0:08 We keep speaking about the new covenant in this church. In In fact, every Sunday. One or the other aspects of it. So, we looked once before at Deuteronomy 28. 0:28 I just like to turn there briefly before we move on. This is old covenant, which was abolished on the day of Pentecost. Those of you who live in the United States, up to the year 1776, 0:51 you were under the rule of the King of England. Then America broke free. I don't think anybody here wants to go back under the Queen of England today. But lots of Christians 1:08 live in the old covenant that was abolished on the day of Pentecost. I wonder why. Usually ignorance. You know, over 100 years ago when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed slave freedom for all the 1:26 slaves in America, the slave masters never wanted the slaves to know about that. Never no newspapers or television that they could or radio that those slaves could hear. So, they kept them in ignorance and the result was from many many decades, 1:44 they remained slaves. Why? Freedom had been proclaimed, but they were not aware of it. It's a perfect example of Christians today who are defeated by anger, sexual lust, and many other sins. Freedom was proclaimed on Calvary and in the day of 2:03 Pentecost, but they've not heard about it. The devil makes sure that they never hear about it. Just like those slave masters, the devil's the greatest slave master of all. Did not want the slaves to know that good news because they wanted the slaves to keep 2:19 on serving them. And the devil wants his slaves to keep on serving him. Keep on grumbling, keep on complaining, keep on losing your temper at your wife or your husband, and keep on loving money, and keep on uh keeping bitterness in your heart, keep 2:32 on with an unforgiving spirit. The devil wants them to be slaves for the rest of their lives. Dear brothers and sisters, in this church, we proclaim freedom. Not a freedom we got in any of our cleverness. Jesus died. Think of the price he paid 2:51 to set people free. Abraham Lincoln didn't have to pay a price to set people free, but Jesus paid a tremendous price to set people free. And when you despise that freedom, you're despising Jesus Christ. So, let me show you Deuteronomy 28. 3:09 He said, "If you diligently obey the Lord, the Lord will bless you with all these blessings. All these blessings, verse two, will come upon you and overtake you." What are those blessings? You'll be blessed with many children. 3:23 That's the one that many people don't want, verse four. You'll be blessed in your business, and you'll be blessed when you come in and go out, and your enemies will be defeated, verse seven. Your business will prosper, your barns 3:37 will Those days it was fields and uh out in the fields and barns and the Lord will bless you whatever you put your hand to, the middle of verse eight. Imagine that. You put your hand to something and the Lord blesses it. 3:50 Financially. And he'll make you a holy people for himself, a set-apart people. And the people of the earth will see how the Lord has blessed you and they'll be afraid of you. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity. 4:08 That they want. And the offspring of your body and the off No, they don't want that. And the Lord will give you from heaven uh storehouse to rain upon your land because that's how they became prosperous those days. They were all 4:23 farmers. And you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. And then, but if you don't listen, you will be sick and the Lord will make, verse 21, pestilence to cling to you. 4:38 He'll smite you with consumption and fever, verse 22. And you'll be defeated before your enemies, verse 25. The boils of Egypt, verse 27, will come upon you. Basically, God will give you wealth and health, 4:56 and your enemies will be defeated. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us to be free from the love of money. It's ex- exact opposite. And some people think not really interested in it 5:18 because they would be like to be Jesus to free from diseases, but not from the love of money. How many believers do you think there are who are praying, "Lord, heal me from all my sicknesses?" Everyone. How many are praying, "Lord, deliver me 5:34 from the love of money?" Rarely. Hardly anybody. So, I want to turn to the Gospel of Luke. There's a section in the middle of the Gospel of Luke inspired by the Holy Spirit 5:53 from chapter 16 to 21. It's those six chapters right in the middle of Luke, which are like a we can say a section on 6:12 money. That's the subject. Not the every verse in that chapter, but a number of things that Jesus spoke in those six chapters. Now, I'm not going to go into detail, but I would encourage you if you want to experience a freedom in 6:29 your life that you have not experienced before, read those chapters and meditate on it and be honest with yourself before God. As an introduction, let me read to you verse 13 of Luke 16. 6:47 Luke 16:13. No servant can serve two masters. Do you know the two masters Jesus spoke about? Not God and Satan, but God and 7:05 wealth. God and wealth. Those are the two masters Jesus spoke about. Verse The last part of verse 13. You cannot serve God and wealth or God and money. Mammon is an Aramaic word 7:25 that they used for wealth. It is It's symbolized like an idol. He What Jesus is saying here is there is God and there is an idol. Now, if if it is a physical idol, none of us None of us ever bow down before it. 7:44 But here the idol is sort of invisible. It's money. And do you know the number of believers who bow down before it? Oh God, please give me more of yourself. Number of believers. And who get excited when their idol 8:01 blesses them in some way. You cannot serve God and that idol of wealth. Can you have money? Sure. Jesus had money. He worked as a carpenter to earn money. And he must have earned quite a bit to 8:20 support other members in his family. There were eight members in his family. Joseph had died and Jesus would Jesus was the eldest son up to the age of 30. He had four younger brothers, two sisters at least, perhaps more. We don't know. 8:37 And his widowed mother. And he had to work and earn money for them. That's quite a lot he had to earn. But he didn't worship money. He didn't live for money. Yeah, there are not many believers who have eight members in their family to 8:55 support, but Jesus did. And he did a faithful job of it, but he did not love money. He did not worship money. And he also said something more here. When you think of these two masters as God and money, you can't serve them, verse 13. 9:13 And this is amazing. You will hate one in order to love the other. Have you thought of that? That if you love money, you hate God. Now, if I were to tell you you hate God, you hate Jesus Christ, you'd say, "No, I love Jesus Christ." Hang on. Let's have 9:32 a test. There are people who think they don't have blood problem with high blood pressure. Take a test, you'll find you probably have it. Or they think they don't have diabetes. Take a test. No harm. It's no harm in taking a test. 9:47 Isn't that what they do with our children in school? Take a test and see if you know the subject. Take a test. Whether you hate money and love God, whether you devote it to God and despise money, or whether you will be devoted to 10:03 money and despise God. There's a lot of difference between having money, earning money, even a lot of money, and loving it and being devoted to it. I'm speaking here about being loving it and being devoted to it. We are to love God and be devoted to 10:21 him. And to do that, we have to sort of cut off this natural attachment to money that is in every human being. And like I've often said, it's not only the rich people. Don't think someone who's rich loves money. I've used this example. 