0:00 This is a drama that we in CFC produced at one of our conferences in December 1998. It refers to the time of Jeremiah and Daniel, but has a very powerful message for us today. 0:25 We produced it primarily to challenge young people to be uncompromising in their stand for the Lord against Babylonian Christianity. And we want to challenge older people like Jeremiah to encourage the younger people to stand true to the Lord. 0:51 And further, this was also a message to show how four young people standing for the Lord could influence a whole nation. The most powerful nation of that time, a heathen country, a small group of people who could stand up for God and be a witness for Him, which is a great message for us in our time. 1:25 This drama has not been professionally made. We did not have the money or the resources to provide all the props to make it a professional production. But our aim is to convey a message. And as you watch it, we pray that you also will be gripped by the necessity to stand true to God in these days of compromise where Christianity has become Babylonian just like in the days of Daniel when the Jews went into Babylon. 2:00 God bless you as you watch this drama. God bless you as you watch this drama. The End 2:33 The End 3:03 The End 3:33 Well, brothers, it's been 22 years since I've been prophesying to this nation. And they have not had ears to hear. They have listened to the false prophets who tickle their ears, preach peace when there 3:55 is no peace. They have gone astray after their idols, worshipped false gods. But I'm so thankful that the four of you have ears to hear. It's rare to find people like you. I'm so thankful to God that you have ears to hear what God is saying in this time. 4:21 Father, what's going to happen real soon? Some foreign army going to come? And if they're going to come, how long are we going to be there? Well, we've heard rumors of that. You know that Babylon has become a great power. 4:34 And God has shown me that that is the instrument God is going to use to judge Judah just like her sister Israel was judged by the Assyrians over a hundred years ago. They did not listen to the prophets and now Judah doesn't listen to the prophets. 4:53 And now the kingdom of Babylon is going to come and take the people of Judah captive. They won't take me because I'm an old man. I'm no use to them. But you young people, they will take you into that land. Brother Jeremiah, we haven't seen a lot of idolatry here in our land of Judah. 5:15 But I hear there's a lot of idolatry going on in Babylon. What should our attitude be towards that? Well, Haman and I, you should be thankful that you haven't seen idolatry here. But I'll tell you something, the Lord shown it to me. 5:31 There's a lot of idolatry going on in secret. Right inside the temple, the priests and the leaders are worshiping idols. The women are burning cakes to the Queen of Heaven. And out at night, under every green tree in the high places, they are worshiping their idols. 5:51 This is the day of compromise in Judah. And that is why God has called you young people to strand through to God in this day of compromise. Remember the second commandment, all you learned on your mother's knee, you shall not bow down to idols. 6:13 Don't even nod your head, even if you have to lose your life. Don't ever bow down to idols. Out there in Babylon, they worship idols unashamedly. I haven't been there, but I know how it is in these heathen nations. They have idols in every nook and corner. 6:33 Stand through to God and be faithful witnesses to God over there. Brother Jeremiah, during the times that you are in Babylon, do you think we should remain single? Well, in my case, the Lord gave me a special calling when I was young. 6:50 The Lord told me I was not to have a wife or sons or daughters in this place. But that was only for me. But do you know, God wants another generation to come back and repopulate Judah. He's going to bring his people back to this land. 7:10 After 70 years, the Lord showed me that. And there must be a generation. I don't know whether all of you will live. Till then, you may die, but be true to God. And if the Lord leads you to marriage, marry a wholehearted Jewish girl. 7:29 Don't marry one of these compromising Jewish girls. Who, once they get to Babylon, dress up like the Babylonians, behave like the Babylonians. And watch out for these young girls in Babylon. All with their seductive ways, their painted eyelids, and their immodest dresses. 7:52 Keep your passions under control. If you want to be a witness for God in Babylon, be like Joseph was in Egypt. Brother Jeremiah, so far we've been very careful in matters of food. But now we're going to a different land. 8:09 And those people cannot design their right hand from their left. Can you kindly advise us? Yeah, we should be thankful to God that we've got the law and the prophets in our land. I feel that we as a nation have not appreciated the law and the prophets sufficiently. 8:28 God's word is given to us like David said, to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. I have proclaimed it for 22 years. I have wept in secret for these people. But they have not had years to hear. We really need to appreciate that we've got the law and the prophets. 8:45 And when it comes to what God has commanded in his word, we must implicitly obey. We must steer clear of food, offered vitals. And remember what the law of Moses said. There are certain animals, God has said, that are unclean. 9:04 Like the hare, the camel, the pig. And birds, like the eagle, the osprey, and the falcon. These are birds and animals that we must not touch. Now you may, you're all clever people, young people. And you may use your reason and say, well, what's wrong with that? 9:22 That's how they do it in Babylon. But when it comes to God's word, we don't use our reason. If God says no to something, we say no to it. If the book of wisdom says, don't look at the wine when it is red, when it stirs itself and gives its color in the cup, 9:40 just do as God's word says. And you won't regret it. Let all these other clever fellows use their reason. For us, God's word is enough. So steer clear of food offered to idols. Steer clear of all these unclean foods. Brother Jeremiah, Ananiah, Michelle, Azariah, and myself 10:02 are deeply thankful for all the years that you've sat down with us and exhorted us and encouraged us to be true to him. But now, Brother Jeremiah, my heart and our hearts, we were talking on the way there. We're really sorrowful. 10:19 Because the time is coming when we're going to leave Judah, this relatively safe land of Judah where we could hear your advice. And we're going to the heathen land of Babylon. Brother Jeremiah, please pray for us, brother, 10:32 that we may stand true to God in Babylon, just as you were able to stand true to God all these years. Well, Daniel, and all of you, there's sorrow in my heart too. And for two reasons. One, because God's people are going to be judged. 10:51 The Lord has been patient and kind. He's long-suffering. And he's waited a long time. But his people have worshipped idols. The leaders have gone astray. They commit adultery. They seek their own gain. They love money. They live for themselves. 