellowship with him, I will speak, definitely. I will tell the Pharisees, "You're a generation of vipers. 22:35 How will you escape the damnation of hell?" I will turn around to my closest co-worker, Peter, and say, "If you seek your own interests, you're going to be a voice of Satan." "Get behind me, Satan. You're seeking your own interests." 22:52 But that was not his own. He was in fellowship with the Father. And that's what saved Peter. So, this attitude, "I am not judging anyone." It says in Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah chapter 11. It's talking about the Holy Spirit. 23:19 We need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. In the book of Revelation, you read about the seven spirits or the sevenfold Holy Spirit. And the seven attributes of the Holy Spirit are mentioned here in Isaiah 11. He's called the spirit 23:35 of the Lord. Verse two, Isaiah 11, verse two. Secondly, the spirit of wisdom. Thirdly, spirit of understanding. Fourth, spirit of counsel. Fifth, spirit of strength. Sixth, spirit of knowledge. And seventh, the spirit of the fear or the reverence 23:52 of God. It's a spirit that brings reverence for God. The more we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the more we'll have a reverence for the Father. The Holy Spirit makes us very reverent. I'm sometimes shocked and surprised at 24:12 believers who crack jokes jokes about God and hell and heaven and about marriages and things like that. These are not things to be joked about. Uh we must never make jokes about hell. It's too serious an affair to make a 24:28 joke about. And heaven is very serious. You you can't make jokes about heaven or God or hell, but I've seen believers who do that. I've seen heard preachers who do that from the pulpit just to get a reputation for humor. 24:44 They're not filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will bring us to a such a reverence for God. Can you imagine Jesus getting up and cracking a joke about hell or heaven or about God the Father? Never. I can't even imagine it because he was filled 24:58 with the spirit of reverence for God. We need to be filled with the spirit of reverence for God in our ordinary conversation, in our speaking from the pulpit. The spirit of the reverence for God must characterize our whole life. 25:14 The whenever you speak to your wife, the spirit of reverence for God must be over you when you speak to her, which means I recognize that Jesus is standing there and I would not speak to my wife in any way that I would speak 25:28 wouldn't speak if Jesus were physically there. The way I discipline my children must be recognizing Jesus is there. That's the way I discipline my children. And where I've done it otherwise, I have to repent. And we must be honest. I know the times 25:46 in my life where I've disciplined my children with anger, not once, but many times. And I repented of it. Many times after I gave them a spanking, I'd lock myself up in the restroom and repent and weep and say, "Lord, I 26:02 the discipline was right, the anger was wrong. I want to get rid of that. I want to judge myself." I judge myself after judging disciplining my children. It was good for me because over a period of time that God saw that I was 26:15 ruthlessly honest with myself and acknowledging my own fault while disciplining my children for their fault, it cleansed me. I'll tell you honestly, God delivered me from anger. It was a wonderful thing because I used to get angry with my wife. I used to get 26:30 angry with my children. I came from the same pit that anybody else grew up in. But I can testify before God he set me free because every time I was aware of it, I would lock myself up somewhere and weep and judge myself and say, "Lord, 26:47 forgive me." And where appropriate, I would ask forgiveness from my children. I wouldn't ask that when they were small because it would become a joke if every time I punished them, 5 minutes later I say, "I'm sorry." They'd laugh. They'd say, "Dad's 27:06 Every time he punishes me, I know he'll come back 5 minutes and say sorry." He'll think that they'll think I'm sorry for the discipline because they're not old enough to distinguish between the discipline and the anger. 