0:18 As the church grows in numbers, we have people at different levels of the Christian life. As our children grow up and they are some of them are hearing the gospel for the first time in a sense 0:37 even though they've been sitting here many years they were too young to understand. So the great burden a true servant of God has is to ensure that God's word is preached not in one single message but over a period of time in any church where the 0:57 children spiritual children at all grades get something and that's not easy because there are some who never seem to get out of the kindergarten even after sitting in the church for 78 years. 1:15 Now I believe that a Christian should enter the promised land in two years. And I'll tell you why I say that from two examples. The Bible says that when we are born, we 1:32 are like little children, babies born. And in almost every case by the time a child is two years old he can walk till then he's falling getting up falling you don't get upset with a 9month old falling getting up even sometimes little over one year they're 1:51 falling getting up but if a child is 2 years old and if you think of your child if it was 2 years old still falling still getting up falling many times a day you would get concerned are You concerned that you've been a believer for 2 years 2:10 and you're still falling falling. Okay, even I can fall. I can trip on stone outside and fall even at my age. So that can happen to anybody at any stage. But victory over sin means does not mean I'll never fall. Victory over sin means I've learned to 2:29 walk. So I'm not asking you whether you ever fall or whether you ever will fall. My question is, have you learned to walk? Are you more than 2 years old in the Lord? Now, I know that's not true, the vast majority of Christians, but that's 2:48 because they don't take the Christian life seriously. If you I'll tell you, if you keep carrying, if you want to make sure your child never learns to walk, I'll give you the prescription for it. Carry him all the time. Never let him on the ground. Put him on 3:06 the ground. You carry him. Carry him. Soon as he goes gets out of the bed, carry him. Let somebody carry him all the time or keep him in the bed all the time. I guarantee even when he's 10 years old, he won't learn to walk. 3:21 He's got to be put on the ground and he crawls and he gets up and tries to walk and falls down and don't get disturbed. He'll learn to walk. And I find today in Christryendom there are so many pastors and preachers who are just carrying these little babies in 3:36 that church all the time. The only message I'll tell you what I mean by carrying a baby. The only message they'll preach to them is God loves you, brother. You don't know how much he loves you. He's always longing for you. 3:51 He misses you so much. He's wanting to see you in heaven one day. Oh, it doesn't matter if you fall. He loves you. He wants to pick you up and carry you. You keep listening to that for five or 10 years, you'll be a baby. You'll 4:02 never in your life will you get victory over sin till somebody lets you on the ground and you run and fall and you're determined to learn to walk that and you you look at a child, it doesn't matter how many times it falls in a day, it determined 4:17 to walk. It never gives up. Oh, I fell down 50 times today, so there's no hope for me. Foolish believers say that. Not a child of God. So the other reason why I say two years is the 4:35 God's plan. I mean you know you can take longer than 2 years. How long does it take for you to finish 12th grade or high school most children 12 years but you can take 30 years right? Why not? You can How long does it take to go 4:54 get a be a graduate in a college? Four years. Well, you can take 40 40 years as well. It depends on how seriously you take your education. The average, the person who's really sincere will finish 12 grades in 12 years, finish college in 4 years. The 5:10 child will learn to walk in 2 years. And a wholehearted disciple of Jesus will learn the life of victory in two years. I believe that's God's will. Which shows how few Christians are really wholehearted about overcoming 5:24 sin. They prefer to be carried and petted and cared for. Now if you turn to Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, sorry, not Acts, Deuteronomy chapter 2. We read here about how the children of 5:48 Israel wand he's he you know Moses is describing their wandering through the wilderness and I want you to see this verse Deuteronomy 2 verse 14. First of all how many years did Israel wander in the 6:08 wilderness? Do you know altogether? 40 years in one that is a punishment God gave them. Now listen to this. This is at the border of the promised land. He says in Deuteronomy 2:14, the time it took for us to come from Kadesh Barnea. Kadesh 6:26 Barnea was the place where they sent the spies into the land. You read in numbers in chapter 13, the spies went into the land and came back and said, "Oh, we can't conquer this land." Joshua and Caleb said, "No, we can go." But the 6:41 other 10 spies said, "No, we can't go." And the 600,000 people believed the 10 spies and said we can't go. Canaan is a picture of the life of victory. Deliverance from Egypt is a picture of being born again. Going through the Red 6:54 Sea is a picture of water baptism. The wandering in the wilderness for 40 years is a picture of life under the law. The child trying to learn to walk for 40 years. But