11:08 The leaders, the priests, the prophets, they've all gone astray. And now God is going to judge this nation. There's no doubt about it. That time, I believe, I sense in my heart. That time of judgment has already come. And that's the main reason 11:24 why I feel sorrowful in my heart. I feel that this king, Nebuchadnezzar, whom we have heard of in Babylon, will come very soon and capture Jerusalem. He will destroy this temple. He will bring his armies in. 11:44 He will defile the sacred place. I'm sooner than I expected. We've never heard music like that in Israel. Those are the armies of Babylon. My brothers, that's the second reason why I'm sorrowful. 12:07 I want to see you brothers again on the face of this earth. One day the Lord will raise up his people. And I want to charge you brothers, when you go to Babylon, remember what I've said. Be true to God there. Carry this torch of a testimony 12:25 when you go there. And keep it burning for the Lord. Keep it burning for the Lord. Never give up. Stand true to God. Daniel, let me say goodbye to you. You are the leader. God's given you a special calling. Be true to God 12:45 and meet these young brothers. And I am so thankful for you. Stand true to God. Obey his word. And don't ever give up. Stand true to the end. Israel, stand united with the brothers. Don't let any disunity come between you. 13:05 Stand true. Ezra, how thankful I am for your fellowship and all of you. I'm really thankful. I won't see you again. But if the day when the Lord raises up his people, have no regret for the way you have lived in Babylon. 13:23 God bless you, my brothers. Thank you, brother. Thank you, brother. Thank you, brother. 13:47 You know, these Old Testament examples of young men who were not even 20 years old, maybe 17, 16, 17, 18 years old, who did not have a printed Bible 14:09 that they could carry with them, who did not have the Holy Spirit to dwell within them. They only had the powerful messages they heard, particularly in this case from the prophet Jeremiah. And they had to remember what they heard. 14:29 It wasn't written down anywhere they could carry it. And at that age, see, many of you here are between the age of 16 and 20, or 16 and 21 or so. That was the age of these men. And there were many hundreds of others of the same age 14:50 who also went to Babylon along with them. In the New Testament, Babylon is also called in Revelation a harlot. That means one who claimed to be the bride of Christ but was unfaithful. A harlot or a prostitute 15:11 is, in Revelation, it is the bride claiming to be the bride of Christ but unfaithful. That means having all the outward evidences of Christianity and today's day, carry a Bible, 15:32 sing hymns and all that in so many of our churches but who are not living the life in their daily life at home or in their values, their attitude to the opposite sex, their attitude to money and their attitude to God is all just like people in the world. 15:50 But yet they've got religion. Religion means a lot of songs and things that give people an impression. So you go to these churches and it's amazing. You go to some of these churches with 10,000 people. They're all raising their hands 16:06 and they're all praising the Lord and the music is so stirring and you come away after one hour there or two hours there and you say, boy, those are really wholehearted Christians. They're not. It's only for those two hours 16:22 on a Sunday. I have heard true stories of people who have come out of these emotional, highly emotional meetings. Young boys and girls stirred in their emotions by all this singing and all but with no personal inward connection 16:43 with Christ who go away from those church meetings and go and sleep and commit adultery with each other. It has not made any difference to their life. It's just an emotional stirring. So that is called Babylon today. And the story of Daniel 17:05 and his three friends in Babylon is a warning as we are surrounded by Babylon. It's interesting that the Holy Spirit is called backslidden Christianity also Babylon. And there's where Daniel and his three friends are a great example for us. 17:23 How they feared God and stood for Him and even if they were going to be thrown to the lions they said, that's okay. We'll be true to God. You can throw us to the lions. You can put us in the fire. And when they were thrown in the fire 17:34 Jesus was with them in the fire. Amazing. So that's something that you young people must remember. how did they have that exciting experience of Jesus Christ before He came to earth in a supernatural way standing with them 17:54 in the fire. What an experience. Wouldn't you like to have that? That's because they stood true to God and did not compromise. It doesn't always happen like that. We read in the early first 300 years 18:15 of Christianity when Christians who said we will not bow down to any idol we will not bow down to Caesar we will only bow down to Jesus Christ they were thrown into the fire and Christ did not come and stand with them. They did not escape 18:32 the fire. They were burned to death unlike Daniel's three friends but they went up straight into God's presence. In the New Testament God has allowed us to face things that in the Old Testament they could not stand. 18:54 You see today we have the Holy Spirit within us and so I can be thrown into the fire and I don't want to escape. I can be burnt to death in that fire and I will not come out. In the Old Testament they didn't have the Holy Spirit 19:11 within. So God did not allow them to be tempted to the same extent as we are. To use an illustration we can say that the Old Testament saints were like in the kindergarten. What sort of tests do you give to children in the kindergarten? 19:31 But then they go to a higher school or to college. We are like people who are in college and when you see the examination paper you get in college they're really tough. But the examination paper for a six year old studying in the 19:45 kindergarten is very easy. And that's how it was in the Old Testament. Remember the Old Testament people were in kindergarten. And so they were thrown into the fire Jesus had to be there to protect them. Because they were 19:57 like spiritual babies. But in the New Testament we were like grown up adults. And when they were thrown into the fire in the first 300 years Jesus didn't come then. They died they were perished and they stood true to the Lord 20:11 and there was so much a tremendous testimony and they were thrown to the lions. And while these things were happening there'd be people watching them who'd get converted. They'd say this must be the true God and they would 20:26 forsake their idols. So even in their persecution they became witnesses that brought other people to Christ. Those are tremendous examples for us. And you young people, I remember in my young days I used to read a lot of 20:41 these biographies of missionaries who suffered for the Lord in different places who were killed and took the gospel to different places and I really admired them. I said, boy they lived a worthwhile life. What am I doing just 20:56 enjoying life on this earth? I want to make my life count for eternity. Now you can't go and become a missionary unless God calls you. See the Christian life is a warfare and Christians are supposed to be soldiers in the army 21:14 of the Lord. And when you're a soldier you can't go where you like. I remember when I was in the military I couldn't go to which place I like. I would be posted by the authorities you go here and you go here and I just got to 21:30 obey. So the Lord may call some people and say you go as a missionary there and he may tell you you go and work in an office or you go and teach in a college or you work in a store or different things. There are very very few 21:48 people who are called to full time Christian work. I think maybe one in a thousand believers are called. It's not because they are better. It's because of calling. Just like different parts of the body have a different calling. 