0:01 Dear brothers and sisters, I'm very happy to have been invited to speak to you this morning. [clears throat] I don't take it lightly. I [clears throat] never speak in a church unless I'm invited by the elders. 0:19 And when they do, I [clears throat] take it as a very serious responsibility before the Lord for which I will have to answer to him one day. I one of the things the Lord has 0:39 [clears throat] spoken to me and I've been preaching for more than 60 years now in many parts of the world and [clears throat] one of the things the Lord has spoken to me very clearly is that everything I speak 0:58 I will have to give an account one day. [clears throat] every word what especially what was my motive in speaking and I I say that to all who preach God's word it's not a question of what people 1:16 thought about your message that's absolutely unimportant what did God think about it and the first thing God looks for is what is your motive in speaking What is your motive in getting up there and preaching? 1:36 [clears throat] And I know in my younger days, I was very conscious of what people thought about my message. But I think I've got over that. [clears throat] I had to battle it, battle it till I say, "Lord, that's not important. I've got to live before your 1:52 face. And I want to see what you thought about it." So I seek to bear in mind when I'm speaking that Jesus is there in front of me listening to what I'm speaking to all [clears throat] you you who speak 2:09 God's word anywhere I would encourage you to practice the presence of the Lord until it becomes a reality to you every time you speak that the Lord is there. In fact, Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in 2:28 the midst. [clears throat] But I found in my own life that in my younger days particularly when I sang hymns, I wasn't conscious that I was singing it unto the Lord. For example, if I sang Take My Life and Let It Be," it was just 2:46 a song. I didn't think that I'm actually talking to Jesus. take my life and let it be. And I saw that as an insult. And I'll tell you why it's an insult. If I'm speaking to you and I look in some other direction and I talk to you, isn't that 3:04 insulting? If I'm concentrating on something else or I'm reading something else when I'm talking to you, that's an insult. So I believe that many of us including me have insulted the Lord many times by singing wonderful songs 3:24 without singing them to Jesus who is in our midst. If Jesus were physically here and you said take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee, you'd really be speaking to him. [clears throat] But many of the songs we sing, 3:42 we're not conscious of his presence. We're just conscious of how is my voice blending with everybody else's and [snorts] am I singing my part properly? Are we all singing in parts properly? Very good. It's all good. 3:59 But it's not even 1%. Not even 1%. 100%. It should be Jesus is here and we're singing to him. We're talking to him. And when I speak now, I want to be conscious that my Lord is here listening to me as well, [clears throat] not just 4:19 all of you. And I'm more interested in pleasing him in what I say [clears throat and cough] and not really bothered what everybody else thinks of the message. If I pleased him, I've done my job. I want to encourage all of you who sing 4:35 and speak. Please remember this. And Austin CFC must be known for a group of people who are conscious of the Lord's presence when they come to the meeting. that there's a reverence and respect 4:54 and [clears throat] they're not allowing their mind to wander off into so many other things. And especially when you sing, you begin the meeting with singing. I know for years and years I had to battle to be conscious of the Lord's 5:12 presence. I remember once when I [clears throat] used to in the olden days we had song books to sing from and [clears throat] I remember once singing through one full hymn and at the end of it the song leader said let's go 5:27 to the next hymn and he announced another hymn and I suddenly realized that I hadn't sung the previous song to the Lord. I was just enjoying the tune and the words which I I was familiar with. I didn't even have to look at the 5:40 book. So while everybody else was singing the song, the song leader announced, I turned to the old hymn in my book and softly read it out to the Lord. I said, "Lord, I'm sorry. This last song, I didn't sing it to you. Forgive me." And I read it slowly while 5:59 the others were singing the other song. Didn't make any noise, but I said, "Lord, I want to mean this." That's how seriously I began to take singing to the Lord. See, Jesus said, "But two or three are gathered in my name, there I'm in the 6:16 midst of them." A church doesn't have to be 20, 30, 40. A church just has to be two or three, provided the Lord is in the midst. Otherwise, you can have 20,000 people like in some churches today, but the Lord is not there. It's 6:30 good singers and musicians and all types of things like that. So when people come to Austin CFC, what should they be conscious of? Say Lord, we want them to be conscious that you are here 6:49 and when they go away that they feel they met with you. Let me read you a verse in one Corinthians in chapter 14. Here we read about a meeting. [clears throat] It says in 1 Corinthians 7:07 14 and verse 23, if you have a Bible, please turn there. When the whole church assembles together, this is talking about the a meeting like this. the whole church assembles together and then there it speaks about some who 7:23 speak in tongues some who prophesy or and at the end of the message somebody has preached God's word to a number of people some [clears throat] one man who enters the church in verse 24 middle it says an ungifted man means an unbeliever 7:42 comes there unbeliever or a believer who doesn't have the gifts of the spirit ungifted or unbel believe a both are mentioned here and he hears everybody verse 24 he's convicted and verse look at the 8:00 result of the message the secrets of his heart are disclosed that means all the things that he tried to cover up that all the people sitting here things they try to cover up are exposed in the message and he falls down and he doesn't say Boy, what a wonderful 8:19 preacher. No, he says God is certainly here. That should be our longing. And even those of you who never preach, never come to the pulpit. You can do something for the preacher. You can pray for him. I ask people to 8:39 pray for me every time I speak. And many people who pray for me, I tell them, I'm speaking in CFC Austin today. Please pray for me. from this time to this time and I'm thankful for those who pray for me because I need the support of others 8:56 that not one of us is independent of others in the body of Christ. It's not just the tongue that speaks. There's a heart that pumps the blood. There is a mind that thinking and so many parts of our body and in inward 9:14 parts are active in speaking in just sharing a message. The same thing is true of the body of Christ that there may be one brother standing up there and speaking but all of us should support him in prayer. Lord 9:31 let your word come through. I pray your meetings in the days to come will be like that. So that and say Lord let people who come here get convicted including me. You must say Lord I'm sitting here listening. Let me also be 9:47 convicted and let me