27:16 So, I decided that I would give them a consolidated apology when they were 18 years old and mature enough to which I think I did. Santosh, did I? Uh because when you're 3 4 years old, you 27:34 can't discern what is my dad apologizing for and I didn't want them to think that I was sorry about the discipline. I certainly wasn't. But I was sorry about the anger and I've had occasions where I've had to discipline a brother isn't young brother 27:50 younger than my youngest son uh in the church for something they did and then uh the Lord's told me, "You Discipline was necessary, but you spoke too harshly to him." I go back to him as soon as possible and say, "Brother, I'm sorry for the way I 28:04 spoke to you. I think um what you did was wrong, but I shouldn't have spoken to you like that." I stood up in the church and apologized for leading them into legalism in my younger days. And say, "But I will take you out of the pit I put you into. 28:20 I make sure that every one of you who I led into the pit of legalism, I'll take you all out." You know, we must never be afraid to acknowledge our error. Uh we are not perfect like it says. We are beset with weakness. We judge ourselves first. 28:39 And if we go that way, what will happen is this has been a the result. God rewards us with tremendous joy. I can honestly say before God, I rejoice always. There's never a time I'm in a bad mood. Never. That's the 28:58 honest truth. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I'm not in a bad mood no matter what happens. But it has come through many years. I tell people, don't think you'll get there overnight. But if God could do it in me, he can do 29:13 it in you. But learn the secret in the household of God, we judge ourselves first. And it doesn't come naturally because we are so prone to judging others. We have judged our wives so often. We have judged our neighbors, other brothers. 29:29 We have judged people of certain communities saying, "Oh, those people are always like that." Oh, ho. Which community are you from? Sometimes when people boast like that, they ask me which community I've come from. I say, "I come from the community 29:43 that was kicked out of the Garden of Eden. That's where I come from. Which one did you come from? We're all from the same stock. Adam and Eve. Turned out we got that nature. And that nature is right from the time Adam sinned. He pointed his finger at 30:02 his wife and said she's the cause of the fall problem. God asked him a simple question. Did you eat of this tree? Yes or no? It's like these examinations they have today with multiple choice. Just take yes or no. But he didn't take yes or no. He wrote 30:20 underneath his notes underneath that to the answer. Uh it's not yes or no. It is my wife number one who took the fruit. It's full explanation. And point number two, don't forget God, you gave me this wife. So you're also at 30:34 to blame. And then in small letters I ate it. This is confession. This is not confession. After you put 90% of the blame on others, you say yeah, I also did something. We've come from that stock. And we have got that nature through and 30:52 through. Have you ever asked God, Lord, why in the world did you give me such a wife? That's Adam. So it's it's quite a complete change of habit to start judging ourselves. When things go wrong in the church, I 31:10 remember once when one brother decided to drop out of our church and I wondered why. I said, Lord, I've not rebuked him. I've not treated him badly. I hardly ever said anything to him. And the Lord said to me, that is the problem. 31:29 When things were going smoothly, you thought everything was going smoothly, you never encouraged him. You just kept away from doing wrong things. And I discovered that day that there are sins of commission and there are sins of omission. 31:45 And we usually confess only the sins we commit, not the sins we omit to do. Like encourage one another daily. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 13. It's a wonderful verse. Encourage one another daily. That's a sin. When you don't do it, it's 32:05 a sin of omission. But when was the last time you confessed to the Lord? I mean, if you yelled at your wife, you'd say, Lord, I'm sorry. But have you ever confessed to the Lord, Lord, I didn't encourage my wife today? Have you ever confessed that once? We 32:18 don't think of that. I I include myself. See, sins of omission, we don't think of. And that's what the Lord told me about that brother. You hardly ever went and encouraged him. And maybe he was facing things and you thought everything was okay. 32:33 Everything was not okay. A lot of people who look okay, they're not okay. When look people things look calm and all, things may not be. We need encouragement. Your wife needs encouragement. I'll tell you that your children need 32:46 encouragement. They don't need to be only corrected. In fact, you should not correct a child whom you have never encouraged. You should not criticize a child whom you have never appreciated. You should not correct a brother whom 33:01 you have not appreciated. Ask yourself, I use this example many times. If you want to write something on a blackboard with a chalk, they can see what you write. But if you