22:04 The hands and the ears in the same way each of you have a calling. but every part of this body must be healthy and strong. Whatever they're calling. The hand is to hold things, the eye is to see, the ear is to hear, and 22:20 the tongue is to speak. So in the same way the Bible calls us the body of Jesus Christ. Each of us we are not the same, but we are the body of Jesus Christ. The one thing common about hand, eye, everything is they are all 22:35 connected to the brain. They obey the brain or what we call the head. They obey the head implicitly. If the head tells the hand to lift up, it lifts up. Put it down, put it down. If the head tells the eyes to look in another 22:50 direction, it looks in another direction. If the head tells the tongue to say something, it says something. So the head is in control of every part of the body, but the functions of each part of the body is different. That's why 23:03 the church is called the body of Jesus Christ. You may have a completely different function. In fact, you do have a different function from me, and you have a different function from each other. And as you grow up, but you must 23:16 remember one thing, every one of you, if you have given your life to Christ, I'm speaking now to the teenagers especially, because you leave home and you go to college to another world, and you have to be a light for the 23:29 Lord over there. Here it's very easy, because everyone around you believes in the Lord, and there's no opposition or persecution, but when you go into a college, you go into another world where everybody is, especially today's world, 23:47 they believe all types of strange things. They believe a man can become a woman, and a woman can become a man, crazy things, which even, they don't even believe it in Muslim countries. But they believe it here. How is that? 24:02 It shows the tremendous work that Satan has done, confusing people, and immorality is rampant. Young men and women live together as if they are married when they are not married, and then men will go with another girl, and the 24:18 girls will go with another man. This is the world you live in, and in the midst of such an evil, corrupt world which the Bible calls Babylon. He wants you, because he knows Jesus Christ, to be a true lamb light for him, whatever 24:38 the cost. Today, people are not being burnt at the stake and burnt in the fire. That is happening in some countries, even today. People are being killed for being Christians. It's not happening here. nobody is going to kill you in 24:52 the college, but they'll isolate you. They'll treat you like, oh, you're a peculiar person. We're not going to be your friends. You dress modestly. We believe in a little more fancy dress, and there you're going to stand 25:08 out as different, and it'll be a tremendous pressure when you have ten friends and nine of them are like that, or sometimes all ten are like that, and you're the only one standing out as different. You dress in a different 25:21 way. You don't laugh at their dirty jokes, and you don't have boyfriends like they have, and go around walking together and sleeping with them. You don't have girlfriends like they have. You're different. What a tremendous 25:37 opportunity to be different. It's a great honor. I remember when I was in the Navy, I was 19 and a half, and I was converted, and I was already in the Navy. And the Navy's a very corrupt place, because people have a lot of 25:52 money when they are 19 years old. They become officers, and they earn a huge amount of money, and they can do whatever they like. And I'm very thankful I got converted at that age, so that God protected me from all that evil. 26:05 And of course, a lot of people made fun of me, and all my fellow officers made fun of me, but that's okay. It just made me stronger. And there I decided that I'm going to be a witness for Christ. And I'll give you one example. 26:20 One day, I was working in the naval base, and I had a scooter. And the Lord told me, why don't you be a witness for me through your scooter? Write two verses on your scooter, big three-inch letters on one side, prepare to 26:39 meet your God. Christ died for our sins. And I went with that to the office where I was working. And my commander, who's a three-stripe man, I had two stripes as a lieutenant, 26:59 he said, what's this, Lieutenant Pudin? I said, sir, it's the word of God. He says, I give you 24 hours to remove it. That means, you know, in the Navy, if you're given a command and you don't obey it, in an office, if you don't 27:17 obey it, they'll just say, okay, you're dismissed, don't come back to work tomorrow. In the Navy, it's not like that. Discipline is so strict that if a senior officer tells you to do something, whatever it is, and you don't do 27:30 it, you know, this is how they train people to obey in wartime. In wartime, you can't argue with your senior officer. You have to do. If he says, fire in this direction, you've got to fire. If you turn the ship in this direction, 27:40 you've got to turn. And to teach you that, they say, disobedience is punished by imprisonment. not dismiss from your job. That's the way they enforce discipline in the military. If you disobey, you go to prison. And here 28:00 this ship gave me 24 hours to wipe it out from my scooter. And I was not going to do that. The Lord had told me to put that verse. So next day I came with the scooter and he saw it again and says, Lieutenant Putnam, what did I 28:14 tell you? I said, sir, I cannot remove it because God told me to put it. So he took me to the senior commanding officer who has got four stripes. He was a Roman Catholic, so he probably had a little fear of God in him. And I 28:32 stood there before him at attention. He said, Lieutenant Putnam, why can't you remove those verses, those words? I said, sir, God has told me to put them out, so I can't wipe them out. So he thought I was afraid of wiping 28:48 it out myself. So he said, I'll get one of my sailors to come and wipe it out. I said, no, sir, that's not the point. God has told me to put it so I can't put it there. And this is just about a couple of days after I put it 29:04 on the scooter, just two days after I got it painted. It happened. And he said, well, I am the captain of this base, and I cannot permit you to ride that scooter in the naval base. Take it out of this base. If you ride it 29:22 here, remove those words. Thank you, sir, I'll obey you. So I'm not going to remove the words. So I kept the scooter outside in a brother's house, and I bought a bicycle. And I began to ride a bicycle through that whole naval 29:40 base. Now, naval officers earn so much money, even as a young naval officer, that nobody rides a bicycle. Everybody has either a scooter or a car. And here I was, the only officer riding a bicycle. So the news went around. 29:58 You know, I was so disappointed. I said, Lord, I've tried to be a witness to you with these verses and the devil has succeeded in getting put outside the base. How will people see what I wrote? The Lord's ways are different. 