10:40 Every homeless man loves money. You see these homeless people standing on the streets? You think they don't love money? They're waiting to get more and more of it. The beggars in India, there are thousands of them. Every one of them 10:55 loves money. There are rich people who love money. And there are many rich people who don't love money. It's got nothing to do with your bank account. It's got nothing to do with the amount of your income. And I'll tell you another thing. Only 11:10 you know whether you love money or not. I tell you, you may be married for 50 years, your wife does not know whether you love money or not. She may know many other things about your habits, but love of money is such an inward 11:25 thing you can fool even your wife. But you can't fool God. And I'll tell you one thing. This is the number one reason why many believers do not get more revelation on the word of God, do not get more 11:43 devoted to the Lord and are not more useful in God's hands, because there's something that's sapping their energy. There's a hole in the vessel that's making them leak. So, if you really want to hold on to God and be devoted to him and 12:02 love him, as it says in verse 13, just listen to a little bit and when you get your own time, read. We read in the first parable Jesus spoke here in Luke 16. By the way, before that, it says in verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers 12:21 of money listened to all these and they scoffed at him. They said, "Ah, it's all rubbish." There are people who listen to me when I say this and they inwardly scoffed at it and say, "Ah, it's all nonsense. It's all extreme teaching." Well, that's 12:36 exactly, by the way, what the Pharisees said. So, you got some company there if you feel that way. And Jesus said to them, "Oh, you fellows can justify yourself with your love of money, verse 15, in the sight of men, but God knows your 12:51 heart. And whatever honor you get before men, it is detestable in the sight of God." In other words, don't try to prove to men that you don't love money. It's worth nothing. If you want to prove it to anybody, prove it to God 13:09 in secret. Lord, I want to prove to you in secret that I don't love money and I don't care what anybody in the world thinks about about it. I want to prove to you in secret that I don't love money because I feel that is hindering me from following you 13:27 and I didn't even know it. Isn't it good to discover some sickness in your body that some doctor takes a check takes a test and reveals to you? I believe a lot of my major part of my calling to preach is to give a scan to people and help 13:45 them to see what they don't see themselves. Then Jesus spoke about a parable of a rich man and Lazarus. You know the story. I don't have to say it. You know it very well. This rich man dressed in purple, verse 19, and and living in splendor every day. 14:04 But the poor man Lazarus, by the way, Lazarus was his brother. How do you say that? Every Jew was a brother of another Jew because they all descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14:21 They were one family. They were physically related. They were brothers and sisters. Just like we say in the church, we are brothers and sisters through the Holy Spirit having come into our hearts and made us God's children. 14:40 They were even physical brothers and sisters. Lazarus was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just like the rich man was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac. It's not just some beggar on the street. Lazarus was not like that. 14:56 We don't have an obligation to every single beggar we meet or every homeless man, because if you try to do that, you'd get bankrupt pretty soon. But you do have an obligation to your brothers. I mean those who are immediate in your 15:11 fellowship, not every brother in the whole world. Here was a person who was in immediate vicinity, a brother in We say a brother in Christ. Here was a brother in Abraham. That is the point of it. The point of the story. It was not a just an unknown 15:27 beggar. Lazarus was laid at his gate covered with sores. And he had longing. He was longing to at least get the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. And the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 15:46 There were hospitals those days, doctors. The rich man never bothered about at least sending him to a doctor. And the poor man died and was carried away. Doesn't even say he was buried. Nobody was there to bury him. 16:02 No relatives to care for him. In India where there's no one to bury, they just in some public corporation or city property, they just go and throw the body in a grave there and put some mud over it. That's probably what they did to him. 16:19 Nobody attended his funeral. But the angels carried him straight into Abraham's bosom, which is another word for paradise. And the rich man died. And he had a grand burial, of course, because he was a rich man. It says he 16:34 was buried. And I'm sure the big shots in the city came along and the rabbis and the chief rabbi and everybody said wonderful things about this man who gave so much money to the synagogue. But while they were saying all that, the 16:48 man himself was burning in hell. And if he could listen to that, it must have been a joke to hear all that the people were saying about him. In hell in Hades, he lifted up his eyes. See, he doesn't have physical eyes. We 17:03 know his body was on the on earth. He didn't have a tongue or a physical eyes. There were no physical eyes or tongue. Um when we die, it's our spirit that goes up to heaven and goes up goes to hell. Uh we don't have physical eyes and head 17:18 until the resurrection comes. In the resurrection, everybody will be raised up with the body. Those who are born again first when Christ comes and years later the other unbelievers, but everybody's going to end up having a 17:29 body. When they are finally thrown into the lake of fire or live in heaven forever, they'll have a body, but now when we die, we only go in our spirit. But in our spirit, we can still speak and see and hear. And apparently feel. 17:51 So, he lifted up his eyes. That means he could see something. And he was in torment and he could see Abraham. And he could see Lazarus. This is not a parable, by the way. And the proof that it is not a parable is that Jesus used names of people. You 18:09 look at all the parables Jesus spoke, there was never name no names. It was a certain rich man or a certain widow. It's like that. Never a name, but here there are names of real people. Abraham is not a fictional character. He was a real person. 18:27 And the angels were real and Hades is real and Lazarus was real. The rich man was real. I think the only reason Jesus didn't mention the rich man's name was his relatives took out of consideration for his relatives. You 18:43 know, he didn't want to hurt them. And he cried out. It's possible for a person in hell to cry out. Father Abraham, he knew this is the father of the Hebrew race. Have mercy on me. Isn't it interesting? That's the first 19:01 cry that comes out from hell. Have mercy on me. Send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. He doesn't have a tongue, but he feels the burning fire and because where he, you know, when you're in 19:18 intense heat you on earth, you feel your dry in your tongue. There's there's those sensations that are there. I've heard of people, for example, whose arm was amputated, but one day they suddenly feel scratchy in their arm. They go to scratch there 19:31 and there's no arm there. So, it's amazing how the human inner system works, the brain and the inner parts. So, this man he didn't have a body, but he felt a sensation of being burning. And that is the burning of hell. 19:48 And he wants Lazarus to come and You know, this guy is so jealous of Lazarus in heaven that he wanted somehow get him out Lazarus out of there and just send him away from there and bring him let him come here to hell. It's amazing how evil you become even 20:04 after you go to hell. And Abraham said, "Child, he was his child physically. Remember that in your lifetime you received many good things. And this brother of yours, Lazarus, saw a lot of bad things, but you never did 20:21 anything for him. So, he's comforted. The thing was not that he got good things. There's nothing wrong in receiving good things God gives you. He gives good gifts to those who God gives good gifts to all his children. Jesus said that. 20:36 But it's a question of what do you do with them? And so, he's comforted and you're in agony. And I want to tell you, he says, "There's a great gulf here between you and us. Those who are here cannot go there. Those who are there cannot come here. 20:56 It's permanent." And he said, "I beg you, Father. Okay, I can't come. Fine. But he remembers what's on earth." That's interesting. They remember the things happening on earth. "In my father's house, I've got five 21:13 brothers." And he loves them, obviously. And he says, "Please warn them they don't come to this place of torment." That's just one man in hell saying. Think of all the millions of people who are in hell today because they rejected 21:30 God, reject lived