acknowledge not what a wonderful message but what a wonderful Lord he spoke to my heart according to my need convicted me. That's great. If we have and [clears throat] should that be just that we have a meeting like that 10:04 once in a blue moon once in a while. No. In a spiritual church that should be every meeting should be like that where we have gone away from the meeting and of course and at the end of the meeting you know we talk to each other and we 10:18 meet one another and talk to another that's great but the lasting effect when we gone home is I met with the lord today. Has it been like that in past weeks here? I pray it'll be like that in the days to come. See, a church can be known for many 10:36 things. There are some huge ch I mean churches with huge numbers 20 30,000 and all in the US today and people come there and they are amazed by the number of people sitting there and all the arrangements and the audio and the 10:52 atmosphere of it's all something meant to stir our emotions and our soul but the spirit is not touched because if the word of God does not come with conviction All that is only entertainment. 11:10 And I'm sorry to say that many many churches today it's entertainment. Wonderful singing and even the preaching is entertaining. The preacher makes sure he doesn't hurt anybody because then there won't be enough money in the offering box if 11:25 people get hurt. So Austin CFC must have a testimony that we're not interested in anybody's money or anybody's honor. We want God's word to be with come forth in power and we want the presence of Jesus to be there in every meeting. The Holy Spirit always 11:45 seeks to glorify Christ. The Holy Spirit does not glorify a message. If the Holy Spirit's moving in a meeting, he will point out the Savior and he will convict people of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. That's what Jesus said 12:04 in John 16. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. So, [clears throat] we have to look back over our past. Listen, this is a good time for Austin CFC to look over the past and say how 12:23 has it been in the past? You've been through a recent crisis and uh you to say what what was wrong? Where where did we go wrong? What was what is it that we missed out on? Thank God that the Lord has brought us through it into a 12:40 resurrection. If there was a death and a burial, okay, there's a resurrection now. Praise the Lord. [clears throat] And I believe that the Lord has given wisdom to your elders to guide this church through this crisis. You got to 12:55 really appreciate them. It's not easy to be an elder. I've been an elder for more than 50 years. And I can tell you honestly, it's not at all easy. So, you must pray for your elders. Very, very important. Don't be quick to just 13:11 criticize them if they slip up in some small area. They have families. is their God responsibilities and they're taking their taking time off from all that to serve the church. You got to appreciate that. So [clears throat] let's take 13:27 appre let's appreciate those who serve us in as elders in the church. And [clears throat] I want to say you know in our personal life it's very important that we first of all are 13:45 rooted and grounded in the fact that we have been accepted by the father through Jesus Christ. That's very important. That assurance was not there in old covenant times. In the old covenant, a person came to pray to God and he had to 14:02 make all those sacrifices and kill lambs and goats and bulocks and shed a lot of blood on the altar. And then when they finally get into the tabernacle, there was a veil there. God was on the other side of the veil. They could never go 14:15 past that veil. They were stuck there. And that's what happened on the c when Jesus died on the cross. That veil was rent into two. Meaning that God's presence was now open. So now when we come into the church, we able to go 14:32 through the veil into the very presence of God. That's where we are right now because Jesus says, "Rent the veil." The way he sacrificed his body and lived a life of self-denial. That veil was rent every day of 33 and a half years. Little 14:47 by little. You know how it was rent? By Jesus saying, "Not my will but thine father." Every day. And as he said that day by day by day that veil got torn stitch by stitch by stitch by stitch and finally when he hung on the cross he 15:03 said it's finished. The entire veil was torn and the way was open. Not only our punishment for our sins was finished but the way into the most holy place into God's presence was finished and we can all enter in. You know that we have the 15:20 privilege of going right up to God and calling him dad. That's what I call him every day. Do you talk to God like that? Do you say like Jesus taught us our heavenly father, our father who art in heaven, the one who rules this universe is my dad. 15:39 If you begin your prayer like that, you'll have a lot more faith when you have to pray. So [clears throat] it's very important to know that in Christ we are accepted provided we have honestly confessed all our sins. That's 15:54 very important. And don't just take that for granted. Don't just say you did it 20 years ago or even last year or even yesterday. That today you're not conscious of any sin in your conscience that you have not confessed to God. And 16:13 if you've not confessed, if you've hurt somebody and you have not gone and asked his forgiveness, I want to tell you, you can't have fellowship with God. You can sit here and listen to the meeting, but you are not in fellowship with God 16:29 because there's somebody you hurt. Maybe your wife or your husband or somebody in the office or your dad if you're a child or your mom or your brother or sister and somebody you hurt in some way and you did not go and ask his forgiveness. 16:46 Why don't we ask forgiveness? Because we are proud. There's only one reason why people don't ask for forgiveness. It's pride. Now, if you haven't done that, you're not in fellowship with God today. You can sit here and listen. 17:02 And it's a terrible thing if you come to church on Sunday morning and you're not in fellowship with God. What are you doing? Have you come to watch a game or something? But you know, I'll tell you something. You can be in fellowship with God right 17:17 now if you take one decision. Lord, there's somebody I hurt last week or this morning or yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't ask forgiveness from that person, but I want to give you my word that as soon as this meeting is over and 17:35 get back home, I'm going to call that person or meet that person and ask for forgiveness. God will accept it as if you have done it. He'll accept you right now. You don't have to wait till you go back home right now. He'll accept you because 17:49 he he'll believe you're speaking the truth. You know when Zakius said, "Lord, I've stolen from many people. I'm going to return it all four times what I took, etc., etc." Jesus Jesus said to him immediately, "Salvation has come to your house." Had 18:05 he already returned all that money? No. But Jesus took him at his word and said, "Salvation has come right now." I want to say to you, the Lord takes you at your word that you will make that phone call asking for forgiveness. That you 18:19 will go to that meet that person and ask for forgiveness. That you will set settle that matter which has not yet