30:13 So what happened? I was riding the bicycle all over the place and people who knew me, people in the base knew me because I was working in an office where people had connections with me. And the question went around, why is 30:24 Lifton and Poonin riding a bicycle? They said, that's because he wrote some words on his scooter. Oh, what words did he write? And that way the news went around much faster than if I had ridden the scooter on the base. See how 30:39 God's ways are absolutely amazing. Forty years later, when I was living in Bangalore, I was at a bank and a senior retired naval officer met me. It was just a few years ago. I said, sir, I remember you from the Navy, you were a 30:58 senior to me. He said, what's your name? I said, my name is Poonin. Oh, you're the one who had those verses on your scooter, right? see how the word went around. And a few years later, my brother, who was also retired from the Navy, in 31:14 a retired officer's meeting, he went there and the chief of the naval staff, the admiral, met him. And he said, what's your name? He said, I'm Lefnan Poonin. Oh, are you the brother of the man who had those verses on his 31:28 scooter? This is the admiral, the chief of the Navy. I was absolutely amazed when I heard all this, how God turned the tables on the devil. And I want to say that for your encouragement, my dear brothers and sisters, you stand 31:43 up for God and you will have something to be really thankful to God for, how he helped you to stand true to him. Don't ever compromise. Don't ever seek to please men. You will not regret, not only here on earth, but you won't regret it 32:02 when you meet Jesus in heaven. When you meet Jesus face to face, think of this. And your whole life is going to be displayed in a video screen. I believe that. I believe the day of judgment is going to be something like 32:16 this. One by one, because we've got all eternity to do this, you know, it doesn't matter if one man's life takes three, four days to display, but I believe that the day of judgment will be like this. Everything that I did 32:34 in my life, whether I know it or not, has been recorded in my memory. Because we are weak, we can't recollect everything so easily, but the memory is all recorded perfectly. I've heard of people who, when they're having a brain surgery, 32:51 somebody touches one part of the brain and suddenly he remembers something which he could not remember otherwise. He's teaching us that everything is stored there, even the things you can't remember are stored there. And one day, it's 33:04 like a tape, it's all recorded there in our memory. And one day when we stand before the Lord, the Lord's just going to press the rewind button and the tape goes back and it's going to play back your entire life. What all will come 33:20 back on the video screen? Your words, your actions, your thoughts, which nobody knew, that'll be there on the screen. Your thoughts will come out as words and your attitudes to people, which you can conceal throughout your 33:39 earthly life, will come on that screen, clear for everyone to see. But anything you confess to the Lord as sin, you ask the Lord to forgive you and cleanse in his blood, will not be on that screen. There will be a blank spot that 33:55 isn't there. But everything else, thoughts, words, the actions you did in secret, private life, things you did when people were not watching you, things you thought nobody saw you so you could do something, it will all come out there 34:10 unless you repented of it, not confessed it, repented and confessed. There's a difference between confession and repentance. If you only confessed it means nothing. But if you said, Lord, I'm really sorry for what I did there, please 34:25 forgive me, I slipped up and I failed you, I admit that is my mistake, please forgive me, that will be blotted, cleanse me in the blood of Jesus, that will be blotted out, that will never come up in all eternity, nobody 34:38 will know what you did. Wonderful, the power of the blood of Jesus to blot it out. But you know, you can take that lightly and say, oh well, if the blood of Jesus can blot it out, then I'm just going to take life easy, I 34:53 can sin and get forgiven easily. There's a verse in the Bible that says, let me show you that verse in Hebrews in chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. Please turn to verse 29. 35:15 It says in the Old Testament, when a man disobeyed the law of Moses, verse 28, he died without mercy. Then, how much greater punishment will come in the New Testament for those who have trampled the Son of God underfoot? 35:33 How do you trample the Son of God underfoot? God says something. The Lord Jesus said something and you disregard it, it's like putting that under your feet. Lord, I don't care for that, it's under my feet. Yeah, telling a 35:51 lie, hating people, indulging in sexual sin, and you ignore it, it's like trampling the Lord's words underfoot and trampling the Son of God under your feet. And it says you regarded the blood of Jesus, the 36:12 blood of the covenant, but you were sanctified as something, the word unclean means common, or to paraphrase it, you treated the blood of Christ like tap water. That's a legitimate paraphrase of that verse. Tap water is the 36:27 most common thing available in the world. It doesn't cost anything. And you treated the blood of Christ like tap water, that's what it means. How do you treat the blood of Christ like tap water? tap water. Why is it you're not 36:39 afraid to get your hands dirty? Because tap water is so cheap. You got your hands dirty in the morning, you can go and wash it. Two hours later, you were working and your hands got dirty again, you can wash it. Another three hours 36:54 later, your hands are dirty, you can wash it again. What did it cost you? Zero. But supposing tap water cost a thousand dollars for a cup, boy, you'd be very careful to keep your hands clean all the time, because every time you go and clean 37:11 your hands, you have to spend a thousand dollars. Then you'll be really careful that your hands don't get dirty. So when we treat the blood of Christ like tap water, what does that mean? Something common. Oh, I slipped up, it's 37:26 okay, Lord, please forgive me, your blood cleansed me. Two hours later, you go and slip up in some other way, you get angry with somebody and upset, and you say, oh, Lord, please, I'm sorry, I got a bit upset there, please 37:38 forgive me. Tap water, you know, blood of Christ like tap water. And I use the blood of Christ many times throughout the day to confess this, to confess that. Some of you married people, the way you speak to each other, 37:53 you take it so lightly, you know, well, you go and confess, Lord, forgive me, the way I spoke to my husband or wife. It's tap water for you, just tap water. And it says here, how much greater will be the punishment for a 38:06 person who treated the sacred blood of Jesus Christ as tap water? If the people who obeyed the law of Moses was killed, how much greater will be your punishment? So we must take sin seriously. When you're going out, you're protected. 