in sin, and rejected Christ. You know what the cry is coming out from there? From all those people in hell, if you could hear that cry. "Please go and warn all the people on earth lest they come to this place of 21:48 torment." That's what is the cry coming out of hell. And Abraham said, "They've got the Bible. Why can't they read that?" The word Moses and the prophets is an 22:06 expression for the Old Testament, 39 books. Moses wrote the first five books. And then the other books are called the prophets, history and prophets. It's summed up the old We would say Old Testament or That is the only Bible 22:22 those days. Abraham says, "They've got the Bible. Let them read it." In those days they didn't have it printed. They had to hear it in the synagogue. Today they say, "Let them read it. They got a Bible at home." I've often said this. 22:37 If you know how to read and you've got a Bible at home and you don't read it, you deserve to be deceived by the devil and by fake preachers. You deserve to be deceived 22:56 because you have a Bible and you know how to read and you don't read it. So, what Abraham says, "Why should a Lazarus go down there? They've got a Bible, let them read it. If they don't have time to read it, they're too busy making money or too 23:14 busy doing other things or watching movies or something else, then they've got only themselves to blame." The cry from heaven is heard the cry from hell. The cry from heaven is read the Bible. 23:38 Here's another cry from hell. Verse 30, "No, Father Abraham. They are not taking the Bible seriously, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." You see that word repent? Why do we preach so much against 23:55 sin in CFC? Why do we preach so much against uh so much for repentance and turning from sin? Because that is the cry from hell. We are here because we did not repent. We are here because we did not turn from 24:13 sin. "Please tell my five brothers to turn from sin." That's the thing. Not go to the synagogue or go to church. Turn from sin. I'm sure those guys were going to the synagogue regularly every Sabbath. But they did not turn from sin. 24:31 He's not saying go and tell them to go to the synagogue regularly. No. They're doing that. Go to church regularly. No. Turn from sin is the cry that comes from hell. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And look at Abraham's answer. If they 24:49 don't read the Bible, everything's written there. And they don't read it, and they don't take that seriously, even if somebody is rises from the dead, somebody you knows. Think of a relative of yours who died years ago. 25:08 And one day you see him come back from the dead and tell you, "It's real what the Bible says. There is a real heaven. I'm there. I just came to tell you." Or somebody who's gone to hell, one of your relatives in hell, comes back and tells 25:27 you, "Hey, hell is real. I'm coming from there. I was given permission to just come and tell you. I have to go back now. Beware that what the Bible says is true." That's what Abraham says. If they don't believe the Bible, they don't read the 25:43 Bible, they don't believe it, even if somebody rises from the dead. In other words, a dead person, one of your relatives, dead person comes and tells you who's in heaven or hell, "It's real." You will not believe it. You'll think 25:57 you'll believe it. Oh, if somebody comes from the dead and tells me heaven is real or somebody comes from hell and tells me heaven is real, I'll believe it. No, you won't. If you don't read If you don't believe the Bible, you will 26:05 not believe it. We think we will believe. Our reason says, "Of course I'll believe if somebody comes back from heaven or hell." No, you won't. If you don't believe the Bible, you will not believe. I'm very thankful that I started 26:22 studying the Bible when I was 19 years old. And by the time I was 26, in 7 years, I got a really good grasp of it. I didn't have all the revelation on victory over sin or anything, but the basic truths about God and Christ and 26:40 forgiveness of sins and eternity and heaven and hell and the need of repentance and little I had understood by then. And I'm very thankful. Jesus understood by the age of 12 enough of the scriptures. If you If you're serious, you can know. 26:57 I believe that if you use your all your spare time not to keep on browsing the internet, but spending a little more time with the Bible, you'll really know it. But if there are other things that are more interesting for you and 27:13 entertainment and well, you are going to be the loser. And you may realize it only when Christ comes again. It was this attitude to money, this rich man who had so much money and far more than he needed 27:31 for him and his five brothers or he had a rich father who gave him all that. And he never thought of helping that poor brother of his. Not a stranger, but his own brother. Okay? Let's go to something else Jesus said. 27:50 In chapter 17, there again there's a little bit about money. The coming of the Son of Man will be He's talking about the coming of the Son of Man in verse 22 onwards. The days will come on you when one of the days of Son of Man. 28:08 For the coming of the Son of Man, verse 24, will be the like the lightning that flashes from one part of the sky to another. So will the Son of Man. So, there's not going to be any secret rapture like some people teach. No. 28:23 The lightning is not secret. There are people who teach that there'll be a secret rapture and then for 7 years there'll be tribulation and then Christ will come back. There's one coming of Christ, not a second and a third coming. 28:38 He comes, it'll be like the lightning. There will be a period of tribulation before that, but it'll be the lightning everybody sees. Jesus said in Matthew 24, "Don't be deceived when somebody says, 'Oh, he's come there or he's come there.' No, no, 28:51 no. It'll be like the lightning." It'll be like the lightning is coming. But he says it'll be like the days of Lot, verse 28. In the days of Lot they were eating and drinking because they had plenty of money and they were buying and selling 29:05 and they had all that money. But they didn't take care of sin in their lives. And there's fire and brimstone, verse 29, like hell, rained upon Sodom and destroyed them all. It will be like that in the day when the Son of Man is 29:21 revealed. It'll be sudden. On that day, if you're on the house top, if your goods are in the house, don't go down to take it. They don't say, "Oh, I got my property there." Don't be attached. The point there is don't be 29:36 attached to anything earthly. If you're on the rooftop and Christ comes, say, "I'm ready to go. I don't have any attachment to any of my goods or property or money or my bank account here. That's the meaning of that. If you 29:49 want to read it. And if you're out in the field you shouldn't have to say, "Hey, I've got to go back and ask forgiveness from my wife. I yelled at her this morning and I came to work in the field. I did not apologize and the 30:02 Lord is coming. Oh Lord, hang on. Let me go back home and uh apologize to my wife." No, you should have apologized as soon as you're aware of it. Within 1 minute of you getting angry, you should apologize. So that you're ready for the Lord's 30:16 coming even if you're in the field or in the office or anywhere. In other words, keep short accounts with God. Short accounts. As soon as you're aware of something, settle it. Then he said, "Remember Lot's wife." Here's where the money part comes in. 30:33 The Lord had told Lot and his wife, "When you go, don't ever look back to this place where you came to make money." Why did Lot go to Sodom? Abraham said, "Go where you like." And it says that uh Lot What a generous man 30:50 Abraham was. Uh you do you choose. I I'm the one who God called. You just followed along with me, but I'll give you first choice. And you read there that he looked at the fields of Sodom and said, "Boy, that's the place to make money. 31:05 And I'll go." And you know the end of what he got. All those people who pursue after money, one day they'll end up like that. He went there and he made money. He got captured once and Abraham had to go and release him. But he still did not learn his lesson. 