been settled. He takes you at your word because you said right now that you'd do it. And he says, "Okay, the door is 18:29 open. You can come to me in fellowship with me and with the father. You're accepted." In Ephesians chapter 1, in Ephesians chapter 1, we read in verse 5 and 6 that the Lord predestined us to be adopted as sons. Now, adoption in the New Testament is 18:49 not the type of adoption we speak about today. Today word adoption means you take a child whose parents have given the child up for adoption and it's not your child and you accept that child into your family and you say you've adopted that 19:04 child. But in the New Testament the word adoption refers to when it says adoption as sons or Ephesians 15 predestined us to the adoption as sons. And that was a custom I understand among the Jewish people that at a certain age, 19:22 I don't know when they was 12 years old or something, that young child would be given the place of a son in the family. Now you're considered a son, not a child, not a baby. Now you're 12 years old. And that was called adoption. It was their own child 19:41 all along. But he was it was the meaning actually is being placed as an adult son and not just a small child. And it says here that God has in Christ. He's not just accepted as baby children but has 19:59 placed us as sons, mature sons and daughters. Even if you're not mature, he's placed you in Christ. That's what it says. through Christ and Ephesians 1:6. All this is to the praise of the glory of his grace which he bestowed on us in 20:18 the beloved and in the beloved. And I like the you know the King James version in the King James version of Ephesians 1:6 it says it is to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. 20:37 When I started reading the Bible, when I was converted u more than 64 years ago, 65 years ago, I used to read the King James version. There was no NSV those days. And most of my memory is the King James version. 20:56 And this phrase really hit me, accepted in the beloved son. And it's been with me all through the years. I have been accepted by the father. Placed as a son. That's the meaning of adoption. Placed not as a 21:13 baby, as a son. Accepted in Christ in the beloved son. Accepted. Accepted. Very very important that everybody here recognizes that the father has accepted you. Don't be in any doubt about it. It's very important. That's why we need 21:33 to understand the meaning of the word justified. You know in Romans 5 it says we are justified by faith. What does justified mean? Not just just as if I had never sinned. That itself is great that when I'm forgiven, the Lord looks at me just as 21:51 if I'd never sinned in my life. But it means more than that because justified it says in Romans 5:1 justified by faith and justified means declared righteous. So it is just as if I had been righteous 22:09 from day one. Now we've all been sinners from day one onwards for many years before we got converted. But justified means the blood of Christ has so thoroughly cleansed me and dealt with my past. so thoroughly that there's no memory of it because the 22:26 Lord says, "I will not remember your sins anymore." That's his promise in Hebrews 8:12. And therefore, he looks at you and me when we have given our life to Christ just as if I've been righteous from day one. Do you have that assurance? Or does the 22:43 devil keep condemning you with some thing you did here or there or some weakness you have or some way you're not perfect? >> [clears throat] >> The devil's a master at making us feel condemned and not good enough, not good 22:57 enough, not good enough. I know he did that with me for years and my life was miserable till I saw through it and said, "Satan, you can't condemn me anymore. I'm accepted in the beloved and I will always be like that till I 23:14 see him in glory when it'll become perfect." And so one of the things I've kept on telling people is never allow yourself to be condemned in your spirit. The devil is a master at making people feel condemned for something or the other. 23:33 Maybe you sinned this morning. Maybe you got angry with somebody this morning with your husband or wife. Confess it immediately. How long does it take for the blood of Jesus to cleanse you? If you confess your sin, does he take 23:45 one minute to cleanse you? Not even one second. As soon as you confess it, if it is sincere, it's cleansed immediately. And then you must ask forgiveness from that other person. And if that's not possible immediately, as soon as possible. But 23:59 the Lord will accept you immediately. Just like he took Zakius and accepted Zakius even before he had paid back all that money. You read that in Luke 18 sometime. Before Zakius had paid back all the money, he was accepted. 24:13 because the Lord believed that he was going to do it. And so it's very important to know that we've been accepted. Now a lot of people take that and take advantage of it. They say, "Oh, I'm accepted in the beloved so I can 24:25 live as I like." Well, brother, sister, you cannot live as you like. And I don't believe you're accepted. If that is your attitude, [clears throat] if this if this is your attitude, oh, I'm accepted in the beloved so I can 24:35 live as I like. Let me tell you in Jesus name, you are not being accepted in the beloved. You're just taking a phrase and fooling yourself that it is yours. It's not yours. The check is not in your name. It's in somebody else's name. 24:49 It's in the name of a repentant sinner. Not one who has come to take advantage of the blood of Jesus and say, "Oh, I'm I've been cleansed in the blood. I am accepted. I can live as I like." No. There should not be any condemnation in 25:03 you at any time. Yet, the devil is a master at condemning us. And I know he condemned me for years and I could not grow spiritually in the days when I felt condemned and because I was not perfect. None of us are perfect. I'm not perfect 25:18 even today. Even though I've grown in the Lord a lot in the last 65 years that I've been born again since being born again. But I'm not perfect. I'm far from it. I'm always conscious. There are areas in my life where I want to be like 25:31 Jesus as God gives me more and more light. Not any conscious area. As soon as something becomes conscious, I get rid of it. Ask the Lord to help me, cleanse me in the blood and seek for the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome 25:42 that. But new areas that I keep discovering every year just like a child goes from one class to the higher grade and learn something new. That should be our life also. I hope every year I hope this year we're almost coming to the end of the 25:59 year now. I hope you discovered some carnality in your life this year which you've decided to get rid of. I have I'm seeking to discover something every year. I want to get a promotion like in children child wants to go from second 26:15 grade to third grade to fourth grade to fifth grade all the way to PhD and post-docctorate and all that. I'm going want to go the same way that every year I'm discovering something more which is uncristlike in me. See, we will not become perfectly like 26:30 Christ until he comes again. So, I want to keep on discovering every year. And until then, I will not condemn myself. No, there is no self- condemnation in the Christian life if you're walking with the Lord. And there is no because 26:44 of that, there is no discouragement. If you're discouraged, you will not progress in the Christian life. So, please get rid of these two things. These are I've always called it no entry roads. What do you do when you come to 26:56 assign no entry? You don't even go through that. You turn around and say, "I'm not supposed to go there." And yet, so many people have gone into that no entry road of self- condemnation and discouragement. Here's something that I've kept in front of my 27:11 table all the time. Look at it. Look at it. Now, what is it? No entry for two things. No entry road. discouragement and self- condemnation. 