don't have a blackboard and you just have a chalk and 33:15 write in the air, they can't even see what you're writing. So I say before you go to correct somebody, whether wife, child, brother, erect a blackboard called encouragement and appreciation. If you have done that, 33:33 you got a blackboard. Now you can write your words of correction on that. They'll be able to see it. Very often, we are correcting the correction is correct, necessary. But you don't have a blackboard and you're saying something a child can't 33:49 understand, a wife can't understand, a brother can't understand. And that's because we don't judge ourselves concerning sins of omission. Now, I don't want to send anybody on a guilt trip here. You can take what I uh say to an extreme and get onto a guilt 34:03 trip. Oh boy, are there so many people I haven't encouraged. That's not what I mean. Don't misunderstand me. But uh what I'm saying, if you can understand it in the right spirit, there is no condemnation in Christ. Now remember that. I always say that. Any 34:17 message that makes you feel condemned, either you didn't understand it properly or the preacher didn't know uh God properly or you've taken it in a wrong way. So I'm not saying this, you know, there are many areas where we come short. I'm 34:30 just saying acknowledge it. We are beset with weakness. So the purpose is not to send you on a guilt trip and just sit down and get discouraged and condemn yourself saying, I should have done this, I should have done that, I 34:42 haven't done that. No, no, no. All I'm saying is because we are beset with this weakness, be compassionate in dealing with others. Judge yourself first and cleanse yourself. You know, somebody asked me the other day, um 35:00 doesn't it say that we should not bother about the specs in other people's eyes? I said, no, you haven't read the Bible properly. Let me read it to you. I said in Matthew 7, it's in the Sermon on the Mount. That's one of the things we all got to 35:15 obey to build on the rock. What does it say? When you have a log in your eye, Matthew 7:2 3. How can you look at the speck in your brother's eye and you don't see the no log in your own eye? What that speck may be some sin. 35:32 Okay. But the log is an unloving attitude towards that brother. That's the log. And the meaning there is if you have an unloving attitude towards another person, whatever sin he commits, even if it's adultery, it's a speck. 35:52 Your unloving attitude is a log. That's what the Pharisees had for the speck this woman caught in adultery had in her eye. These guys had a log in their eye and they didn't see it. Jesus didn't have a log. He didn't shut his eyes and say, no, no, 36:09 no, that's there's nothing serious. He removed that speck. He said, don't sin again. He was qualified to say that because he didn't have a log in his eye. And that's what he says here. First, verse 5, Matthew 7:5, take out the log. 36:26 Then what will you do? Forget about that speck? No. Then you'll be able to see clearly and you can take the speck out of his eye. The ultimate goal is to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Some people don't realize that. We think 36:38 we'll just let the brother go. No, if you don't love him, you let him go. You want the speck out of his eye, but the guy will be so happy to have his speck removed when he sees your loving, compassionate attitude. That is the church of Jesus Christ 36:55 where people come in who are sinners and they are treated with compassion by an elder brother or elder brothers who judge themselves first, who use the word God as a two-edged sword that has first cut them with one edge and then they can use it to cut the 37:14 other. The only person who can deliver people from the love of money is the one man who has first judged the love of money in himself. If anybody stands up there and imagines he's got no love of money, he's deceiving himself first of all. Every 37:27 human being has got the love of money. And but if he hasn't sought to cleanse himself from that, he cannot cleanse other people from it. He will just send them on a guilt trip and um look down his nose at them as inferior 37:41 people. He's not going to build a church. I guarantee he will not build the church because in the household of God, we judge ourselves first and the leader must be the good shepherd in that area. Who recognizes that he's beset with 37:54 weakness and therefore he gently corrects the ignorant and the misguided. And this is part of what it means to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Because I have a flesh in which there dwells no good thing. And even if I 38:12 didn't have, Jesus never had a sinful flesh. Yet he denied something. When he said, take