it says here the time it took from Kadesh Bara until we crossed the brook 7:11 Zered which is ready to cross into Jordan is 38 years. And during those 38 years all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp as the Lord had sworn them. 7:30 What does that prove? That means in God's plan from Egypt to Kadesh Bara where they were supposed to cross into the into Canaan was two years because they did not 7:47 God sent them into the wilderness for another 38 years. So it's from that verse that I understand that God's plan, original plan for the Israelites was that two years after they came out of Egypt, redeemed by the blood, baptized in the 8:06 Red Sea, God wanted them to overcome Canaan. He said, "Two years, such a short time." That was God's plan. If they trusted, you know, after 2 years, Joshua and Caleb said, "We're ready." They were ready after two years. See 8:22 what they say in numbers. Let me tell you the history. What happened after 2 years? 2 years after they left Egypt. They came to this place in Numbers in chapter 13. The Lord spoke to Moses. This is 2 years 8:44 after they left Egypt. We know that from the verse I read in Deuteronomy. send this people to spy out the land because I am going to give this land to the sons of Israel. That's like the Lord saying in Romans 6:14, "Sin shall not have dominion over 9:03 you. I don't care how many giants have ruled the land of Canaan or your life and your body and your mind all these years. It they will not reign over you anymore. I'm going to give you this land. Now send some tribes, people from the tribes 9:20 to search out the land. And Moses sent at the command of the Lord. From each tribe he took one person and the total was 12 people. And they all went, verse 16, these men they Moses sent to spy out the land. 9:39 And Moses, verse 17, sent them to spy the land and said, "Go there and come back and tell me what is like. What is the land like? Is it good or bad? Verse 19, what are the camps like? And how is the land? Is it fat or lean? Verse 20. 9:53 What about the trees? Try and get some fruit from there. Verse 20. And they went out and spied out the land. You see, um, he also told them in verse 19, see whether the people are lining it, whether they are strong or weak. 10:07 Okay, they went out and spied out the land and came back and they car, you know, the grapes were so huge. It says in verse 23 that when they cut down a branch of a one clust a single cluster of grapes verse 23 it was 10:24 so heavy that two people had to carry it on their shoulders and then they came back verse 25 after 40 days they had gone around 40 days examining the land and they came to the congregation and they told them we went into the land 10:42 verse 27 and It certainly does flow with milk and honey. You see, this is the testimony of those who have come into a life of victory. It's a wonderful life when we are living in fellowship with Jesus all the time, filled with the Holy 10:56 Spirit. It's a life of overcoming like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 14. He says, "Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ." There's only one meaning for always. if you look up the dictionary is 24/7 11:14 who 24/7 leads us in triumph in Christ. Now it's almost unbelievable but there was a man in the Bible who said that the Apostle Paul and there are many men since then not many but a few through the ages who've had that testimony. 11:27 Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph who brings every giant of Canaan under our feet without exception. There's no giant too strong for the Lord. But they said, even though it's a beautiful land of land of love and joy, 11:42 and verse 27, I'm paraphrasing it, the land flowing with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, and gentleness and goodness and faithfulness and meekness and self-control. It's a wonderful land. The fruit of the land, but the giants who live there are strong. 12:00 The cities they have fortified are so large. And the descendants of Anarch was there, the huge giants. And so Caleb quieted the people and said, "No, we can go in and possess this land." See, you he was also one of the spies 12:19 according to Genesis, I mean Numbers 13:6, he was one of the spies. He said, "I saw those giants. I know they're huge, but we can take possession of it. We can overcome sin." But the men who had gone up to them 12:38 said, "No, no, no, no, no, no. This anger, I tell you, my father had it. My mother had it. My grandfather had it. My parents told me that." And they said, "It runs it runs in the family." I tell you, it runs in everybody's family, not 12:50 just yours. And we I cannot overcome it. That's the language of these people. No, no, no. They're too strong. This sexual lust, oh boy, it's too strong. It's too strong a giant. I know God says sin will not have dominion over you but not when it comes 13:09 to this that this this particular giant is particularly strong and we're not able to go up against the people. They are too strong for us. Think of whichever sin the sin which easily besets you and see if your language is this language of unbelief in 13:25 verse 31. This is too strong for me. And they gave a bad report. What is a bad report? God wants you to conquer that land and you come saying, "No, it's too tough. They're too strong." The land is a 13:44 wonderful land. Oh boy, I'd really like to live with love, joy, peace, rejoice always, and be anxious