31:22 He said, "I'm making a lot of money here. It's just multiplying leaps and bounds and I'm going to concentrate on that." He had a godly uncle, Abraham. He would not listen to him. Anyway, God had mercy on him for Abraham's sake and said one day when he 31:37 went sent the angel said, "Get out of here and don't look back." Don't look back. Forget it. Go and save your life. And we read there that Lot's wife looked back. She wasn't curious to see whether the 31:56 fire was burning. She was thinking of all her fancy clothes that were getting burnt up. She was thinking of the lovely garden that was getting burnt up. She was getting thinking of all the money stored up in their house that was 32:09 getting burnt up. Looking back and say, "Oh, I'll never see all that again." And it says she became a pillar of stone. Of salt. Pillar of salt. That's a warning. And Jesus said it, "Remember Lot's wife." 32:27 She had the opportunity to escape, but she wanted to look there and look back. God and money. That's the warning. Look in one direction. Okay? You just got to go through quickly. You can take your own time to read these 32:46 wonderful chapters. We saw chapter 16, chapter 17. We go to chapter 18 now. Verse or chapter 18 verse 18. There was a ruler who came said, "Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 33:05 See, eternal life was not something spoken of in the Old Testament. This chap had gone beyond the Old Testament. And he was wanting eternal life. "What must I do to get eternal life?" You think, "What a sincere soul wanting 33:22 to know the truth." But very often when people want to know the truth, they're not willing to pay the price for it. It's quite possible that some of you sitting here may want eternal life. The question is whether you're willing 33:35 to pay the price for it. Jesus said, "Why do you call me good? There's no one good except God. You know the commandments. Don't commit adultery. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't bear false witness. Honor your father and mother." He says, "All these 33:48 things I've kept from my youth up." And he said, "There's one thing you still lack." If you noticed in those commandments there, he left out the 10th commandment in verse 20. 34:06 He went all the way up to number nine. The first four related to God. 5 6 7 8 9. That's what he mentioned in verse 20. And he said, "I've kept all this." Let's talk about the 10th one, covetousness. In Colossians 3:5, it says covetousness 34:26 is a form of idolatry. To covet is to desire something you don't have. And the 10th commandment, which nobody could keep. It was a test to see how many people would be honest to say, "Lord, I can't keep it. Please help me." 34:45 Paul Paul was that. He says that in Romans 7. "I could keep all the commandments, but when it came to the 10th one, uh I just kept on failing because I found all types of covetousness, lust for this and lust for that. Lust for women and lust for money all 35:00 there in my heart and I couldn't keep myself. Oh wretched man that I am." He says, "Who shall deliver me?" Read Romans 7. But I thank God through Jesus Christ. He knew there was deliverance in Christ. But you couldn't say that in the Old 35:12 Testament. So we say God put that 10th commandment there knowing nobody could keep it just to see how many people would be honest and say, "Lord, I can't keep that. There's covetousness in my heart." Then God could lead them like Paul to 35:29 something further to salvation. It's the same today. You cannot serve God and money. Nobody can save themselves. God the Lord sees who is going to be honest and acknowledge, "Lord, I love money too much. That means I don't really love you." 35:47 Well, he said, "One thing you lack. You love money too much." Verse 22. "Sell all that you possess. 100%. Give it away to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven." Does Jesus ask everybody to do that? No, you read in the next chapter you 36:08 read about Zacchaeus who gave only half his goods to the poor and Jesus said, "That's fine." Lazarus and Mary and Martha, Jesus went to their house. They had a house of their own and he never told them to sell their house or sell all that they have. 36:21 To different people he had to tell the different degrees to which they had to give up. It's like cancer. You know, when a person has cancer and he goes to a doctor, the doctor says, "Ah, you've come too late. You're gone beyond the fourth stage of 36:40 cancer. That organ has to be completely removed from you from your body. And they remove that organ 100%. Chemotherapy will not help you. The organ has to be removed 100%. But he says, "But doctor, that other 36:59 person had the same cancer in the same organ, but his organ was not removed." "Ah," the doctor says, "He was in the first stage. Yours is beyond the fourth stage." It's like that with the love of money. Some are in the initial stages where uh 37:18 the Lord says, "Well, it's not so bad with you, so you don't have to give up everything." But some have gone so far in it that the Lord says, "There's no cure for this cancer in your case, but total removal." That's why the Lord spoke differently to 37:32 he he didn't tell Lazarus and Martha and all to give up everything. But he did tell this man. And this man was very sad. Imagine the doctor saying, "Listen, if you remove this completely, you'll be healed of your cancer and you can live 37:45 for many more years." And if that chap says, "No, I love that organ inside my body. I love that part of my body." Well, he the doctor says, "You'll die within a few weeks." "But I love this part of my body." 38:04 Don't you think that man's crazy? That's how crazy this guy was. He was very sad. He wanted to retain that part that cancer as part of his life. And he went away. I've often thought about that man. It was a real human life. It was not a 38:23 story. It was a real person. I wondered, "Where is that man today?" If he never repented till the end of his life, he's definitely in hell. You got plenty in hell. You get thousands of years to think about your 38:42 decisions on earth. What do you think of his decision? He says, "Once in my life I had a choice to make and I made the wrong choice." Or let's hope he repented at least sometime 39:01 later on in his life, maybe when he was 85 years old or something, and died a few days later and went to heaven like the dying thief. And people who think, "Ah, he went to heaven. That's it." You know what's going to happen to such 39:18 people in heaven? I believe this. They're going to have an eternity of They're in heaven, okay, but they're having an eternity of regret. When they see Jesus and see how much he loved them and gave himself for them and how selfishly 39:37 they lived for themselves in their entire life. Never did a thing for him on this earth. They're happy there in heaven. I don't think they'll be supremely happy. That's my conviction. Cuz I apply it to myself, forget about 39:53 others. I say if I live for myself 100% and then just the last minute before I died, I accepted Christ. I went to heaven. I would have tremendous regret as for myself, I'm not speaking for others. I would have such a regret and I say, 40:09 "Lord, I knew about you. I knew about what you did for me. I knew about how you suffered for me, how you gave everything for me and yet and yet I lived for myself." How will I be able to face Jesus? Seeing the print of the nails in his hands and his 40:24 side and more than that seeing his tremendous love for me how he gave everything to save me from eternal hell and I lived this selfish, self-centered life just living for myself when I could have been useful for him on earth. 40:39 Do you think I'll ever get over it? I won't get over it in 10 years or 1,000 years. I don't believe I'll get over it in any eternity. How can I get over it? I say, "Lord, give me another chance to go back to earth and prove my love for 40:50 you." And the Lord says, "No, there is no other chance." There's only one life everybody has on earth. I thought about that much. And that's why I decided that the one life I have, I'm going to live for him. And I remember the days when my wife and 41:07 I were struggling with tremendous poverty in the early years of our married life. I said, "It doesn't matter, Lord. It doesn't matter how poor I am. I will not violate your principles. I will not go against your principles. I 41:20 will never beg or ask anybody for money. I will never send any prayer letters anywhere asking for money. I'll never go to rich churches for money. I will not depend on man. If you choose to keep me poor, I'm willing to be poor all of my 41:30 life. But when you feel I can have a little more, you'll give me." And the Lord doesn't He doesn't torture us. No, no, no, no, no. He tests us. To see whether we grab. And we don't grab, he'll give it to us. 41:49 He'll say, "Put your Isaac on the altar. I don't want sheep. I don't want your 10,000 sheep. Put Isaac, the one you love the most." And when Isaac did it, when God when the Isaac Abraham did it, what did he lose? He gave him back. 42:08 And I've experienced that. I've really experienced that. There was a day in my life when I with my ambition to be the admiral of the Indian Navy and to make a lot of money, the Lord said, "Give it all up." And I obeyed him. The God doesn't call 42:26 everybody to do that, but he did call me. And I laid Isaac on the altar. I gave up my ambition to be great in the world and I gave up all I emptied my bank account and I said, "Okay, I'm out." That's how That's how we my wife and I were poor when we were 42:45 married because I'd given it all away. And the Lord tested me for years to see if I would just compromise a little here or there. And when he had finally tested me over a number of years, we never starved. Though we were poor, we never starved. 