up your cross and follow me, it means he himself was carrying a cross. Otherwise, how can I follow him? And he said, take up the cross daily, 38:26 Luke 9:23, and follow me. It means he himself must have taken up daily. Otherwise, he couldn't ask me to follow him. He couldn't possibly ask me to follow him if he was standing on the sidelines as a bystander and say, well, 38:38 I don't have to take up the cross. I'm okay. But you guys should take up the cross. Then I'm not following him. He'd say, take up your cross and go. But he didn't say that. He said, take up your cross every day and follow me. 38:47 Which means he's ahead of ahead of me having gone every day taking up a cross where he denied himself, denied his own will, and did the Father's will. That's the cross I have to take. Many times a day, I will find in different situations in conversation 39:03 with people, in conversation at home, especially at home, with our wife and children, I see my will. This is what I want to say, this is the way I want to say something or want something done and I know that's not the divine way. I know immediately 39:19 that's not the way Jesus would do it. And there my will crosses God's will and I have to die now. I want to die on the cross. I say I die. I want to take up the cross and follow Jesus here. It won't come easily in the beginning. 39:38 We hesitate. But it's the hesitation of the child who's being taught how to swim. You take him to the swimming pool and he won't go in. He's scared of the water. He stands there and if he keeps standing there, he'll never learn to swim. 39:53 So, you take him in and he's scared and he doesn't learn to swim in one day. It takes time to learn because gravity is pulling him down all the time. And the law of sin is like the law of gravity pulling us down all the time. 40:12 But you go and see that little boy or girl 5 years later swimming like a fish. Enjoying it. That's what happens if you consistently take up the cross. It's difficult in the beginning. But after a while, you realize this is 40:29 the way Jesus went. You don't enjoy the cross. You endure it for the joy set before you. Never in the Bible does it say that Jesus enjoyed the cross. You don't have to enjoy it and you don't even have to pretend to enjoy it. 40:46 The cross has to be endured. Hebrews 12:2 says very clearly looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. So, the cross is something to be endured and not enjoyed. 41:03 But we endure it because the joy is I can now fellowship with Jesus. Jesus knew that in the Father's presence, there is fullness of joy. That's a lovely verse. You know, Jesus wanted to get into the most holy place. The way to the most holy place was 41:19 through the rent veil. The rent veil is the way of the cross, the denial of self-will. And he knew if he get through there, you get into the Father's presence and Psalm 16:11 says in the Father's presence, there is fullness 41:33 of joy. So, as he looked at it, if you were to take a picture, Jesus is standing in front of the veil. That's his own will that's hindering him from fellowship with the Father. If he fellowships with the Father, there'll be 41:46 fullness of joy. So, he endures the cross. The rending of the veil is the tearing of the flesh because he knows there's a joy set before him, the joy of fellowship with the Father, which is what he valued most in life. And we will be willing to endure the 42:04 cross when we recognize that fellowship with the Father is the greatest joy we can have on Earth. Jesus was convinced about it. That's what he was uh struggling with in Gethsemane. Father, 42:22 you mean fellowship with you and me will be broken for 3 hours on the cross? You and I have had it for eternity. I don't want to lose it. Please, isn't there any other way? I don't want to drink this cup. He wasn't afraid of the physical death. 42:37 He'd have gone through a million Calvaries if it was only physical death for you and me. He loved us so much. But fellowship with the Father would be broken because he would suffer hell on the cross for 3 hours. That's the punishment for our sin. 42:52 Punishment for our sin is not physical death. If it were, then the moment we die, we have paid for our sins. Think of it. You know, the punishment for sin is eternal hell. And what Jesus suffered because he was an infinite being, being God, in 3 43:07 hours, he could suffer eternal hell. So, if you want to know what Jesus suffered on the cross, think of somebody burning in hell for eternity, you yourself. That concentrate that into 3 hours. And not just you, all the billions of 43:21 people in hell. Concentrate that into 3 hours. That's what Jesus suffered on the cross. That's why he cried out, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" Forsaken means hell. The only God-forsaken place in the universe is hell. 43:34 There's nothing of God there. No mercy, no grace, no nothing. Jesus endured that for you and me and that's what he dreaded. What I want to point out to you there is I I remember the day God gave me revelation on that. The thing that Jesus 43:48 dreaded was the break of fellowship with the Father. And I say, "Why didn't I understand that for so long?" Most Christians think he was afraid to die and you go to all these Bible schools, they teach you that Jesus afraid he would die in Gethsemane itself 44:03 and all these silly things. It's because people don't hate sin. If you don't hate sin, you will not get revelation. You'll be blind. When you hate iniquity and love righteousness, God shows us things in scripture we'd never have known 44:16 otherwise. So, I saw that I don't value fellowship with the Father as much as Jesus did because I've got used to a life where I've sinned so many times and fellowship with the Father has been broken 44:34 and I've not taken it seriously. For example, if I had some tension with my wife somewhere, sometime and I don't seek immediately to restore that fellowship and maybe I was at mistake because I maybe I lost my temper. And my fellowship with the Father is 44:53 broken. Sure. If you got angry with somebody, your fellowship with the Father is broken immediately. But I remember in the old days, when I got married, I was not I had no I was born again, but I didn't have any victory 45:08 over sin. And like every married couple, I'd have tensions. I would ignore it for day perhaps and I'd want to restore but I say it's all right, it can wait. Usually pride. Who's going to apologize first? You know, do you have experience that? 45:30 I did. The Lord took me out of a pit. But he saved me. He's brought me into such a wonderful life. My experience at home is something like heaven now. I'll tell you that. If you really pursue and say, "Lord, I want to get through. If it takes me 10, 45:47 20, 30 years, I'm going to get through to that life." But in those in that time, in that one day, I didn't realize I was out of fellowship with God. And it didn't bother me. I went about my daily work as if it was okay. 46:02 And I realized I did not value fellowship with God. When your fellowship with a brother is broken if you're the cause of it, that's important condition. If you are the cause of it your fellowship with God is broken. If the other brother is the cause of it, 46:20 well, then your fellowship with God remains. His fellowship with God is broken. But when our fellowship with God is broken and we don't seek to restore it immediately it means we don't value it. How long does it take for you to take remove a 46:36 thorn from your foot once it's gone in? You pray about it or you wait till the evening when you decide to remove all thorns from your foot? No. These people who confess all sins at night, "Before I go to bed, I confess all my sins." I like people say, "Well, 46:53 I finally in the evening I check if there are any thorns on my foot and remove them all at night." You never do that. As soon as a thorn gets into your foot you remove it. In India, we have mosquitoes. As soon as a mosquito sits 47:05 on the hand, you immediately wipe it off with the other hand. I don't wait to think about it. It's like that. If when you when you're sensitive and if a mosquito can sit on my hand and bite me and I don't feel it I've got leprosy. 47:20 It's one of the clearest proofs of leprosy. That part of my skin has become insensitive to pain. And when I can break fellowship with God because I hurt somebody, did something wrong to a brother and I don't feel hurt about it, my 47:34 conscience has got leprosy. It's lost sensitivity to sin. And that's the reason for lack of joy because joy is only in the Father's presence. Psalm 16:11 is clear. In the Father's presence is fullness of joy. I have used that verse as a guideline for 47:51 me. How do I know whether I'm in the presence of God? I love fullness of joy. How do I know I can Can I Does God want me to always live in his presence? Yes. And if I live always in God's presence, 48:09 I will always have fullness of joy. What is hindering me from living in God's presence? The veil. I don't want to give up my will. I don't want to humble myself and ask forgiveness from somebody. I don't want to restore fellowship. I don't feel that 48:25 fellowship with God is the most valuable thing on Earth. I mean, think think if you were carrying around $50,000 in your pocket on the way to the bank to deposit it or something and you see you had to stop at one or two places on the way and 48:42 when you get to the bank, it's