27:26 Please remember this all your life. I'll tell you why I say that because I tell you why I kept it because for so many years I was discouraged and condemning myself and I could not walk with the Lord even after I confess my 27:43 sin. Even I was after I'm sincerely seeking to follow the Lord something or the other. Now those of you who don't have a sensitive conscience, you may not feel that. Some people their conscience is so dead they don't they wouldn't feel 27:54 condemned even if they went and committed adultery. I'm not talking to such people but I believe most of you have a sensitive conscience and I'm talking with people who have a sensitive conscience. So accepted in the beloved 28:06 is very very important. That means we're sensitive to how we are walking with the Lord every moment. Some of the songs we sang today, I I was thinking of it. Every moment and 28:25 every breath I live for you alone. Wow, what a thing to sing. Every moment and every [clears throat] breath I live for you alone. So [snorts] have your way with me, Lord. Did you say that this 28:43 morning? You did. Go back to some of the songs you sang. Every moment and every breath I live for you alone, Lord. Have your way with me. And when I say that to you, you begin to think, did I actually say that? Yes, you 29:03 did. Hang it this morning. Do you mean it? That's the question. It should be true. every moment, every breath. Lord, I live for you alone. I do my ordinary work at home, in the office, and everything I do, but it's I live for 29:21 the glory of God. So, we want to be known in CFC Austin as a church where people come and recognize the presence of God. Yeah. We need to be known as a church where we love one another and care for 29:39 one another. That's very important. But primarily that when people come like I read in 1 Corinthians 14 earlier that when they come to our meetings they feel they have met with Jesus. They met with the Lord and they go away convicted and 29:55 encouraged and challenged to live more wholeheartedly for the Lord and they go away and that we must pray for that. See God doesn't do things without our praying. Most of the things in our life, many things God gives us freely without 30:12 even praying. But Jesus taught us even to pray for our daily food. He says, "Give us this day our daily bread." Now I know almost all of us pray while we are eating, before we eat. That's good. But here he's telling us to pray 30:29 before we eat. Give us this day our daily bread. In other words, I'm praying Lord today I need food to be strong in my life. Now even if you don't say that prayer early morning, that should be the attitude we have. Lord, I'm dependent on 30:41 you for everything today. I need breath to live. I need food to eat. I I need a job to support my family. I'm dependent on you. That attitude of dependence is the important thing. Even if we don't actually say the words, give us this day 30:55 our daily bread. So that attitude of dependence is very very important. And that should be our desire when we come to the Lord. So that if all of us are like that, CFC Austin will be known as a place where people meet with the 31:12 Lord when they come to the meeting. See, there are many other things CFC Austin is known for right now. You're all very good at games, especially batminton. Wow. Is that what you what you want to be known as? A great batminton players here in this church. 31:28 Or great singers. Oh, how you sing in parts. You say, "Go to CFC Austin. How they sing in parts?" Well, that's great, but that's not what we want to be known as primarily. [clears throat] We want to be known as a church where Christ is 31:42 present and where we love one another and we are welcoming people and where we have a certain standard above that of other churches. See, there are already so many churches in Austin. Why did the the world Why in the world 31:56 did the Lord start another one? Austin CFC. Was it just So that uh you can have a church which sings better than all the other churches in Austin or a church where people play bminton better than all the other churches in 32:14 Austin or some other soccer better than all the others in churches. Is that why the Lord raised up Austin CFC? There's nothing wrong in all these things. We must have good singing and by all means excel in whatever games you play whether 32:26 it's basketball or soccer or anything. [clears throat] But that's not what I want to be known for primarily. Primarily, those are all secondary. Primarily, we must be known that we are a group of people who are fervently in 32:41 love with Jesus Christ, who love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and who love one another. That's what we need to be known as. And that when we go, we people must say when we go to that church, boy, I'm so 32:57 pre aware of the presence of the Lord. When we sing, there's such a sense of the Lord's presence that I'm aware I'm singing to Jesus who is in our midst. And when the word [clears throat] is preached, I I feel the Lord himself is 33:10 speaking to my heart. Imagine if we develop a testimony like that. That's the most important thing, dear brothers and sisters. And so if we [clears throat] concentrate on that, I believe we can be effective and fulfill the purpose with which the 33:29 Lord raised up this church in Austin. And [clears throat] and you must learn to respect your elders. That's another thing. Value them and respect them. See otherwise people can come and to a 33:48 church because you say here the elders never say anything that offends me or corrects me. You know an elder can have a reputation of oh boy I like listening to him because he never offends me. He's always encouraging me and appreciating 34:03 me and patting me on the back. Well, I don't want to be a preacher like that to tell you honestly. Jesus spoke such strong words. You know once Jesus said that every idle word you shall speak you will give an account in the day of judgment. 