for nothing. And thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph. And I'd like to live there, but it doesn't seem to work because giants 13:57 are too strong. And when I look at these massive sins that rule my life, verse 33, I look like a grasshopper which this giant called anger can crush every day and this giant called sexual lust can crush every day. I'm a little 14:15 grasshopper there. Scripture is given so that we can learn from it for ourselves. All scripture is given for us to learn. The things that are written in the past were written for our instruction. And everybody was, you know, one thing 14:33 you can see that they wept because they were sick and tired of this two years wandering in the wilderness. They said, "We thought we could enter into this land." And these spies come and tell us. I think these spies are pictures of 14:47 pastors, preachers who never entered the land themselves, older leaders who have disheartened all the people saying, "No, no, no. We've lived for you. Don't try and come with all your new religion. I've been a Christian 25 15:05 years and I couldn't possess the land. What are you talking about? You're just a young upstart." That's what they told me when I was a young person. I'll tell you I thank God I did not listen to them. It took me many years to come to victory but I 15:19 would never have come if I had listened to all those old men preachers and pastors who were defeated in their lives and tried to dishearten me. Everybody around me was accepted their word. I said no I don't care. I remember telling the Lord Lord if I'm 15:37 the only person in India who believes it I'm going to believe it because I believe your word. I'm not going to just say I believe God's word and then neglect it like a lot of people do. I am absolutely convinced that many of 15:48 you listen to me carefully. You say you believe the word of God but I tell you to your face some of you do not believe God's promises. It's not true because you've sat here in NCCF for so many years and it hasn't changed your life 16:02 much. It hasn't changed your family life much. What are you believing? Where is the light shining? It's darkness. in some of your homes. If people could come secretly to your home and watch what's going on, it's darkness. 16:19 And yet, I want to say to you in Jesus name, it should not be like that. Let's move on. Let's possess the land. And it says here, but Joshua verse 6, chapter 14, verse 6, and Caleb, they spied out the land. They spoke to 16:35 the congregation. Look at this language of faith. The land which we pass through is a exceedingly good land. It's a wonderful life, brothers and sisters. Like it says in Proverbs 14:14 in the Living Bible, the godly man's life is 16:51 exciting. That's how it's supposed to be. Every day challenge to overcome situations, circumstances, sin. And the Lord is if the Lord is pleased with us, verse 8, he will bring us into this land and give it to us. 17:10 And he they tell the others, "Don't rebel against the Lord. Don't fear these people. Don't fear these sins that have ruled you for so long. They will be our praise. It's like they're going to be like the animals we capture. We're going 17:26 to capture them. Their protection has been removed from them. The devil was defeated on the cross. Don't act as if the devil is still victor. When you live a defeated life, you're proclaiming by your life, Satan is victor. 17:43 I tell you, he's not the victor. Jesus is victor. I don't care what you say with your mouth, what is your life proclaiming? What is your family life proclaiming? Satan is victor in my home. Satan is victor in my life. Satan is victor in my 17:57 thought life. It doesn't matter then what you say with your lips. Satan sits back and laughs. These fellows can say what they like with their lips. They can sing such beautiful songs. But their life is testifying something 18:17 else. And all my fellow demons, Satan says, can see it. All my fellow demons can see it every day that their life is proclaiming something completely different from what they sing on Sunday morning. Dear brothers and sisters, how many of 18:36 you will rise to the challenge that Joshua and Caleb gives? It says the Lord is with us. It says don't be afraid. their protection. Verse 9, has been removed from them. 18:55 And the Lord is with us. I will not be afraid. In one translation, it says they're like bread. We're going to eat them. They're our food and all. And that's really true. They are like our food. 19:13 Like let me repeat that story. I've the parable of that I've heard before and some of you probably heard me say it, but for those of you who haven't heard it, there was this ugly looking lizard or iguana, one of these big lizards sitting on a man's 19:29 shoulder. It's a picture of sin that had conquered his life. And then angel comes to him and says, "Get rid of that. Get rid of that." And that iguana lizard says, "No, no, no, no, don't get rid of me. You know, you and I have been 19:40 friends for years. I'll behave myself. I'll behave myself. And so he says, "Okay." And and he argues with this angel, allows this sin to remain. And then finally he gets fed up and he he says, "Okay, you do it." And the 19:57 angel pulls out that iguana lizard and throws it on the ground. And suddenly it becomes a a horse. And he he the angel tells this man, "Now you don't have to walk anymore to the promised land. You can gallop on this horse. This