38:27 In a church like this, you're protected. Everybody's there to encourage you, and the atmosphere itself is such, protects you from committing serious sin. God doesn't want us to be here. Why do we want to have a lamp in a building 38:44 that's already lit? Think if all of you are born again. It's like a hundred lamps burning here. But it's out there in the darkness that God wants a lamp to burn. And that's why he's kept you in a college or in some other place 39:01 of work where it's all dark. And that's why you've got to burn. And so burning here in the midst is not a great thing because everybody else is burning. But out there, it means a lot because you stand out as different. Everybody's dark and you 39:17 stand there standing up for something that you stood for. And I'll tell you, you won't regret it. I always think of this that one day when I stand before Jesus Christ and my entire life from birth to the end is going to be 39:34 displayed there. I don't want the Lord to look at me and at some situation I was ashamed to confess that I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. Somewhere in my life everybody, you know, I was in the midst of the Navy where everybody 39:52 would be laughing and joking and talking about all types of things. And I'm ashamed to admit that I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. That'll come on the screen. where I was ashamed of the Savior and in the light of heaven, how 40:09 will I feel? I feel so terrible. Lord, I'm so sorry I let you down there. Do you want to have any regret when Christ comes back? Be faithful. Live for him now and say, Lord, whatever the price, I'm going to be true to you. 40:28 And I'll tell you something, you will not regret it. Not only that, you'll be a boy or a girl or a young man or a young woman of conviction. That means one who stands for the truth whatever the price. And that is a tremendous testimony in 40:45 our age. That's the story of Daniel and his three friends. Whether they were going to be thrown to the lions or put into the fire, they said, we're going to be true. And even Daniel, right up to his old age, he was about 85 when he 41:01 was thrown into the lion's land. lion's den. And he was true till then. What a wonderful thing to be true when he was 16 or 17 and true when he's 85 years old, 70 years later, it's just the same. So you can be like that. 41:16 And every time you stand up for the Lord, it'll make you stronger for the next time. If you compromise in some place, you young people, later on you'll find it very difficult to stand up. But if you stand for once and people make fun of 41:30 you and you stand through it, next time it'll be easier. And again, you stand for the Lord, next time it'll be easier. And after a few times, it'll just, all their insults and making fun of you will roll off you like water on a duck's 41:43 back. It won't even affect you. That's what happened to me. In the early days, it was a bit of a struggle. But I said, Lord, I'm going to be true to you at any cost. And God will stand by you. I'll tell you one example in my life. 41:58 A few days after I had accepted Christ, I was nineteen and a half, I was in the naval base, I had many friends, my fellow naval officers, and one day two of them came to me and said, Zach, let's go, there's a movie playing inside the naval 42:19 base, we had a movie theater. And they would hire movies to be played there. And there's a wonderful movie there today, why don't you come and see? And, you know, I was the one who took them to the movies in the early days. 42:32 I was the one who'd go and call them, and now they're calling me. And I decided I don't want to go to a movie again. But I did not have the courage to say, no, I become a Christian. Because I just accepted Christ two or three days 42:46 earlier. And so, out of fear to publicly confess Christ, I walked with them towards the movie theater inside the naval base. But as I walked, there was a cry in my heart all the time. Lord, deliver me. I don't want to see this. 43:06 Please help me in some way. And we came to the movie theater, and there was a big notice kept there. For some reason, the reel was not delivered here, so the movie is canceled. I said, hallelujah. Those people were so disappointed. 43:24 They were wondering why I was so happy. And I came back to my room, and the Lord said to me in my heart, this time I saved you. Next time, you have to say it yourself, otherwise you'll never be strong. I realized that if every 43:42 time the Lord delivers me like that, I'll be a weakling. But next time when he came, if I stood up and say, I'm sorry, I'm a Christian, I don't go for that, I'll become strong. So that's what happened. After that, I was so 43:56 encouraged by that one incident, that I decided next time I'm going to say it myself. And I'll tell you this, if you try to stand up for the Lord in some awkward situation, you pray God will deliver you from that situation. 44:09 You young people, please remember this. When you find yourself in some awkward situation, remember how the Lord delivered me, he'll deliver you. I was just 19 years old. And the Lord helped me, he'll help you. And you have a few 44:23 experiences like this, and you get to know Jesus intimately as a friend. But if you don't stand for the Lord, you won't have these experiences with the Lord. See, through the years, the thing that's helped me in so many things is 44:36 to stand up for the Lord in something that's made me know Jesus in a very strong way. Even if it meant, you know, losing my job or something like that. I'll give you another example. When I was in charge of the, all the boats in the 44:52 naval base, that's one of the jobs, called boat officer. And, you know, people, officers could hire the boat for a picnic. They'd pay for it, pay for the diesel, and they could hire the boat for a picnic to go anywhere down the 45:08 lake or to an island or something like that. And, but I was told that if the captain, the commanding officer hires a boat for a picnic, don't charge him. So I said, what shall I write in the record? Say, captain has gone for a 45:28 harbor inspection. So one day the captain said, Lieutenant Poonin, I want to get the boat today for a picnic. So he took it and went, and I was not going to tell a lie that he went for a harbor inspection. I wrote out a bill for him 45:46 that he's got to pay. And he was shocked for the first time in his life. He gets a bill, and he called, I'm too junior for him to talk to me directly. He calls the second in command and says, why has this boat officer sent me a 46:00 bill? So that commander comes to me and says, Lieutenant Poonin, why did you send the captain a bill? I said, sir, he took the boat and went for a picnic. Didn't the previous boat officer tell you to call it harbor inspection? 46:16 I said, sir, I'm a Christian. I can't do that. In half an hour, I lost my job. They transferred me to some other place. I said, fine, I'm not happy. They put me in some more difficult place. Okay, fine. You know, this is not 46:32 persecution like the Christians being thrown into prison. It is a little difficult. They put me into some difficult job just to sort of punish me. But I tell you, those are precious experiences. I get to know Jesus so intimately. 