34:23 Every idle word you speak you will give an account in the day of judgment. That means idol means a nonworking word. That means a foolish word that I spoke. How many foolish words we have spoken, how many how much of backbiting we have 34:43 done [clears throat] in our homes especially. And I want to ask you, do you believe with all your heart? You young people, better to learn it right now. You teenagers, be careful with your speech because those words of Jesus are very, 35:03 very true. I think it's somewhere in Matthew 12. Every idle word men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of judgment. That means if I spoke with a wrong motive, if I spoke something deliberately to hurt you, 35:21 if I said something backbiting, speaking evil of somebody with a bad motive, to correct someone is good. To rebuke someone is good. If the Lord has called you to do that, to share somebody's problem with an elder brother 35:37 so that we can help him, that's good. So there are times when we have to report the wrong in other people to the elders so that they can help him. That's okay. But if our motive is just to tear somebody down, to tear down his 35:50 reputation and to ruin him, God's never going to support that. every idle word, a word that is accomp that does not accomplish anything but accomplishes the devil's purposes. So be very careful with words because Jesus said by your words you'll be 36:08 justified and by your words you'll be condemned. It's quite a word you know by your words you'll be justified and by your words you'll be condemned. Every idle word we speak is going we're going to give an account in the day of 36:19 judgment. It's amazing. So if we take these things seriously to be accepted in the beloved is a great thing. I want to say uh that once we are established clearly in the fact that we're not going to be discouraged anymore. We're not going to 36:38 be condemn ourselves anymore. We know we are accepted because of the blood of Jesus. We are born again. We have become children of God. Then we begin our progress where every day of our life we must learn to take up the cross. Now 36:51 many people don't understand this taking of the cross. Taking of the cross means putting my self-will to death as opposed to God's will. Let me turn you to [clears throat] John's gospel. Please please turn with 37:06 me to John's Gospel chapter 6. This is a great verse that changed my life long ago. John chapter 6. But before I go to John 6, let me show 37:26 you this other verse that I quoted. Please turn with me to Matthew 12 36 and 37. I I quoted it, but I didn't refer to it fully. Turn with me first of all to Matthew 12 verse 36 and 37. Everything that Jesus said was serious 37:46 but sometimes he emphasized saying verily verily and sometimes he said I tell you. Now when somebody speaks to us like that and says I tell you he's emphasizing something and that's how Matthew 12:36 begins. I tell you Jesus is saying every 38:04 careless or as the margin says nonworking idle word nonworking word every careless word a word that accomplishes nothing hurts people that 38:20 people speak not sentence word a single word that you speak they shall give an account for it in the day of judgment. Do you believe that? Think back over your life. Forget your past whole life. Think back over the 38:39 last one month. Think of the words that you spoke to hurt people. The words that you spoke to criticize the elders. The words that you spoke of backbiting, 38:55 speaking evil without any good purpose. Every idol word, not just sentences, every single word, you shall give an account in the day of judgment. How do you know that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin? We take that 39:12 seriously because it's written in God's word. Equally, is it written in God's word that every careless word that we shall speak, we shall give an account in the day of judgment? Because listen to this verse 37. How are we going to be 39:27 justified or condemned in the final day? Matthew 12:37. By your words, you will be justified and by your words you'll be condemned. So the Lord says, I'm just going to evaluate all your words in the final day and see whether you you are to 39:43 be justified or to be condemned. That's a very serious two verses in the Bible, Matthew 12:36 and 37. And I pray that you will never in your life forget it. Write it down on a piece of paper and keep it in your wallet or something to 39:58 remind you and look at it every day for a few days till it's stuck in your mind that every word you speak you'll give an account in the day of judgment. If you didn't mean it. If you, for example, if you sang something this 40:12 morning and you didn't mean it, you were just looking here and there and singing for a nice tune. Is that how you speak to the Lord? Let's take all these things seriously, brothers and sisters. We want Austin CFC to be a powerful church, a church that 40:29 glorifies God. Okay. John chapter 6 and verse 38. I have come down from heaven, Jesus said, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. This is the autobiography 40:50 of Jesus Christ of his life. His entire life on earth can be summed up in one sentence. Why did he come to earth? Why did he come down from heaven? 99.9% of Christians will say he came down to die for our sins. But that's not what 41:09 Jesus himself said. Listen to this. I have come down from heaven. What for Lord? I've come down from heaven to spend 33 and a half years never doing my own will but just doing the will of my father. And one of those things is dying on the cross. That's 41:28 just one item of the father's will. There's a whole lot of things in the father's will. One item is dying on the cross. And my entire life was not just dying on the cross. I came to earth never to do my own will but to do the will of my 41:44 father. Many of us say follow I'll follow Jesus anywhere everywhere I will follow him. Okay follow him here. Lord I want to follow you never to do my own will but to do the will of God in everything. Isn't that also what we pray in the 42:00 Lord's prayer? Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Thy will be done in my life as it is done in heaven like the angels do it all the time. Never my own will. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Follow. Follow. 42:15 I will follow anywhere, everywhere. I will follow him. Nice chorus to sing. But here is where we have got to follow him. I never do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And I cannot do God's will if I don't know what it is. 42:28 [clears throat] That's why we need to read the Bible. I want to encourage all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, please develop the habit of reading the Bible. If you have been a believer for two years, two years, and you haven't read through the whole 42:45 Bible, I want you to go home and hang your head in shame. Lord Jesus, what type of Christian am I? I have been a believer for two years, and I've never read through the Bible even once. You say there are so many parts I can't 43:03 understand. Sure, there are things I can't understand even today after reading the Bible for 65 years. But I know a lot more than I knew 65 years ago. When I was born again, I read through the Bible in 8 months. The entire Bible, 43:17 I didn't understand all of it. I understood very little. I understood that my sins are forgiven and I was accepted in the beloved. But a lot of other things, it's even now I don't fully understand. But I read it. I read 43:28 it every day. But I first I wanted to read through the whole thing and I read many many chapters a day and finished the whole Bible in eight months. I would encourage you to if you those of you have never read the Bible, please 43:41 make it a habit to read a number of chapters every day so that you go through the whole Bible and then slowly read little by little by little because otherwise you won't know God's will for your life. This is the thing we should 43:54 major on. What is the reason why the [clears throat] Lord raised up Austin CFC? There are so many churches I told you. It's not because the Lord said, "No, I want a church where they sing better." Is that why he raised up Austin CFC 44:12 or I want a church where they play games