43:04 God never allows us to be without food and clothing. But we had to be happy with what little clothing we had. We couldn't buy new clothes for our little children. No. Just got to use whatever they have and hand it down to the next child and that next child 43:21 hand the same shoes down to the next child and that's how it was. But we survived. And the blessing of the Lord was not in terms of money. It was in terms of such spiritual wealth that descended upon us and our children 43:38 that I would never exchange it for all the millions and billions of money anybody can make on this earth. And that's why I won't have a regret in heaven. I will have regret about those early years when I didn't take the things of God seriously. 43:56 But I thank God that from a certain point in my life, it was different. I hope it'll be like that with all of you. I really wish you the best not on earth, but in eternity. I wish you the best in the people on earth say, "I wish you the best in the 44:11 coming years of your life." I wish you the best in eternity. That you'll have zero regret at least from today onwards. Forget the past. The Bible says in Acts 17 verse 30, "The times of ignorance God overlooks, 44:31 but now he commands you to change your mind." So yeah, assume that up till now you were ignorant of some of the things you heard till today. Okay. Acts 17:30, he overlooks it. But now he tells you to change your mind. Repentance means change your mind. 44:49 And so it's sad that he went that way and then Peter said, "Lord, we gave up our home verse 28. Followed you. What's there for us?" He says, "I say to you, listen to this. If there's anyone 45:08 who's had to give up his house or wife or brothers." You know, for the sake of the faith, many people in India had to be turned out of their homes. It's real. Who've turned out of their house, their their wife has forsaken them or their 45:20 brothers, parents forsook them, children forsook them for the sake of the kingdom of God. They will receive many times in this age, at this time. In other words, even on earth God will reward you. 45:39 I've seen that. God's rewarded me with so many homes. Blessed fellowship with so many families in so many countries. And also more than enough for my financial needs, more than enough, far more than enough. In this time. 46:01 You get it in this time. It's not all in eternity. And in eternity, eternal life. It's like the best of both worlds. But that's because you forsook this world. If you seek for the best in this world, then you won't You might get it here, 46:18 but you'll lose it in eternity. So that's chapter 18. We go to chapter 19. Here's another subject is money again. There was a man verse two called Zacchaeus. He was very rich. 46:37 Sometimes we think rich people have no interest in God. This man had tremendous interest in God. Even though he was a cheat and a crook, but he had a hunger for God. I mean, they are rare. Most rich people only interested in their money. 46:52 And he went to see Jesus and because he was small in stature, imagine a rich man climbing up a tree. Pretty undignified. But he's climbing for he's so eager to see Jesus. I wonder how many people are willing to do undignified things to see Jesus 47:07 Christ. They want to meet with Jesus in a dignified way. Well, no wonder they never meet with him. Here was a man who was willing to do anything, do something so undignified as to climb a tree. I want to see Jesus. 47:25 And the Lord saw that man's heart. And the Holy Spirit prompted him. See, Jesus was so much in touch with the Holy Spirit all the time, every moment because he walked in such freedom from sin. This is what I've coveted in my own 47:38 life. I say, "Lord, I want to be free from sin so that I can be sensitive to the Holy Spirit telling me different things." And as Jesus walked down the road, the Holy Spirit said, "Stop. Look up at that tree." And Jesus immediately responded to the 47:53 Holy Spirit. "There is a man there called Zacchaeus." And the Holy Spirit even revealed his name. "Go to his house. Stay with him today. Not just visit. Stay with him today." And he calls him, "Zacchaeus, come 48:11 down." Came down. And he said, verse five, "I must stay at your house tonight." I'm I'm not coming for a brief visit. I like that. 48:29 And all the people grumbled and saying, "Aha, this guy supposed to be a holy man, verse seven, he's gone to the house of a sinner." But he came for sinners. He didn't come for those who think they were holy. So naturally he'd go to the house of 48:42 sinners. And now there was a man who was prepared for meeting the Lord. As he reached his house, it says Zacchaeus stopped. Have you ever heard a verse like this? I don't think there's any other verse like this in the Bible. The two walking 48:58 together and suddenly one person stops. Zacchaeus stopped outside his house and said, "Hang on, Lord. I want to expand what he said. This house has been built with money that I got by cheating others. So before you enter this house, I've got something 49:16 to tell you something. Uh you're Otherwise, you're a holy person. You can't come to this house built with other people's cheating. I cheated people and built this my house. It looks so grand, but it is all by money I got by cheating people. So I 49:30 want to tell you something, Lord. All the money that I got by cheating, I'm going to repay. And I'm going to pay with interest. You know, he was a good at calculation and said, "I'll pay back four times as much as I got it. 49:44 As four times as much as I stole. And then there are so many other so many other people I don't even know where they are. Uh so I can't just say, "Well, I don't know where they are, so I don't give it back." No, but I can't keep that money. 49:56 It's taken wrongfully. I'll give it to the poor. Today I would say I put it in the offering box. That's what I advise to people. If you don't know where somebody is from whom you stole money, give it to the Lord because he's the 50:09 ultimate owner of all money. Put it in the offering box. That's in Israel it was given to the poor, but in the church we say put it in the offering box if you don't know from whom you stole that money. But you can't keep it. 50:26 You can't keep it. You have to return it. I remember when I was a young unconverted, I cheated the government of taxes. And when I got converted, I had I realized I had to return it. Uh I mean, I wasn't caught or anything. 