46:44 And I say this to you, young people, that if you, in such situations, you compromise and seek to please man, you will not get to know the Lord. But if you stand up for the Lord in the midst of your friends and all that, 47:01 you'll have such a tremendous experience of Jesus Christ. I could tell you so many stories like this. And little by little, that's how God later led me to, after I left the Navy, led me step by step to casting out demons and 47:14 so many things. If you stand true to the Lord, he'll lead you. You know, you go from first grade to second grade to tenth grade to college and to postgraduate. It's like that in the Christian life. So when you see a person 47:26 being used by the Lord in some way, he didn't just jump there. He came from kindergarten just like you did. But he was faithful. He passed kindergarten, came to first grade, second grade. Every time he passed, passed, passed, passed, 47:39 passed. And that's how he got there. And you can get there too. And every such person you see around you, man or woman, who's been faithful like that, you remember this, he did not get there overnight. It was through many, 47:54 many steps they took that the Lord led him there. So, when my boys, four of them, came to the age of 18 and they had to go to college, college in India was very expensive. And Annie and I were 48:14 trusting the Lord for our needs. We just did not have the money. But they, I said, okay, you apply to colleges in the U.S., which is more expensive, but they have scholarships, which Indian schools did not give scholarships, 48:29 colleges. So I see if you apply, if you get there, then that takes care of the problem. So all four of them applied for scholarships in the U.S. and that made it so much easier. They got admitted there for scholarships. 48:45 But then we had to pray a lot for them, Annie and I, because America was different from India and knew they'd be tempted in so many ways. So I would, in the early days, it was only by phone, but later on I could correspond 49:00 with them by sending them texts by email. So I kept all those emails that I wrote to my children. In all the years, they were four into four, what, 16 years in the U.S. I wrote emails and I kept a copy of all of them, and some 49:21 years ago, I put all those emails together and published it in this book called Here, O My Sons. I did not write this. I just compiled all the emails I had written through the years, just put it all together and made it a book. 49:38 And so, and it is for young people, you know, like you who are growing up in the so many topics here. For example, devotion to Jesus. The Holy Spirit has come into your heart, not to give you experiences, but to glorify Jesus. 49:57 So allow the Holy Spirit to draw you into a greater devotion to the Lord, to show you the glory of Jesus more and more. When you're devoted to Jesus, you'll be devoted to the members of his body in the local church. And then, conscience and 50:15 faith, the fruit of righteousness is always sown in peace. If you don't have peace and rest in your heart concerning anything, don't do it. And this is why unrest comes into the heart of when, that it is an indication when 50:29 unrest in your heart, that something is wrong. So listen to that voice. Grow in humility and wisdom. Lord, we are so glad the Lord has opened your eyes to see the way that Jesus walked. And if you go that way of death to self, it will hold 50:47 you on. Hold on to that vision until the end of your life. Be perfect in mercy. There are many things that we see that Jesus did at the cross. The bread that we break symbolizes a fellowship with Jesus. Jesus bowed his head and 51:03 died on the cross. And you must be willing to go that way all your life. Sometimes we think we can get God's gifts by being worthy enough. No, you'll never be worthy enough. You must know this, that even in a million years, you will 51:22 never be worthy to get even the least of God's gifts. That's why we approach Jesus on the basis of Jesus' name and his worthiness. I'm just picking up some random chapters here and there. Here are some important points to remember. 51:39 The Lord says we must be enthusiastic about the things of God. God wants us to be always on fire for him against sin. God has a plan for every believer. You must never forget in the midst of all your work in your college and your studies that 51:54 the Lord is training you through all that you go through for future service in his kingdom and his vineyard somewhere. This is one of the greatest realizations that a young person of your age needs to have. I was about your age when I 52:09 realized God had a plan for my life. That in spite of my failures and backsliding prior to that, God could still make something out of my life. So don't ever get discouraged. Many things like that, you know, I would encourage you 52:21 to read it because those were messages that were given to people when you, at your age, even when they were teenagers, between the ages of 18 and 21. So in the Bible also, we have some wonderful examples. We heard about Joseph. 52:40 In Genesis, you read that, what was it that made Joseph such an outstanding witness for Christ in the biggest palace in the world in those days, Pharaoh's palace? Where did it all start? Let me turn to Genesis. And Genesis chapter 39, I think. 53:06 Oh, not 39. Genesis chapter 37. We read here that Joseph's brothers had gone out to take care of the flock. And then his father, Genesis 37, verse 13, said to Joseph, your brothers are 53:27 taking care of the flock. I'll send you to them. And immediately he said, I will go. Just in that little verse, you see the secret of Joseph's life. He was 17 years old. And he obeyed his father. Obedience to parents is what 53:49 made Joseph the man of God he became. It started with a simple thing at the age of 17. Not saying, oh, Dad, why should I go there now? If they want to look after the flock, let them look out of the flock and come. It's a long way. 54:07 I've got to walk all that way over there. Do you know how many miles it is? No argument. It wasn't just around the corner. They had walked many miles with their flock. And when Jacob told his son Joseph, go and look, see how they are, he just 54:25 obeyed. A little thing like that. And then we read later on, you know, the story how when his brothers, they were jealous of him because he was the one who had dreams from heaven. And they were jealous of God blessing Joseph and 54:43 Jacob chose Joseph as favorite, one because of course it was Rachel's son, but also because he was getting visions from heaven. He was close to God. And his brothers, his ten brothers were absolutely jealous of him. And when they saw him coming 55:01 down, they said, let's kill him and let's plot his death. We read in verse 18, and they wanted to make it look as if some animal caught him and killed him. But then Ruben said, no, no, no, let's not kill his blood. Let's just put him in a pit here 55:18 if you need be. And then at that very time, we read, listen to this story, at that same time when they had thrown him into the pit and they're going to leave him there, he would have died there. But at that time, a caravan of 55:31 slave traders, people who buy slaves and sell them to others, came by there in camels. Now the question when you read something like this is, how is it those people landed up at exactly the time when Joseph was in the pit? 55:48 They were coming from so many miles away. And here at this particular time when Joseph was being thrown into the pit, these people land up at the same place. That is the timing of God. You know, like with Google Maps, you can time exactly how 56:06 you can be at a particular place at a particular time. God timed it when these people were many miles away, maybe early in the morning. God pushed them to move and move in this direction and to arrive at that pit where Joseph was put into the pit to 56:25 arrive at that time. And then God made one of the brothers, Judah, to say, hey, listen, why should we put our brother in this pit? Here are these Ishmaelites, they've come, so let's not kill our brother. Let him go off. 56:43 We want to get rid of him, right? These traders will take him off to some far country. We'll never see him again for the rest of our life. That was God who allowed that to happen. You know, when you honor God like Joseph did, he will make 56:57 everything around you fit in to work for your good. It's a wonderful experience. I've had so many experiences like that in my life. The Bible says God makes everything work together for your good. It's a tremendous experience to 57:14 have that. And sure enough, the Mishaelites came and they took him to Egypt. And when he went to Egypt, you know the story, there was this evil woman who, Joseph was a young man, less than 20 years old, good-looking, handsome, 57:32 strong man. And there was this evil woman who wanted to tempt him. And, you know, the devil knew that Joseph was the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That seed, and God hated that. And the devil hated that, the seed of Abraham. 