better? No. Or is where people are more friendly. It's good to have a church where people are friendly. But the primary purpose is a church where God's word is proclaimed without compromise 44:30 because most churches have compromised God's word. Most pastors are interested in money and we want a church that's not primarily aiming on getting money and but a church where people love one another and people are known for their 44:48 humility and their purity. That's what we need to be known for. You know, we can criticize other churches, but I want you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 45:05 five. Isaiah was a great prophet. And he was a prophet who prophets correct people strongly. And he corrected this the Jewish people in his generation very strongly in Isaiah chapters 5. He 45:23 let me just show you a few verses. Isaiah chapter 5, he says in verse 8, "Woe to those who add house to house or buying up property all the time and not allowing other people to have raising the cost of living in this area. 45:37 Woe unto such people." And he goes on to say in verse 18, "Woe unto those who drag iniquity with cords of falsehood, who tell lies and keep on increasing sin." Verse 20. Woe unto those who say evil is good and good is evil. 45:52 Who look at filthy movies and say it is good. Woe unto such people. Woe unto those verse 21 who are very clever in their own eyes who think they the cleverest people. Woe unto those who are like that. And he was like that. You know 46:09 that is a message of a prophet to condemn this group and that group wherever they are wrong. And then we read in Isaiah chapter 6, he came into the presence of the Lord and he sees the angels in Isaiah 6:2 46:26 covering their faces, covering their bodies, covering their feet because they had six wings. And with four of them they covered their body and two they flew. So they were spending more time judging 46:44 themselves and one/ird of it in service. 2/3 was in judging and cleansing themselves, covering themselves up and one/3 in service. What a good proportion. With four wings they covered themselves. That is they worshiped and with two 47:02 wings they served. And when Isaiah and they they was the angels were already holy were saying holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts. Isaiah 63. And when Isaiah saw this this man this prophet who till now in chapter 5 is saying woe unto this group and wo 47:19 unto that group and war onto this group and wo unto that group. You know what he says in Isaiah 6 and verse 5? Woe unto me. He says Lord I am the sinner not these other guys who are doing all these wrong things. I am the one. I'm 47:33 guilty because I'm a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of everybody's got unclean lips around me. And I saw this when I saw the king. Isaiah 6:5. I've my eyes have seen the king. 47:50 I've got something from that verse. When my eyes see the king, the Lord of hosts, I will see my own sin clearly and I'll say, "Where is me?" And as soon as Isaiah said that, one of 48:07 the angels took a burning coal and [clears throat] touched Isaiah's mouth and said, "Your sin is taken away." Wonderful. It's an amazing thing that God does when you stop saying wo unto so and so on to 48:24 so and say wo is me. Yeah. Many people around you may have done wrong things. Leave their judgment to God. God will judge them in his own time in his own way. Dear brother, sister, worry about yourself. Steer clear of people who take sin 48:43 lightly. It's a sad thing that some have taken sin lightly in Austin CFC in the past, even in your leadership. Very, very sad. That sin, which even worldly people would be ashamed of, has been taken 49:02 lightly in a church that claims to be the representatives of Jesus Christ and in the leadership of that church. Yeah. We're not here to judge anybody. I'll tell you, let's hang our head in shame and Lord say Lord judge let me judge 49:19 myself. Have I had a part in this of not judging myself more seriously? Let me encourage all of you. Judge yourself. That's another word that's helped me a lot through many many years. Let me share it with you. 49:38 Through the years, you know, one of the thoughts that has come to my mind many times is, you've probably heard me say this before, but I don't mind repeating it. I don't mind repeating Jesus repeated so many messages many times. 49:49 So, I don't mind repeating it. One of the desires I have is that when one day I know I'll stand before the Lord is before his throne and he will judge me and I want him to say to me, there is no judgment for you, Zach. Zero. 50:07 What a joy it will be for me in that day. Is that possible? Yes. And I'll tell you how I got it from 1 Corinthians 11:31. There's only one condition I have to fulfill for me to stand in the final day before Jesus Christ my Lord for him to look at 50:26 me and say, "Zack, no judgment for you at all. Zero. Enter into my kingdom with joy." You know, Peter speaks about getting an abundant entrance into God's kingdom. Not somehow crawling in and the Lord saying, "Oh, you finally made it, did 50:41 you?" Not like that, but an abundant entrance with great joy. That's how I want to enter. I want to enter heaven with an abundant entrance. And for that, I when I stand before the Lord, I don't I want the Lord to say, "You're clear. There's nothing to be 50:56 judged in your life." And this is the the Lord said, "If you obey this verse, it'll be true." 1 Corinthians 11, this is for you and for me. Verse 31. If we judge ourselves rightly, we will not be judged. 51:16 Not if you judge other people rightly. Looking at the speck in other people's eyes will only ruin you. There's a beam in your own eye. So judge yourself rightly. Every one of you say Lord I want to judge myself rightly 51:35 every day. God is my witness. I say this before the Lord that every single day of my life for the past many years I have judged myself. There's not a day that goes by in my 51:51 life without my judging myself. And you say, "Brother Zach, you mean there's sin in your life?" I'll tell you what my definition of sin is. Anything unlike the spirit of Christ. And the only day I can say sin has gone 52:10 from my life is when I've become like Christ completely. I'm not conscious of any sin in my life. I can say with Paul, I am conscious of nothing in my life. Everything that I've known, I've confessed and cleansed in the blood. But 52:26 there's a whole area of unconscious sin and I have to judge myself that as the Lord give me light in some situation, I have to judge myself. Lord, I'm sorry. I discovered something now. I I the picture of a child going from 52:42 one grade to another is a beautiful picture of growth in the Christian life. See even when a child goes from kindergarten to grade one, he learned something in grade one that he never knew in kindergarten. I don't know what they teach here in grade 1 and 52:56 two here in this here in the US. But say for example, a child learned in the kindergarten 2 plus 2 is 4 and 3+ 3 is six. Just plain simple addition. Then he goes to a higher class and he learns multiplication. He learns that not just 3 + 3 is 6 but 3 53:14 multiplied by 3 is 9. That's something new he's learning which he did not know in the previous grade. And that's how it must be in our life that as we've made progress in another year, we want our children to go from one class to another. Every year as I 53:29 made