50:45 Nobody would know it because it happened years before. But I sat down and calculated and I found I was a naval officer those days and it worked out to about four months salary of mine. I said, "Wow, that's a lot of money. How long does it take to 50:57 save four months salary?" Took quite some time. But one day I saved it. And I said, "Now let me go. I cheated customs duties and all that." I went to the customs office to find a department where they would take back money from that honest people 51:16 wanted to come back and give. There was no such department where honest people wanted to come back and give money cuz they'd be out of a business. The man would be out of a job. So I said, "What to do now?" In India the railways are run by the 51:33 government unlike here where it's run by private companies. So I said, "I got to give this money back to the government." So I went to the railway station and bought the longest distance most expensive tickets I could buy, number of 51:46 tickets for all for all that amount of money and tore it all up. Uh I was happy. My heart was empty. My bank account was empty, but my heart was Sorry, my bank account was empty. My heart was full. That's how I began my Christian life. 52:00 If I had not done that right at the beginning of my Christian life, I'd have been carrying a chain, a shackle with my leg. I wouldn't have been running, but with a chain on my leg and I would never never have been able to make the progress I 52:13 did in my Christian life. There are many Christians who leave something unsettled in their past life. Some forgiveness they have to ask somebody. Some money that has to be returned. But they're running, but they don't realize there's chain in 52:27 their leg. They wonder, "Why am I not making more progress in my Christian life? Why don't I get more revelation on scripture like some others do?" You know the answer. Get rid of that chain. And so the Lord blessed him 52:43 and said, "This is the only place where Jesus said these words, verse nine. Salvation has come to this house because he has behaved like a child of Abraham." You remember Abraham when the king of Sodom said, "Take all this money." He 52:56 said, "I will not touch your money, king of Sodom." But this child this person was a child of Abraham. And then this is the verse that touched my heart many years ago. The son of man, verse 10, is come to seek and to save that which was lost. 53:11 Zacchaeus was lost in the love of money. And Jesus saved him. And I remember when I read that and I saw in my own heart the love of money those days when I was young and I said, "Lord, I raised my hand." And I said, but it was just me and the 53:25 Lord and I said, "Lord Jesus, I'm lost in the love of money. Will you save me like you saved Zacchaeus?" And he did. You can't I couldn't save myself. Just like you can't save yourself from hell. 53:44 You can't save yourself from any sin. You cannot save yourself if you love money. You have to ask Jesus to save you. Don't be afraid. He won't send you out on the streets. He didn't send me out on the streets. 54:02 He tested me, but then gave me far more than I need. And for my family, far more than I need. He blessed my children far more than they need. But God was first. Yeah. 54:26 Lazarus did not have to sell his house, but he had Jesus. Salvation came to that house. Cuz the son of man saved him who was lost and he can save you, my brother, sister. Okay, then there's another parable on money where nobleman was going on a long 54:46 journey, verse 11 onwards. And he gave one mina, verse 13, to each of 10 of his slaves, verse 13. One mina each. When he came back, one person had made 10 minas, verse 16. Another person had made five minas, verse 18. And another 55:02 man just buried what he had. You know, wrapped it up in a handkerchief, verse 20, and kept it. It's showing that when God gives you something, how are you going to use it? God has given us one This is not This is different from the parable in Matthew 25 55:22 where to one person he gave five, another person two, another person one. That's talking about the gifts of the spirit which are given in different measure to different people. But this is something where all of us are equal. 55:34 You may say I can't preach like Brother Zac. It doesn't matter. That's a gift. God doesn't expect you to produce the results from a gift you did not have. But there's one area where you and I are the same, where every human being is the 55:46 same. Every Christian is the same. One mina each. We all have 24 hours in a day. I don't get 25 hours. You don't get 23 hours. But what we do with our 24 hours is different. 56:05 How we spend our 24 hours, each person is different. One person wants to make maximum use of it for the Lord. It doesn't mean he's reading the Bible all the time. I don't read my Bible all the time. I think about it frequently during the 56:20 day and even sometimes when I wake up at night, but I don't read it all the time. I I I meditate more than read. Cuz that's the thing the Bible says will make me like a tree that is always fresh. Meditation. So many of you know so much of the Bible 56:37 you don't even need to read it. You need to meditate. That's more important. If you don't know the Bible, of course you must read it. So 24 hours, how we use it is up to you. We're all equal. Some people produce 10 minas from one. 56:52 That means they accomplish such a lot in their one life of 24 hours a day. And there are others with the same 24 hours a day waste it or use part of it and get five minas. Another person just wraps it in a handkerchief and does nothing for God 57:10 with 24 hours a day. Are you like that? You do nothing for God with 24 hours a day. I don't say you should go preaching or witnessing to everybody on the street. That's a matter of calling or gift. Some people have a gift of 57:24 evangelism. I don't have that. I have a gift of teaching, but that's like saying different members of the body have got different gifts. I wanted to be an evangelist early, but God never gave me that gift. So I said, "Okay, I'll accept whatever you give 57:37 me." Don't desire a gift. God will give you whatever gift, but the point is use your life for God 24 hours. That doesn't mean serving God all the time. It means you're doing your work faithfully and saying, "Lord, help me to be a 57:49 witness by my life." So that's the other thing we see there. Then we go to the next chapter we've seen Towards the end of chapter 19, we see another matter of money. Jesus entered the temple, verse 45, and drove out those who were making money in 58:07 the name of God. And he said, "Don't make my house a robbers' den." Do you know that many preachers are robbers? They take money from the poor people to become rich themselves. They advertise on the television saying, "Give us so much money. I've got to buy 58:25 this jet plane. Uh I'm so burdened to reach the lost for Christ that I don't have time to stand in those lines at the airport and get a ticket and go on those flights." No, no, no. "I must buy my own plane to reach the lost." So 58:40 and there's nobody to tell them to shut up and keep their mouth shut. There's nobody, unfortunately. Where are the preachers who tell them, "Don't make my father's house a den of robbers. You rob from these poor people. The people sitting there, 58:52 none of them Many of them are driving old cars and you want to get money from them to buy a plane for yourself." Haven't you heard preachers like that on television? Yes. It's the only time Jesus got angry. And I get angry when I see these preachers 59:06 on television. If you don't get angry, you're not like Jesus. Don't get angry at these people who harm you. Get angry at these preachers who are trying to make money from poor people in the name of Christ. Well, they made it a robbers' den. 59:24 And it's it's a sad thing when people have chosen the profession of preaching in order to make money. And Christendom is full of them. America is full of them. India is full of them. I've seen it in every country 59:41 using money to make themselves rich. That's why we decided in CFC right from the time we started, 46 years ago, I decided I would never receive a salary. I would never receive any money for my church. I will support myself 59:58 with whatever little I have. I said, "I don't need to buy a car. I rode a scooter for 42 years. I used to take three children on my scooter to school." Yeah, but I'm not going to beg and borrow and make money from other people. 1:00:14 Yeah, there are preachers who do that. And I said, "Lord, I'm your servant. I can't afford to Jesus never once asked people for money." People gave him gifts, he accepted it. Luke chapter 8. But he never got a salary. That's a shameful thing today. Preachers 1:00:33 who get a salary. Did Paul get a salary? Did Peter get a salary? It's pathetic that there are so few examples. It's all this rubbish they teach them in Bible schools. That's why they end up becoming preachers to make money, get a degree and then go 1:00:49 around collecting a salary. Be like Jesus who had no degree and didn't want money and preached the gospel. He did far more than be like Peter and Paul. That's what I tell all the preachers in this country. That's what we learned from 45 to 48. 