sin 20:16 that ruled your life is what slowed you down, slowed you down throughout your life. If you conquer it and put it down, it's becomes a horse on which you can run and go full speed into God's kingdom. I've never forgotten that 20:32 parable. Every sin I conquer is something that I can ride on and go fast into God's kingdom. Remember that, brothers and sisters. And don't listen to the devil when he says keep me. Keep me I'll behave myself. He'll never 20:44 behave himself. He's here to ruin your life. And he says when you hear such a wonderful message of victory, one would think all of Christendom should rise up to and says yes. This is what's written throughout the Bible. It says in Romans 21:00 6:14, "Sill not have dominion over you." It says in Romans 8:37, "We are more than conquerors." Not just conquerors. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. It says in 2 Corinthians 2:14, "Thanks be to God who 21:13 always causes us to triumph in Christ." Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:es 1-4, "I know nothing against myself. My conscience is absolutely clear." Paul says in Acts 24:16, "This is my testimony. I live with a perfectly good 21:31 conscience every single day, all the time, 24/7." What a life example of these men. Paul, John says at the age of 95 in 1 John 5:3, God's commands are not a burden. There's not a single command of God, John says at the age of 95 that I found 21:50 to be a burden in the last 65 years since I was filled with the spirit on the day of Pentecost. Can you give that testimony? Even for one year, leave alone 65 years. There's a Chinese proverb that says 22:08 the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and then another step. You don't have to walk thousand miles. Just one step. One step. Continue. Continue and you'll reach the end of the thousand miles. 22:25 God's got a plan for your life. It was planned before you were born. It was planned before I was born. And all of us have messed up that plan for a Lord for many, many years. You and I. I know I have. I've been a backslider in my life, too. 22:45 And I repented and wept and cried out to God for years till God one day filled me with the Holy Spirit and turned me right around. I had my day of Pentecost and continuing in filling with the spirit. You cannot do it without it. It is 22:58 impossible. Don't even attempt it. And don't go for these fake counterfeit spirits fullness found in a lot of Pentecostal churches. Go for the real thing that the apostles got on the day of Pentecost where Jesus said, "You 23:10 shall receive power, not tongues. Power. I wanted power. I was thoroughly defeated in my life more than all of you. But I said, Lord, I want power. I was at rock bottom when God met with me, filled me in the spirit." And I'll tell you why. If I 23:26 were to draw a d graph of my life when the time I was born again I was really wholehearted and it was climbing climbing I was really wonderfully according to the light I had till a day came in my life I said lord I give up 23:38 the ambition in my I had in my life to go to the top of my profession and I chuck it because you called me to leave it and serve you and I continued like that but the one thing I lacked or a couple of things I lacked I did not have a 23:53 spiritual father I did not have a spiritual mentor to challenge me to a life of victory. I never heard a preacher preach saying sin will not have dominion over you. Come on, be an overcomer. I never heard that. So, I was 24:08 defeated. And the second thing I didn't have was fellowship. I never saw a church which functioned like a body of Christ where people loved the Lord and loved one another and function together as a body. You know, it makes a 24:19 tremendous difference when you have a body because if this hand is paralyzed, there's another hand that comes to hell. And if any part of this body is injured, when you're part of a body, it functions and helps and restores it, can massage 24:37 it and bring it back to life. But imagine if this hand is all by itself and it's dead. It's just like that, dead forever. I didn't have a body. I didn't have a spiritual father. And it's the years of my defeated then I, you know, my graph started going 24:53 down. And once you're discouraged, you get more and more defeated. When you're discouraged, you condemn yourself. Oh, I'm preaching so many things. It's not true. I finally got so fed up with my life way back nearly 50 years ago. 25:10 I said, "Lord, I'm not going to preach anymore because I'm a first class hypocrite. I'm preaching and singing things which are not true in my life. I don't want to fool anybody anymore sitting up there in front and or standing up in front and acting like a 25:25 holy man when I'm not. I'll I won't give up being a Christian. I love Jesus. I know he died for me. I know he's the only way of salvation. But I'll sit at the back of some church and never preach again. I really said that 25:40 to the Lord. Unless Lord, you do something for me. Make I only one thing. I don't want the gift of healing or even preaching nothing. Make my inner life correspond with what I'm singing and saying. That's all. I don't ask for anything anything 25:56 else. Make my inner life correspond with what I'm saying. I believe with my testimony, with the songs I sing, that's all I ask you, Lord. And I was at rock bottom. I prayed like that and nothing seemed to happen. I'll tell 26:16 you this, sometimes it can