a progress, I must be learning something new about my life that I never knew last year. That's what Paul says in one Corinthians in chapter 4. He says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse4 1 Corinthians 4:4 I am not conscious of 53:47 anything against myself. That means I'm living with a 100% clear conscience. And that's how we should be living all the time. And I can say that I am conscious of nothing against myself. But he says that doesn't mean I'm 54:04 perfect. That doesn't mean I'm acquitted by the Lord. No, because the one who examines me is the Lord and he sees things in me which I have not seen in myself. If a kindergarten child gets a 100% in mathematics, does it mean it has he has 54:21 understood calculus and multiplication and trigonometry and all? No, he's understood nothing of all that. He's understood that 3+ 3 is 6 and 2 plus 2 is 4. That's all he has to learn in kindergarten. So but when he goes to the next class 54:38 he'll need to learn a little more and then goes to the next year he learns a little more that the same way as he learned in school we have to grow spiritually and I want to ask you now we have come to the end of 2025 have you 54:51 discovered something in yourself that was uncristlike this year which you did not know last year then you have made progress don't you want your children to go from one grade to another every here. It must be like that. I keep repeating 55:08 this. I don't mind repeating it 10 times. Even if you heard it before, you must grow from one grade to another every year. You must discover something next year that you did not know this year. You should have discovered 55:21 something this year that you did not know up to last year of uncristlikeness in your life. Maybe in your attitude to money. Maybe in your speech. Maybe in your thought life. Maybe in the way you look and what you read and what you should not be reading. 55:40 The pictures you should not be looking at. Maybe a little more control in the use of the phone. I think a lot of people waste a lot of time on the phone. you know, yeah, there's a it's good to keep in touch with people and texting and all 55:55 that, but it can get to such an extent. Texting can get to such an extent that you don't have any time for God. Then then it has gone too far. So we have to be careful of all these things that God is a priority in our life that Jesus 56:13 Christ is first. We say our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name let your name be glorified in my life in everything. So we [clears throat] seek for the power of the holy spirit. I feel that there's not been sufficient 56:30 emphasis in cfc Austin on seeking for the power of the holy spirit. We cannot live the Christian life if you're not filled with the holy spirit every day. I seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day. It's not a once-for-all thing 56:49 that I had it once and I know the I was born again. Let me give you a little testimony in July 1959. I read one verse. I mean, I had asked Christ to come into my heart numerous times from the time I was 13 years old. 57:07 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. I must have asked Jesus to come into my heart a 100 times. But I was never sure till one day when I was 19 and a half and I was reading John 6 and verse 37 where Jesus said him that cometh to me I will never I'll never 57:21 cast out. I said, 'Lord, I believe that I've come to you a 100 times. And the Lord said, I accepted you that day. To use a naval expression, I dropped my anchor and my ship has never drifted in these 57:36 66 years nearly since that day in 1959. That's where we begin. My sins are forgiven. I was absolutely sure. And that day when I asked Jesus to come into my heart, the 57:55 Holy Spirit came in. Jesus is in heaven. How does he come into our heart? He comes through the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 says, "If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not don't even belong to Christ." Because the moment 58:09 you ask Jesus to come into your heart, the Holy Spirit comes in. But you may not be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's like I use the example of a a 10 room house where one room there's light. So you ask is there any light in that 58:26 house? Yes, there is light in that house but it's not filled with light. Nine rooms are dark. And that's how our heart is often has the Holy Spirit come in. Yes, but you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. You need to be immersed in 58:38 the Holy Spirit. That's the word John the Baptist said. He said you'll be immersed in the Holy Spirit just like water baptism. You know how they in some churches they sprinkle a baby and call it baptism. That's the way some people have just 58:51 received the Holy Spirit saying I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. No. Exactly the same mistake. That sprinkling on the head is just a little water on the head. You got to be immersed in water. That is how water baptism is. In the same way 59:02 you got to be immersed in the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit completely. Every room in the house opened up to the Holy Spirit. You know how Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I'll come in. 59:19 I can say that is true of every door in our house. The Lord will not come in until you permit him to come in. How to be filled with the Holy Spirit? You say, "Yes, I've received Christ. The Holy Spirit has come in. But there are rooms 59:34 in my life that are empty, that are dark. The Holy Spirit has not come in." For example, does the Holy Spirit control the books you read, the magazines you read, or do you read some filthy stuff? That room is dark. You can keep on talking about having 59:52 received the Holy Spirit when you were born again, but you're not filled with the Holy Spirit. You're not baptized in the Holy Spirit. You're not immersed in the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit does not control what you read. 1:00:05 Does the Holy Spirit control the pictures you look at? Yes, there are some good Christian movies, but what type of movies do you watch? Is it something that Jesus can sit with you and watch? Or are you watching something on a 1:00:21 screen where Jesus will get up and go and say, "No, I don't want to watch that." And you still still sit there watching it? I hope that will never happen. Dear brothers, don't talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit. 1:00:31 You're not filled with the Holy Spirit at all. Let the Holy Spirit control the way what you watch and what you read. What about the way you handle money? Will you allow the Holy Spirit to come into your finance room and say, "I want to check 1:00:47 your accounts. Are are you totally righteous in the way you earn your money?" You don't want the Holy Spirit to come and check your accounts to see if you're 100% righteous in the way you earn money. I can stand before the Lord and 1:01:02 say, "Lord, I don't owe anybody one cent. I've been 100% righteous. I paid all my taxes. I've never cheated anybody where if I did something wrong, I returned it." Yeah. In my unconverted days, I did cheat the government. But I 1:01:17 returned it all when I got converted. And that came to about 3 four months of my salary in those days. And I took it and I gave it emptied my bank account. And my heart was full of the joy of the Lord