1:01:05 45 46. Then we go to chapter 20. And there again we read something about money in verse 19. You know, the scribes and the priests were watching him and they sent people to test him. They asked said verse 21, they first praised 1:01:24 him and said, "We know you speak and teach correctly. Beware Beware of those who flatter you." Jesus couldn't be fooled by that. "You're not partial to anybody. You teach the way of God and truth." Verse 21, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar 1:01:38 or not?" You couldn't fool Jesus. They wanted to catch him saying, "Don't pay tax to Caesar." But Jesus did not belong to any political party. Anti-Roman or pro-Roman, no. He said, "Show me a coin." 1:02:00 He looked at it and said, It's interesting, he didn't even have a coin in his pocket. And he gets his coin says, "Whose Whose likeness is on this?" They said, "Caesar's." Okay? You give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar 1:02:17 and give to God what belongs to God. Who comes first? Read carefully verse 25. Caesar comes first. Then give to God. In other words, pay your taxes first. Then give to God. Don't give to God before you pay your taxes. 1:02:37 That's the meaning of that verse. Don't give to God before you've repaid what belongs to Caesar and to all the other people in the world to whom you owe money, whether government or anything. It's not God first. It's those you owe money to who come 1:02:50 first. Then you give to God. Those are the words of Jesus. He didn't say give to God what's God's and then give to Caesar what's Caesar's. No. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Then what's left with you, from that you give to God. Otherwise, you'll 1:03:04 be giving Caesar's money to God. If you've borrowed money from somebody and you have not repaid it, well, whose money are you putting in the offering box? That fellow's money. That's a crime to steal somebody else's money and put 1:03:18 in the offering box. Go and give that back to that man. That's why the Bible says in Romans 13:8, "Owe no man anything." Now, a house loan is not a debt because we balance the house is here and the 1:03:38 money is there which you borrowed, equal. There's no debt there. If you die, your wife the bank will take the bomb house and there's no debt. If you bought a car on a loan and you've insured it for the same amount, there's 1:03:51 no debt. So, but if you borrowed money, you borrow a refrigerator and that loses its value within 1 day. It's a debt if you have borrowed it. I remember the days when we were growing up and me I wife and wife and I as we 1:04:11 were living, we decided we'd buy something only when we can afford it. If it takes some time to earn that money, we waited and earned it and then never once did we follow this buy now, pay later scheme. If you have a credit card sometimes it's 1:04:30 necessary in today's world. Make sure that you pay that debt every month. If you fail to pay your credit card debt in 1 month, punish yourself by buying nothing with that credit card that month. 1:04:49 You say, "We'll starve." No harm in starving. You'll learn a lesson by which you won't be in debt anymore. I'm telling you some practical lessons. The credit card system, it's a very dangerous system. That's why I've never 1:05:03 kept a credit card in my life. I only use a debit card. All my life. I don't want to ever be in debt to anybody. But they offer you the privilege of being in debt for 1 month and before the certain date of the month, pay it. 1:05:17 Use that. But make sure that you never cross that date a single time. And if you do, punish yourself some way so that you won't make that mistake again. So, give to Caesar what is Caesar's. And then finally, the last 1:05:35 one, chapter 21. Verse 1. Jesus saw the rich people putting their gifts into the treasury. That's offering box that was there. That's why in our church we keep an offering box. We never pass a bag around. We never tell people to give money in our church. 1:05:52 Never, never, never. And we're about the only church in the world almost that never takes passes an offering bag. And all our more than 150 elders we have in churches in 11 countries, not one of them gets a salary. Not one 1:06:11 of them lives on a gift from the church. We are unique in that way because we want to follow Jesus who never passed a bag around when he was healing people. Never passed a bag around after preaching to people. We want to follow Jesus exactly. Never 1:06:27 sent prayer prayer so-called prayer letters which are begging letters telling people about his need. I can I used to imagine sometimes if Judas Iscariot once got up in one of those public meetings and started saying, "You 1:06:39 know, Jesus has to walk all the way from Jeru- Galilee to Jerusalem so many times. How many of you will be willing to take Let's take up an offering for Jesus to buy him a chariot. Don't you think he deserves a chariot?" 1:06:52 Jesus would have pulled him down and said, "Judas, shut up and don't ever" and he'd have got up and said, "Don't you listen to this man. He's not representing me. Where are the prophets who will get up and today and tell these 1:07:06 preachers to shut up when they ask for money?" Yeah. There was an offering box there. And many people put in a lot of money and this poor widow came and put two small copper coins. 1:07:25 And Jesus said, "This poor widow has put in more than all of them." Here's the principle of giving. Verse 4. Out of their surplus. It's like giving a tip to God. Oh, he's done so much for me. Let me give him a tip. I tell you many people they're giving to 1:07:45 God. I'm not saying you should put money in the offering box. I see if a church has a plenty of money and they're paid for the building and all, there's no need to put so much in the offering box. But make sure your money belongs to God. 1:07:57 Every bit of it. 100%. That is the meaning of putting Isaac on the altar. He will not rob you. God is not a robber. He'll give you back your Isaac with the blessing of God upon it. I can tell you from my experience. 1966 1:08:15 55 years ago, I emptied my bank account and gave it all to the Lord. God preserved me and my wife and my children 55 years and given me an abundance. It is a wonderful experience. That widow put her two small copper coins and Jesus said, "She has put all 1:08:33 that she had." You think that widow starved? If there was anybody in Israel who did not starve, it would have been that widow. If there was anybody when there's famine in the land, that widow would have got something. That's how God cares. Dear brothers and 1:08:51 sisters, in the area of money, you need to prove the faithfulness of God in your life in your own way. Now, I'm not asking you to go out and empty your bank account. Don't misunderstand me. Don't do that. Don't do something foolish like that. 1:09:07 There are only very, very few people whom God calls to give up everything. He told the fisherman to sell give up everything. He told Matthew to give up everything. But lots of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, he never told them to give up 1:09:20 everything. Zacchaeus gave up half his goods. He was still a very wealthy man and he said, "That's fine." So, don't misunderstand what I say. And don't imitate me. You're not supposed to imitate me in anything. Not in the way I give, or not in the way 1:09:35 I preach. But make sure that you are detached from this tremendous attachment to money that every child of Adam has. And you will experience a liberation in your life. Believe it or not. That when you lay Isaac on the altar, 1:09:54 he will give you back more than Isaac. You know what Abraham got back from the altar? Not just Isaac. A whole nation. And from that, Jesus himself. What a fool he would have been if he had not put Isaac on the altar. 1:10:13 God always gives back richly. He gives back like somebody said, "I take my shovel and give something to God, and God takes his shovel and shovels something back into my life, and his shovel is bigger than mine." 1:10:31 That's how it is. See, we have I want to say something about how we are supposed to give. This is a picture of our offering box in India, in our churches. 1:10:50 And on top of the offering box, we have I'll read it to you. There are five points written top of all our offering boxes. Before you give, please check. Number one, 1:11:09 are you a born-again child of God? In the third episode of John, it says they took nothing from unbelievers. We've had instances where an unbeliever sends us a money order, and I have returned it to him. And uh that's what we did in the early 1:11:28 days, and person got insulted that he would we wouldn't take any money from him. But we do it a little more wisely now. We send him a pile of books costing that much money, so that not one cent of his money goes into our offering. 