be so discouraging when you pray and pray and there doesn't seem to be an answer to it. You go down and down and down and down and I was at rock bottom in my backsliding and there one day 26:34 when I least expected it, God met with me and filled me with the Holy Spirit. all of a sudden and began a life in me. Of course, he as a post script, he also gave me a 26:54 little finger called the gift of tongues only this size. It wasn't 12 ft long like in some churches. A little gift of tongues. That was not the main thing. The main thing is something began to change in my life and I said Lord if this is the real 27:12 fullness of the Holy Spirit when I read the New Testament now it should become a new book because the Holy Spirit wrote it. I should see things in it that I have not understood or seen in the last 16 years that I have studied it. 27:29 I'd studied the Bible thoroughly from 1959 to 1975, 16 years. But I believe you'll show me. And I'll tell you this from that time when God met with me and filled me with the Holy Spirit. And I I believe in continuously being filled 27:44 with the Holy Spirit, not just once for all experience. I have seen some of the most amazing truths in scripture that I never knew before about overcoming sin, about spiritual maturity, about building the church and 28:01 overcoming Satan. I never knew before that. for example, what it was to cast out a demon. But since that day, no demon could stand before me. There was a demon in a person, he'd go at the name of Jesus. But I never knew these things 28:14 before. I really knew that Satan's been defeated. The kingdom of God has come. Jesus once said, "If I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come." You remember that verse? If I cast out demons by the 28:28 spirit of God, the kingdom of God has come. And it really came. It became real in my life. It was not just verses in scripture. It was not just verses to memorize. It became real in my life. And boy was I encouraged. And the Bible became a new book. And I 28:46 found so many things. And it was not a sudden going up to the top of the mountain. The graph slowly began to move upwards. And it is not a perfectly straight line. I want to say that also for your encouragement. There were little dips in 29:01 it, but not such huge dips like before. Small little dips, but the dips were on a graph that was going upwards. That's the encouraging thing. I was going upwards, but there was small small dips and I was going up and up and 29:13 up and up and the dips became less frequent. It's a wonderful life. I'm not telling I'm not telling a fairy tale. This is really my testimony. And the most important thing the Lord showed me was I allowed you to go to the depth of 29:30 defeat to teach you that I do not give the Holy Spirit to those who think they deserve him. But to the most undeserving and at the time when they deserve it the 29:49 deserve him the least. that cured me of ever thinking that the Holy Spirit is something you work for and get. You know how the entire religious world thinks they have to work for forgiveness 30:06 of sins. Back in India, there are people who roll on the ground to get forgiveness of sins. Who go and dip themselves in rivers. There are many people in many religions who light candles and pray to Mary and so many other gods to get 30:20 forgiveness. All they do to forgive forgiveness sins they give hundreds of thousands of dollars to get forgiveness of sins or rupees in India. No we how did you get forgiveness of sins? How many rupees did you pay? How many 30:33 dollars did you pay to get forgiveness of sins? How many times did you roll on the ground to get forgiveness of sins? We look at all those people and say, "Boy, I wish they could understand. You don't have to roll on the ground, 30:44 brother. You don't have to dip in a river. It's free." You mean it's free? Yes, it's free. What about a undeserving wretch like me? You are the most qualified. If you're an undeserving wretch, are you the chief of sinners? Ah, Christ died for you, man. 30:59 Come right in. Get and how long will it take me to get this forgiveness of sins? But do I have to wait 6 months or something? No, it's immediate. The birth process in the kingdom of God, I mean, there may be a lot of preparation for it like in the mother's 31:14 womb, a baby's formed, but the birth itself is a moment. That's how new birth is. There may be a lot of preparation for it of repentance, but you're born again. It's a moment and it's not for those who are deserving. No, I certainly didn't deserve it. No, 31:32 far from it. I mean, if God picked on the basis of merit, he'd have picked a lot of other people before me. Lots of other people. It's not on merit that I got my forgiveness of sins. That's why I can um be bold to say that. And it's not on my 31:49 merit that I got filled with the Holy Spirit. God showed and if he had God had filled me with the Holy Spirit at a time when I was not backsliding and I was living a pretty good life. I might have thought because I've been so faithful. 32:00 God filled me with the Holy Spirit. I'm thank God he filled me at a time when I was utterly utterly defeated to show me that the Holy Spirit is given not to those who deserve him but to those who need him desperately. Oh boy, I needed him desperately. that 32:16 day. I say that for your encouragement because some of you though you hear this so often, you still live under the illusion that I have to pray some more. I have to fast some more. I got to do something more. No sir, no sister, 32:31 you have to yield everything and be honest about your defeated life and believe that God is true when he says something in his in his book. If you don't believe, he can't do anything. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. 32:47 If you can have everything else in your life, but you don't have faith, it is impossible to please him. So, we read in Luke in chapter 11 33:04 two parables. One is related to being filled with the Holy Spirit and the other is related to overcoming sin and Satan. Two parables. Do you know that Jesus only spoke two parables on prayer? And those are the only two parables I 33:23 want to point out today. Number one is Luke chapter 11, how to get into this promised land of Canaan. And the Lord the disciples came to Jesus and Lord teach us to pray 33:40 11:1 Luke 11:1 and the Lord gives a long answer teach us to pray many people finish at verse 4 and say okay you know our father who art in heaven they go through a whole prayer and that's over the fuller prayer is in Matthew 6 this 33:58 is a little extract but that is not the end of the answer to the Lord teach us to pray. Teach us to pray is the question in verse one. And the list says okay I'll tell you what you should do when you pray. Say this be concerned about God's name. Be concerned 34:16 about God's kingdom. Be concerned about God's glory and not your own needs first. God is not honored or glorified by your defeated life. That's what you need to be concerned about first of all. Forget about your daily bread and your 34:29 even forgiveness of sins comes later on. But God is not honored by your life. We pray for that. Father, hallowed be your name. Let your kingdom come. And so on. And then he said, I want to continue my answer. Your question is teach us to 34:42 pray. I'll tell you how to pray. Supposing you have a friend. And that friend is God. He is your friend. And you go to him in the middle of the night and say, "Lord, please give me something to help someone who in need here. 35:02 I want here he's thinking of serving God. You shall receive power. What does Acts 18 say? You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. You shall be 35:17 witnesses. So the Holy Spirit comes into our life to make us a blessing to others, not just to satisfy ourselves. You remember what Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. And out of his innermost will blow being 35:33 will flow rivers. Rivers are not for myself. I don't need a river. A well is enough for me. What the Lord told the Samaritan woman, a well of water springing up. That's enough for me. The Lord says, "No, you got to be a river. 35:45 Not one river but many rivers that wherever you go, people are blessed." You know, I when when you look at the maps of the world, not nowadays, but you look at some of the ancient maps, the ancient civilization always gathered 36:02 together in certain areas of a country and it's always around the rivers. It's always like that because they needed water. You go to the desert places, Sahara or the middle of Australia, nobody lives there. Why? Because there's no water. Rivers, that's 36:18 where people gathered. And when rivers are flowing out of a person, the Lord will bring the people, those who are thirsty for that water. That's how we are to build the church. That's how the church is built. That I understood much later. 36:36 Rivers of living water will flow from. So you're concerned about others. If you're not concerned about others, you can't build the church. I'll tell you that. If you're only concerned about yourself, sorry. You begin there. 36:47 And he say you go to him and say give me three loaves not for myself I'm quite happy but a friend of mine has come I don't have anything to give him. So there's two things I need to recognize. One I'm a concern for these other people 36:58 who are in need around me who are lost without salvation or who are defeated in sin. I must have a concern for them. Lord a friend of mine is thoroughly defeated by sin. I want to paraphrase that. Please give me some power to help 37:14 him to come into this godly life. I'm satisfied. You brought me to victory, but he hasn't come to that life and I have nothing to set before him. I'm I got victory, but I don't know how to lead this person into this life. Do 37:28 you feel like that? Well, this guy was honest. And now God doesn't actually say that, but he tests our persistence. In the story, the neighbor says, "Don't bother me. I can't get up now and give my children in bed." And the Lord is 37:45 trying to show you the apparent ridiculousness of someone. First of all, you won't go to your neighbor at midnight and ask for bread. If a friend has come in the middle of the night, it's better not to ask him whether he ate or not if you don't have 38:03 any food in the house cuz you'll be embarrassed if you don't have any food in the house. But this guy asked and he found he didn't eat and say, "I'm going to get it for you. I don't care how much embarrassment it cost me. I'll go to my 38:12 neighbor and knock until I get it. And even if the neighbor says no please keep quiet I have to sleep my children are asleep I don't care I'm going to keep on banging you till you give me a look at the burden he had to help other people 38:27 to be fed with a message of victory you know when you're really filled with the spirit that's what happens