57:52 And he was determined to destroy this young man in some way. And he got this woman, somebody's wife, his master's wife. His master was Potiphar, Potiphar's wife, saw this handsome young man and said, come, let's have sex 58:08 together. That was the devil. And I'll tell you, when he sees that you are a person chosen by God to be his witness, he'll have many things lined up for you to tempt you through friends, through enemies. And there was nobody there to help 58:28 Jacob at that time, to Joseph at that time, to encourage him. No, don't fall for that. But what he had received in his mind through the years from his father's advice, if you have a God-fearing father or mother, don't despise the advice they gave you so 58:46 many times from the time you were young to be true, to be true. Whatever the temptation be true, remember those words of your parents, you teenagers. I'm speaking particularly to teenagers. All the words your loving parents 59:02 have warned you about, warned you about, don't ever forget them. In the moment of temptation, the Holy Spirit will bring them all to your mind. Obey that. You won't have any regret. Like Joseph had no regret. He listened to that voice his 59:18 father had told him, be careful of young women or older women. Be careful of them. Don't go near them. Be true to the Lord. And he remembered it. The Holy Spirit reminded him. And he said, sorry, you may be my master's wife, but I'm not going to 59:34 listen to you. And she tried again and tried again. And he could have got a lot of benefits. You know, sometimes temptation comes with, you'll get a lot of benefits if you do this. Like tell a little lie. It may not be sexual temptation. 59:48 It may be tell a little lie or do something to make some money illegally in a wrong way. Or cheat in an examination. You can get through. So many ways the devil would like to trip you up so that you will not be a useful servant of God. 1:00:08 And you say, no, I'm not going to yield to that. I will not yield to it. I'll be true to God no matter what the cost is. And if I, I'd rather speak the truth and not copy somebody else's paper in an examination time. I'd rather fail in the examination 1:00:22 than pass by cheating. You think how, don't you, do you know how God will honor such a young person who says, I would rather fail in an examination rather than copy and cheat and pass? Boy, it's amazing what God will do 1:00:40 for such a person. You, you should be like that. You have grown up in RLCF. You should be like that. Stand true to the Lord and God will have wonderful things for you in the future. I mean, if I had known what all God had planned for me, what I've seen in 1:00:57 the last 50 years of CFC being planted in so many countries, so many churches and so much of eternal work, it would have been easy for me to stand true. But I did not know what God had for me. No idea. Absolutely no idea. 1:01:14 I never even dreamed that God would have a ministry to me to go around preaching the gospel and encouraging churches. I only knew that I'm a Christian. I must be true to Jesus Christ. He died for me. He gave his life for me. 1:01:29 I had no idea what God had for me. And you young people, you don't have any idea either what God has planned for you. And I'll tell you something. It may be a far more wonderful plan than he had for me, than he has for you. 1:01:43 But it will not be fulfilled if you compromise. I asked the Lord once. I said, Lord, in India there are some two billion or three billion people in the country, hundreds of millions of people in our country. Where are the prophets? 1:02:03 Israel is such a small nation, they have so many prophets. Where are, India has got two, three billion people. Where are the prophets? And the Lord said to me, there are many young people I called to be prophets. But somewhere along the way, when 1:02:22 they were young, they got sidetracked. They married the wrong girl. They went after some attractive offer for a job somewhere and compromised. They told a little lie here and there and I could not use them. Case after case after case after 1:02:38 case. That's why there are so few prophets. There are very few prophets in the United States. Prophets need good wives. Where are the women who can be the wives of such prophets and support them? God needs young men and women to be 1:03:00 faithful now so that together, if you're a girl, to marry a man with whom you can do a work that will last for all eternity. Or if you're a young man, to stand true for the Lord in the midst of a corrupt Christendom, which I call 1:03:17 Babylon, to stand true and to plant churches perhaps. God will take you somewhere. You may be going there for a job, but God's got a greater plan than just a job. It's amazing what all God will do for you. It's amazing how he'll provide for 1:03:34 you financially. It's an absolute miracle. You probably won't know it. One day when Jesus comes back and the videotape of my whole life, you'll see my whole life videotape one day, and then you'll believe what I'm saying. 1:03:50 That it's an absolute miracle how God has provided for Annie and me financially in all these years. We never asked anybody for money. We never took a salary, but God provided for us. Absolute miracle, just like he provided 1:04:03 for Jesus and Paul and the other apostles who never took a salary and trusted the Lord. So these are stories in the Bible, but it's a wonderful thing when you experience them in your life, what's written in the Bible, and that can be 1:04:15 your experience too. You may not be called to full-time Christian work like me. God may call some of you. I don't know. But you may not be, but you can have other amazing experiences of miraculous work of God in healing you. 1:04:28 I remember once when God felt I was in a place called Velour, and I felt God wanted Annie and me to move to Bangalore. I did not know what was there in Bangalore. I was just very young. And as soon as I came to Bangalore, 1:04:44 Bangalore is a place where in the month of August, after the rainy season, the rains fall there in June and July, there's a lot of pollen in the air that comes from the plants there, and I developed asthma. Now, asthma is a terrible sickness, 1:05:04 and I'd never experienced it in my life. And they told me that Bangalore is one of the worst places in India for asthma sufferers. And all this pollen came up, and I had just moved there two, three months earlier, and I couldn't 1:05:18 breathe. I couldn't lie down in bed. I had to sit in a chair and have those little pumps to pump into my mouth so that I could breathe. And I sat there all night. And the next night, and the next night, the same thing. And I thought, Lord, did