1:11:46 Whatever he sent us, we send him a gift back of something that will bless him. Cuz we can't don't want to take one cent from an unbeliever, who's not You've got to give your heart to God first before he takes any of your money. It's a 1:11:58 fundamental principle. And that's why we tell people in the church, "Before you When you go to the offering box, are you a born-again child of God? If not, please do not put any money. We don't want it." Second question, it's on the These are 1:12:12 all five are on top there list. Do you have enough for your family's needs? And I look at it like this. God owns the heaven and earth. He's a trillionaire trillionaire trillionaire multiple times. He doesn't want his children to be 1:12:32 starving to give to his work. I thought of it like this. Supposing I'm a multi-billionaire or trillionaire, and one of my children who's struggling to earn their living uh wants to honor me as a father and give me some money. 1:12:51 I would I wouldn't take it. I would take it if he has plenty to take care of his own needs. Yes. I mean, if he uh There are some houses where they need three cars, not just one. I told you about going on a scooter. That's all I 1:13:05 needed. But there's nothing wrong in having a car. I say there's nothing wrong in having three or four cars. Sometimes people have children in their home who are working. They don't have a transport system here. They need to have a car. 1:13:19 And I I have no problem with needs can be five cars in a home. That could be a need. A home with five bedrooms, maybe a need. Six bedrooms, I don't know. The need is different. So, don't judge another person. But like they say, cut your coat 1:13:36 according to your cloth. Don't um So, if you earn that much, by all means build a house like that, and buy as many cars as you need, and as many I always tell people in our in India, "You must make life easier for your wife 1:13:54 by buying as many gadgets that will make life easier for her at home that you can that you can afford." The last part is very important, that you can afford. Not that you have to borrow. But um anything that will make life easier for 1:14:11 her. Women have such a struggle at home. Yeah, in this pandemic time, people have discovered how much work wives do at home. I'll tell you, that's one good thing that's come out of the pandemic, with the husband sitting at home and 1:14:22 seeing what the wife is doing. And so, I say, "Make life easier for her." That's what I mean by do you have enough for your family's needs? You don't have to live like a pauper. So, according to your ability, and whatever God has allowed you to 1:14:37 earn, please make it easier. Do your children's education. When Jesus said, "Give us this day our daily bread." How did I get my day? How do you get your daily bread? By You you got a job. How did you get your job? Because you had an education. 1:14:53 So, when you want your children also to earn their daily bread, they must get an education. You must pay for their education. Maybe they need to go to college. Pay for that, and that's expensive nowadays. So, that's part of your needs. 1:15:05 Save up for it. Like they say, like you read Proverbs chapter 6, it says, "Go to the ant, you lazy man. Consider her ways, and be wise. In summer, it lays up food for the winter." That is the verse in the Bible which says you must save for the future. 1:15:25 Like they say in the world, save for the rainy day. Save for the time when you won't have enough. So, that you can educate all your children, so that they can earn their daily bread. Very, very important. I believe that is what Jesus wants you to 1:15:37 do. And to anticipate any need that you have, whether you need insurance to cover expenses that may be too much for you to handle. Perfectly right. We need to There's no love of money, and nothing wrong in spending money in all those things. We 1:15:54 have to provide for our children. There's a great You know, Jesus said, "Don't lay up treasure for The last two words are important. Don't lay up treasure for yourself." Second balance it with 2 Corinthians 12 1:16:11 verse 14. Parents must lay up for their children. Take scripture with scripture if you want to understand it in a balanced way. Most heresies in Christendom have come through one verse being taken and 1:16:29 expanded to such a size that it blots out everything else. These are people who don't know the Bible. God's called me to be a teacher of the word, a balanced teacher of the word. Don't lay up treasure for yourself, but lay up for your children. God wants 1:16:44 you to do that. 2 Corinthians 12:14. So, that's what I mean by your family's needs. The third question we there have there is, are you free from debt? Other than a house loan or a car loan. Romans 13:8, "Don't owe anybody 1:17:02 anything." Give to Caesar first before you give to God. You go to put something in the offering box, and you realize, apart from a house loan or car loan, you owe that by first person some money. You got to give a thousand dollars to 1:17:16 that person you borrowed from. This hundred dollars that you're putting in the offering box is not your money. It's his money. And he will say, "Who in the world told you to give my money into the offering box?" Can you put somebody else's money in the 1:17:30 offering box? No. Go and give it to him. And when you finish that loan, then put in the offering box. "Oh, but we have to give to God." Well, you first get rid of your debt. Obey God before you give. God's not interested in your money. He's 1:17:44 interested in your obedience to the word which says, "Owe no man anything." Let me give you my testimony. I'm nearly 82 years old now. In a couple of months, I'll be 82. I have never borrowed one cent from any human being in my life. 1:18:01 I took God's word seriously. Sometimes, I'm not saying in an emergency, somebody may have to borrow. Maybe God protected me from that. But if you do borrow, the Bible The Bible don't say don't borrow. We We I want to be exact. Sometimes, you 1:18:16 may in an emergency need to borrow. But don't owe anybody anything. That means if you do borrow, pay it back as soon as possible. If you've borrowed a book, return it when you're finished reading it. Don't just forget about it. 1:18:30 If you borrowed a a tool to use in your gardening, return it when you're finished using it. Believers are so careless in these things, and that's why they never get true riches. And so, are you free from debt? And so, when you go to the offering box, this 1:18:47 the next thing they read is, "Are you free from debt?" They put their money back in the pocket. I want them to do that. I encourage them to do that. Go and give it to that guy. And the fourth question here is, are you reconciled with all people? 1:19:04 Matthew 5, Jesus said, "When you come with your offering to God, and there you remember that your brother has got something against you, leave your offering there." I'm just quoting Jesus. Matthew 5:23, 24, 25. "Go and reconcile to your brother. Settle 1:19:21 that matter. You had a fight with him. He's got a grudge against you because you hurt him. Then come and give your offering. Otherwise, God will not accept your offering. Very important. And last of all, very important. 1:19:36 Second Corinthians 9, are you giving cheerfully or reluctantly because some preachers said, "Come on, give." Are you giving cheerfully? In other words, can you say, "Hallelujah." and put the money in the box. I'm happy to give so much for God. 1:19:53 If you're not happy, brother, keep it. Keep it all. Keep it all and die with it. God doesn't want any of your rotten money. These are the principles and we insist on these things. That's why we put You'll never find a notices like that in 1:20:11 front of any offering box in any other church in the whole world. We took a radical attitude towards money from day one. Like all our preachers don't take any money. They don't get a salary. Not one of them. Not one of the elders. 1:20:27 And the reason is because Christendom has drifted so far in the matter of money that we don't want to just preach victory over sin. We want to preach the new covenant the area of money as well. God bless you all. I pray that 1:20:43 that will bring a balance to some of the things that I said earlier. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to be faithful, wholehearted, to be wise, not to be foolish, 1:21:02 to walk with you in humility in Jesus' name. Amen.