I know it happened to me when I got forgiveness of sins it's excited me so much that I wanted to share that with others I'd give out 38:42 tracks and the buses and stand on the streets because I wanted people to know that Jesus forgives sins. You got to do nothing. And the same thing happened when I got filled with the Holy Spirit and I found a life of victory. I had 38:55 such a burden. I got to share this to others. I said, "Lord, I don't know how to do it, Lord, but I want to help others because I see around me people are constantly defeated, families that are in a mess because sin rules their 39:05 life. Help me to help them." And I need power for that. I don't have anything to help them. That's how you went. If you're like that, my brother, sister, if you are like that, if you got a burden, not just for your selfishly 39:17 for yourself, but if you got a burden for others, I had a burden for my children. I said, Lord, how in the world can I lead my children into this life? How in the world can I lead others whom I know into this life? I have a burden. 39:29 Your children will never follow the Lord if you don't have a burden for them. I'll tell you that you got to have a burden. Not just that they get educated and fed and clothed, but that they will come into a godly life. that rivers of 39:40 living water will flow out from their life. You have a burden. You got to have a burden from the time they are one year old. You got to have a burden to pray for them. And it says here, this is the wonderful verse verse eight last part. Because of his 39:58 persistence, the neighbor got up and give him whatever he needs. And then he says, now what's the point of this parable? You're teaching you you ask me to teach you to pray, right? Verse one. Okay, I'm teaching you how to pray. You ask like 40:13 this man asked and you'll get it. And you ask to bless your neighbor. You'll get it. And seek like this man sought and you'll find. Are you seeking for some understanding of scripture? Seek like this man sought, you'll find it. If 40:32 you're too lazy to read the word of God, you'll never find it. Knock like this man knock and the door will be open to you. There are very few believers who knock like this man knocked. They knock a few times. Okay, I got to go to sleep now. 40:48 Well, no wonder you don't get anything. Even after 50 years, you won't get anything in a 100 years. This man was determined. I'm not going to give up until I get something. Because verse 10, everyone who asks like this will receive. everyone. There's no 41:06 partiality with God. You haven't received. Uh-huh. Here it says, "Everyone who asks like this receives." Why didn't you receive? You did not ask like this. Everyone who seeks finds. How is it you didn't get find? Because you didn't seek 41:20 like this. Everyone who knocks like this, it'll be open. It's you haven't found. It has not been open to you. You know the answer. And then he says, "You think God is reluctant? You think God is reluctant like this neighbor who was unwilling to 41:36 open the door? God is not reluctant. God is like a father. Verse 11, not like this neighbor. He's contrasting a father with this reluctant neighbor who was unwilling to open the door. He says, "Now I want to tell you of a 41:51 father. If your son asks you for a fish, do you think you'll give him a snake?" There are people like that, you know, say, "I better not ask. Keep on praying for the Holy Spirit. I don't know. I've heard of some people who had evil 42:04 spirits come upon them. Uh-huh. It's not my father. He won't give an evil spirit to someone who's seeking for the Holy Spirit. It's impossible. You evil fathers know how to give food to your children. How will your heavenly 42:18 father give anything else? If you ask for an egg, verse 12, will he give him a scorpion? And then he says, verse 13, the best of you fathers are evil. God is much better than that. If you know how to give good gifts to your 42:33 children, how much more will your heavenly father give what? The Holy Spirit. To everyone, no. To those who ask him like this, to those who seek him like this, to those who knock like this, who say, 42:51 "Lord, my life is not the blessing it should be to others. Not even a trickle is coming out of my life. Hardly a single soul has been blessed through my life in the last one year or in the last 10 years. 10 years I've been a believer and hardly 43:07 anybody's been blessed through my life. Lord, what am I doing? And I'm not asking for the power of the Holy Spirit. Boy, what a laidback way to live the Christian life. But I don't have the power to witness. Uh-huh. This guy didn't have the food 43:24 either. What did he do? He knew there was one place where he could get food and there is one place where we can get power to serve God in whatever way he wants you to serve him. I want to tell you this my dear brothers and sisters. 