because I say, "Lord, I paid back 1:01:29 to the government what I owed. If I hadn't done that, I'd have been dragging a chain on my leg all these years." The Bible says, "Oh no man anything." Let me read. It's been a very important verse for me. Romans 13 and verse 8, owe 1:01:47 no man anything except to love one another. And that's why it says here in verse 7, the previous verse, that's why we pay our taxes. You know, it says here, we pay the taxes because God has said you should not owe anybody anything. Romans 1:02:02 13 7 and 8. We we pay our taxes. And that is why we do that because we are told not to owe anybody any anything. I don't want to owe anybody to anything to the government and I don't want to borrow something and not repay 1:02:17 it. Or if you borrow some equipment somebody, do you do you give it back when you're finished using it? These are the areas where Christians are careless and that's the reason they don't grow. So make sure the Holy Spirit is allowed 1:02:35 every area of your life. What you read, what you look at, what you watch, your financial area, and areas where you've got a grudge against somebody, your mother-in-law perhaps or your brother-in-law or somebody who cheated 1:02:48 you, have you forgiven him? Very important that your heart is completely open in every area to the Holy Spirit where you can say, "Lord Jesus, through your Holy Spirit, come into every area of my life and examine me. Where is the 1:03:01 darkness? Switch on the light. I want to see it. I want to get rid of all darkness in my life. I'll tell you, your life will be completely different from tomorrow onwards if you spend a little time tonight settling all those things before 1:03:13 the Lord. And you will do something to make CFC Austin a different type of church. Every single person here must do that and make this church a powerful church, a spiritfilled church where the presence of the Lord is so mighty 1:03:29 because the Lord sees each person sitting here is keeping a clear conscience and saying woe unto me instead of wo unto that person and woe unto that person and has seen the Lord and is saying woe unto me. And the fire from heaven has come and touched your 1:03:44 heart and burnt up that sin and has come into the areas of your life which you had not yielded to the Lord till now. And so that next Sunday when you come and sing, you're more conscious of the Lord's presence. Yes, by all means sing 1:03:59 well. Sing in parts. All that is great. But sing it unto the Lord. Be be conscious of the Lord's presence here. And when you sit here and you pray for the preacher as he preaches that you will allow the Holy Spirit to convict 1:04:11 you and not worry about whether it's speaking to that person or the other person. What a church this church will become if you take these things seriously and submit to the elders and listen to them and pray for them. It's not an easy task 1:04:26 to be an elder. And this particular time in CFC Austin, the elders have a tremendous responsibility because you all have gone through a crisis and the elders have a tremendous responsibility. They need wisdom as to what to do and 1:04:41 what not to do. They need to help different ones who are going through some pressure or trial. Please pray for them. Then God will help them. There's a power in prayer and you have a responsibility. Your elders don't want money from you, 1:04:59 but they want you to pray for them. Paul never took money from people. I have never taken money from anybody for all these 60 years I've been in full-time Christian work. But I've always asked people to pray for me. Even this 1:05:13 morning, I said to a number of people, please pray for me because I'm preaching in CSC Austin today. I need your prayers. I do that all the time when I ask when I speak anywhere because I'm dependent on their support and if I have 1:05:27 liberty to speak it's because somebody prayed for me. Pray for the those who speak here in the mornings on Sundays. Dear brothers, I pray this there'll be a revival in CFC Austin so that this church will suddenly be taken up to a 1:05:43 much higher plane than you've ever been before. Not that you'll sing better or play games better, but you'll be more spiritual and the presence of the Lord will be mighty in the meetings and in your homes. There'll be a better 1:05:58 relationship between husbands and wives. You you'll have more wisdom to bring up your children in a god-fearing way that CFC Austin's children will have a testimony of obedient, respectful children, which is a rare thing in this 1:06:14 country nowadays. children are so wavered and rebellious and that our young people will grow up to be godly and holy. Pray for that. Pray for the young people. And if you see something wrong in a brother, please pray for him. Or 1:06:29 you see something wrong in a sister, pray for that person and go and tell the elders. Don't talk to all the others. If you see something wrong in somebody, please go and tell the elders only and nobody else. And pray for that person. 1:06:43 That's my advice to you. We are not perfect. None of us is perfect. If you see something wrong in me, please tell me. And if you don't have the boldness to come and tell me directly, tell one of the elders to tell me. I'm happy to 1:06:55 listen to any area where I need to be corrected. None of us are perfect. We want to press on to perfection. And this is our desire that it'll be like that till the very end. So let's bow our heads in prayer now. Please bow with me as we are in the 1:07:16 presence of the Lord and we want Jesus to hear this prayer we are praying right now. We want our father to hear. Heavenly father, I tried my best to convey what I think was the burden of your heart this 1:07:34 morning. And Lord, forgive my limitations. In spite of that, I pray your Holy Spirit will take the words, broken words to people's hearts and bring some eternal fruit 1:07:53 in everybody's life. Even if some of them have heard this before 10 times, thank God. Thank you, Lord, that they hear it again so they'll take it seriously and seek to follow you. And Lord, it's my burden on my heart that 1:08:09 this church will be a strong, powerful, shining light with no part dark, completely burning, shining light for the Lord, like a city set on a hill. We don't want a reputation before people, but we want you to approve of 1:08:27 CFC Austin from heaven as you look down. And we pray you'll give great wisdom and anointing to the four elders that they'll have strength from above and wisdom to lead this church forward from one step of glory to another. And bless 1:08:44 all the young people, Lord, as they grow up with the battles they have in this evil world. Help them to fight the battle and to grow up to be godly young men and women. Please preserve the young people growing up here. Lord, please 1:08:58 preserve the children that they'll grow up obedient to their parents to be blessed by you. Everyone, Lord, any needy sisters and widows, please take care of them, provide for them. We pray this will be a church full of fervent 1:09:13 obedience to you, holiness, and fervent love for one another. We commit this church to you, and we pray that you will do more than we ask or think. Thank you for hearing us because we pray father in the name of our lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1:09:28 Thank you brothers and sisters for listening patiently. God bless you all.