not there. What would you do? Forget about it? Go about the rest of your day's work? You got to be a billionaire. I think even billionaires would be disturbed. You would go back and say, "Where did I 48:56 lose that?" Because $50,000 is a lot of money. What about fellowship with the Father? You found you've lost your joy. You're gloomy, in a bad mood, 49:16 depressed. There's no joy there. There's no joy in a depressed gloomy, bad mood person. You lost it somewhere. Do you go searching? Where, Father? In your presence, there's fullness of joy. I don't seem to be in your presence right now. 49:31 What happened? Where is it I did my own will and stitched up the veil with Jesus tore. I want to find that place. Get back. After a while it will become so sensitive to it that you'll respond immediately and the 49:51 time gap between losing fellowship with the Father and restoration becomes less and less and less and less and less and less. This is sanctification. Imagine we can come to the place where as soon as you lose fellowship with the 50:02 Father you want to restore it. You want to apologize to somebody you hurt and you don't stand on your pride or any such thing. You say, "I don't care who made the mistake. I want to humble myself. I'm not going to get in argument whether 50:16 that brother was wrong or I was wrong. I want to humble myself. He doesn't want to restore fellowship with me, that's his business, but my heart's going to be open to my enemies and to everyone who's hurt me in any way. 50:30 I'm not here to decide whether I'm more spiritual or my wife is more spiritual. I start with the assumption that he she is more spiritual than me. I made a mistake. I want to I want fellowship with my Father in heaven. I value that. And therefore I'm willing 50:46 to take up the cross every day. You know, we need an incentive to take up the cross. And for Jesus it was the joy of fellowship with the Father. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross. 51:04 It's a great verse for me. I used to think I had to enjoy the cross. I discovered even Jesus didn't enjoy the cross. He endured it for the sake of fellowship with the Father because it's painful to put the self to death. 51:17 I'm willing to go through that pain and it says further in Psalm 16:11 that in his presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand there are pleasures forever, eternal pleasures. 51:35 I've thought about that. There is a pleasure in sinning. It says Moses Hebrews 11:25-26 refused the pleasures of sin. So the Bible says there are pleasures in sin. But here is another type of pleasure in the Father's presence are eternal 51:54 pleasures. So every time I'm tempted to sin I'm choosing between the temporary pleasure that sin gives and the eternal pleasure that I can get in the Father's presence. It's a choice, whether you know it or not. Every time you're tempted 52:11 here is a created thing or a created being to lust after a pretty woman or look at some pornographic picture or some dirty pleasure or the joy I get out of yelling my heart out 52:28 and letting out my anger, the pleasure I get from that. We wouldn't do it if we didn't get some pleasure out of yelling at someone. And here on the other side is eternal pleasures that I lose. And I'm saying I'm willing to lose it like Esau. 52:46 I say, "I want the temporary satisfaction of this bowl of soup. I couldn't care less for my eternal birthright." And it says in Hebrews 12 be careful lest there be among one of you any godless man like Esau. 53:06 What a word. A godless man like Esau who for a morsel of meat sold his birthright. Hebrews in chapter 12 and verse 16 he's called an immoral man. What does it mean to be immoral? 53:25 Is it because Esau was fooling around with women? No. An immoral man who sold his birthright for a meal. That's immorality. It's immorality to give up God for what is created. 53:45 In the Old Testament the prophets used to call that spiritual adultery. Choosing a idol instead of the true God. When Eve stood before the tree of knowledge good and evil it was beautiful, attractive, made her mouth water, etc. But the choice was, "Do you 54:02 want the creator or do you want this beautiful thing he has created?" Eve said, "I want the beautiful thing God has created. I don't want the creator." And when you lust after a pretty woman the choice is the same. Do you want this 54:17 beautiful thing God has created or do you want the creator? I say, "I want this beautiful thing God has created." It's the same choice Eve had. Now such is an immoral man who chooses what is created. Do you want gold or you want God? 54:33 Do you want the honor of men or you want the honor of God? We are faced with a choice all the time. And