you lead us 1:05:35 here? Or did I make a mistake coming here? Here I am suffering night after night and pumping this into my mouth to breathe. When God healed me, not immediately, I suffered quite a bit, but finally God healed me. I said, I felt clear that God wanted me 1:05:53 in Bangalore. Now I see the result. God wanted to start CFC there. That was two, three years after we moved there. But I said, Lord, I believe you've let me here. So asthma or no asthma, I'll be here. But God healed me so completely that I've 1:06:10 never had asthma again for the rest of my life. The last 50 years. It disappeared. God will do miracles for you even in physically healing you from ailments. There's nothing he cannot do. God says, the one verse that I've lived 1:06:26 by, and I'll share that in closing. You know, my famous verse. You know that? One, two, three, zero. You remember the verse I told you? One, two, three, zero. One Samuel chapter two, verse 30. That's the verse I've lived by for all my 1:06:46 life from the time I got to know the Lord. One Samuel chapter two, verse 30. One, two, three, zero. In the latter part of that verse, just one little phrase, the Lord says, those who honor me, I will honor. But those who despise me will be lightly 1:07:05 esteemed. Just that little phrase in the end of one Samuel two, verse 30. Those who honor me, I will honor. And the way I would build up faith for me, I say, Lord, in this particular situation, I'm going to honor you. I'd experienced a few cases like that in 1:07:23 the military, I told you, that I sought to honor God, and God honored me in different, different situations. I remember when I put in my application for resigning from the Navy. The Navy rejected it. Sorry, you've done well in your career. 1:07:39 We cannot reject, we cannot accept it. Again, I applied a second time. What did I write in my application? The Lord Jesus Christ has called me to serve him, so I would like to leave the Navy. They laughed at it and rejected it. 1:07:52 So I said, Lord, what is, what's this? And the Lord said, how many times did Moses go to Pharaoh when I called him to serve, serve me? I said, do I have to go ten times? Anyway, Moses went back again, so I had to apply again. 1:08:05 But I didn't have to go to ten times. The third time, they released me. And I saw that God will do miracles if you stand up for him. Everything is under his control. What happened was the top admiral who had rejected my application, he resigned, or he retired. 1:08:25 Another person came in, and he let me go. What all God will do for me? He'll change somebody at the top of the office because he wants me released to serve him. I've experienced some amazing, and you will experience them too. 1:08:39 You'll have a testimony one day. So remember this. Honor him, and he'll honor you. So the way I used to strengthen my own faith in that promise is by saying, Lord, I believe this is true. Many people have experienced it. 1:08:55 Joseph experienced it. Daniel and his friends experienced it. I want to experience it in my generation. And I would strengthen my faith by saying this. Lord, if I honor you, and I'm going to honor you, and you don't honor me, this will be the first time in 1:09:13 6,000 years from the time of Adam that you did not keep your promise. That way I strengthened my faith. It was just to strengthen my own faith I would say that. Lord, if I honor you here, and you don't honor me, it will be the first time from the time of Adam in 6,000 years 1:09:33 that you did not keep your word. And I said that. I knew that's impossible. He will keep his word. You say that. You try to honor God in some situation and tell the Lord, Lord, I've honored you here, and if you don't honor me, 1:09:47 this will be the first time in the history of the human race that you broke your promise. That will strengthen your faith. He will not break his promise. I'll tell you that, dear young people. Be true to the Lord. It's worth it all. 1:10:01 I can say today, when I look at the tremendous things God has done, I'm very weak. I'm not as clever as people think I am. I'm not. God gives me wisdom. God gives me guidance to deal with all the 100 churches and to solve their problems. 1:10:22 I don't have the wisdom. God gives it. And I tell you, your calling may not be to plant churches, but whatever it is, God has a plan for your life which is as, listen to this, which is as important as my ministry. Lord, your ministry may not be so visible. 1:10:41 See, in the human body, I told you we are all members of the body of Christ. A lot of people give a lot of importance to the tongue. Oh, the tongue can speak so many wonderful things. How many people think of the blood vessels in our body? 1:10:58 There are miles of blood vessels inside this body. And if one of those blood vessels gets blocked, this tongue will start speaking. But who gives honor to the blood vessels? Who gives honor to the stomach that's digesting food 1:11:16 and giving me strength to speak? So many internal organs that are never seen. Many people in the church are like that. Some of you are like those hidden internal members of the body of Christ that nobody sees you. You never come to the pulpit. 1:11:35 Don't think you don't have a ministry. You're like the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the blood vessels. Be faithful in what you are. One day God will reward you for being a blood vessel in the body of Christ, just allowing the blood to flow 1:11:48 or purifying in your own way like the kidneys do. So every part of the body has a function. Very few parts of the body are visible. Most parts of the body which do a tremendous function are inside the body completely unseen. 1:12:05 It's like that in a church. But those unseen parts are, you know, if I lose my hand, I can continue. But if I lose my kidneys, I can't continue. Those unseen parts of the body are more important than the visible ones. Do you know that? 1:12:19 So don't always want visibility. You may never sit in this pulpit in your whole life, and yet you could be one of the most important members of this church, one of the most important members of the body of Christ. Don't always look for visibility. 1:12:33 There's great danger in being visible. Many people who are in the platform and in the pulpit have fallen away in sin. But people who are doing a hidden ministry, almost they never fall because they don't get any honor. So be content with whatever ministry God gives you. 1:12:50 And I want to say to you, young people, the coming of the Lord is near. Don't have any regret when the videotape of your life is played on the screen one day that you'll be able to say, thank you, Lord Jesus, for helping me to be true to you. 1:13:06 Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer. When your heads are bowed in prayer, please think of something you heard today that challenged you and helped you, young or old, whoever you are. I want to say to you in Jesus' name, 1:13:22 I say that to everyone here, if you're born again, God has got a plan for your life. And if you can follow it from a young age, you're really blessed. May God help you, Heavenly Father. I think of these lovely young people here. 1:13:39 What a tremendous plan you have for each of them. I pray that none of them will miss it. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I pray that none of them will miss it. I pray that none of them will miss it. I pray that none of them will miss it. 1:13:57 I pray that none of them will miss it.