it's an immoral man who chooses the created and earthly and human and rejects his creator, the one whom he calls his 54:51 father, the one whom he calls his savior. We're doing it all the time. And we wonder why we don't rejoice always. We wonder why we are not free from anxiety. Is there such a life? Is it possible when the Bible says rejoice 55:06 always? Paul wrote it when he was in a prison with all the rats and cockroaches and mosquitoes over there. He said rejoice always. And in case you didn't hear it the first time he says again I say to you rejoice. I meant it. 55:17 That's what he says in Philippians 4:4. Yeah, he he chose God everywhere. He says to me Christ is everything. He said in Philippians 3 everything else is rubbish. Everything on earth is rubbish compared to Christ. When you have seen Jesus not only as 55:33 valuable and precious but in comparison to Christ everything, the honor of men, the greatest pleasure sin can give me, everything is rubbish compared to Christ. You'll come to a life of victory almost overnight. You'll come to this life of joy and 55:51 freedom from anxiety the life of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God. You will come to it when you put God in his proper place. When you love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. 56:08 That is the Christian life and the church is built with such people. Those are the people we should gather. I'm not interested in gathering all the people who go to want to go to heaven. I said to the Lord many times in India 56:19 once I got gripped with these truths. I said, "Lord lead to our fellowship those who are seeking a godly life in this area. If there's anyone in this area who's seeking a godly life, please bring him to our church." When we were a small group in our house. 56:36 Or if you don't bring him here, bring me in touch with that person somewhere, maybe in a store or at the bank or somewhere I'll meet him and somehow you'll or in an airport or train station I'll meet him or in a railway train or a 56:48 bus. I met one of our finest brothers who's leading one of our churches today in a bus. I happened to stand next to him and he's he's one of our elder brothers today. So Lord lead me or lead them to me. And if you don't do either 57:04 show me what's wrong with me. Show me what's wrong with our church. Why can't you bring I mean if a man like Job for example, the Old Testament Job, somebody like them was living somewhere down my street. God-fearing man. 57:19 And he walks past my church and goes somewhere else. I say, "Lord, what's wrong with my church? Please tell me. Why in the world is this man going there? Is that a better church than mine? Let me close down mine and go myself and 57:31 join that. I don't want to I'm not here in competition with anybody. I want to be in the most godly church in town. And if I can't build that and somebody else is building it I'll close down my church and go and join that. I've said 57:42 that to people in our church. I said, "Brother, if you find a better church than this please go there. Don't let me ever stop you and come back and tell me after you spent few months there if it's true. I'll join you. I'll close 57:52 down this and come there." And I mean it. I have no loyalty to CFC or any such thing. My loyalty is to Jesus Christ and the best church that can be found in every place which proclaims the whole counsel of God. I don't have a loyalty to my community 58:09 or any such thing. My loyalty is to Jesus Christ alone. I'm convinced that in every place on earth he wants a testimony for his name that proclaims the entire counsel of God. If it's three people, three people is enough. 58:23 I'm not looking for a church of 100 people or 200 or 300. No, no, no. A church that proclaims the whole counsel of God and if that is not there I say, "Lord, I'm available. You can take me. You can start with such poor material. 58:40 You used other poor material in past days. You can choose me. I'm available. I'm not able but I'm available. It's all you got to say." Let's pray. Heavenly Father 59:03 I believe with all my heart that you sent Jesus to earth not only to save sinners but to build a church in many places. I pray that many here will have that vision. I cannot give it to them. 59:20 My best efforts are very poor. Only your spirit can reveal to each one here the great longing you have Lord Jesus, for a pure testimony for your name in every one of these places that these 59:38 brothers have come from. I pray that at least some of them will have a vision and go back with that vision and be willing to pay any price to win for the lamb that was slain the reward of his sufferings. 59:58 Help us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.