43:42 Oh, I wish I could convince every one of you one single thing that God has got a wonderful plan for your life which was made before you were born. I'm absolutely convinced about it when I'm now that I'm 60 years a believer and 43:59 a lot of those early 16 of those years I wasted well not wasted I learned the wrong way to do it I learned I remember telling the Lord Lord I wish you had shown me all this not 16 years after I was saved when I was 35 years old I wish I'd known it 44:16 when I was 20 when I got converted or 21 when I got baptized is and I believe in my case because of the particular ministry the Lord had prepared for me which I did not know then the Lord said I needed to take you 44:33 through every street in Babylon to show you what Babylon is really like the buildings and the streets and the idols in Babylon that's why I took you not every believer has to go that way because they don't all have that ministry. They have 44:51 different ministries. But your ministry was this to expose Babylon and you could never do it unless I showed you all of Babylon thoroughly. So God gave me a guided tour through all of Babylon in 16 years and I saw it through and through. 45:05 That's why I'm not fooled today by what goes on there. There are some people who still seek to have interdenominational fellowship with Babylonian groups. Not me. I've seen through it. And I don't blame them. I see you guys haven't got a 45:18 guided route through Babylon yet. That's why you think there's something there. I know there's nothing there. I know that everything in Babylonian Christendom runs on the principle of money. Nothing will happen in Babylon without 45:31 money. The preachers will resign, the pastors will resign, churches will collapse because Babylon runs on money. So I'm convinced of that. That's why when we started, we decided we'll have nothing to do with money. We won't even 45:51 take an offering. We will never have a single paid worker in any of our ministry in our churches. Now you know today that's become so common that you can glory in this. We don't want to glory in it because I say if we have an if I have an elder brother 46:06 in one of my churches who doesn't take money, doesn't take an offering, but he's defeated by sin. I say that's no better. If you're defeated by sin you're part of Babylon again is not just the money. So this is one parable. This other 46:21 parable of this is building the church you know let the rivers flow out from the other parable on prayer is in Luke chapter 18 there only two parables Jesus spoke on prayer and I want you to see the similarity in both. He was telling them a parable again in 46:39 verse one. Luke 18:1 how they ought to pray and never give up. It's always this thing you see in the New Testament. Never give up. Never give up asking God for something which is promised in his word. That's the meaning of it. Can you Did you find 46:57 something written in God's word and you haven't got it? Oh, don't give up till you get it. Okay, here's the parable for that. In a certain city, you know, always the Lord takes some extreme case and compares it with a loving God. Like this reluctant 47:15 neighbor and a loving father. It's a contrast. If a reluctant neighbor can give you bread, how much more a loving father will give. Here's another one like that. A dishonest judge who did not fear God or respect man. 47:33 And he's comparing him to the loving, faithful father who was your God. There was this judge who did not fear God. Verse two, he did not respect man. Hardhearted. There was a widow in that city. The widow is a picture of the believer. You 47:49 know, the Lord always pictures believers as someone very weak. sheep and around are wolves and lions and a widow who doesn't even have a son or a daughter to go and plead for her case with the widow. No children, a childless 48:07 widow, husband dead, no children. A neighbor is encroaching on her property. She has a little property that she got from her husband, but the neighbor knows that she's a helpless widow and keeps on occupying her property. This happens in 48:21 India, by the way. They move the fence closer and closer and closer and they know that this poor widow can do nothing. And she comes and says, "Please give me legal protection from my from my enemy." And he keeps on hammering at the judge's 48:38 door in middle of the night and house and the office and he was unwilling. And then finally he said even though I don't fear God or respect man because this widow bothers me verse five I will give her legal protection otherwise she'll wear me out and the 48:54 Lord said verse six hear what this unrighteous judge says and do you think God will delay you think God will delay verse seven in bringing justice for his elect not elects who sing a few songs and go to 49:13 No, the elect who cried to him day and night. Lord, Satan's getting power over areas of my life. Lord, Satan is invading my family. Lord, Satan is getting hold of some of my children. They've begun to misbehave. Lord, don't don't leave me 49:33 like this. And to bother the judge day and night, that widow. And we go to God and keep on saying, "Cry to him day and night. You think God will delay? I tell you, if God finds one believer like that who cries to him day and 49:49 night, he will bring justice for him quickly, speedily. But when Jesus comes, will he find anybody with such faith? Where will he find believers who have such faith that if I lay hold of God, he will drive the devil out of my home and 50:08 out of my life and out of my children and wherever the devil's encroached upon the property. And the Lord says, "What I see is a whole lot of my children laid back. Okay, what to do? My child is wavered. He will always be waywarded and 50:24 nothing's going to happen. And I am not I've not been a blessing to a single person in the last 10 years and I won't be a blessing to anybody else in the next 20 years either. And my life will be like that. They are laidback. 50:37 God doesn't do anything for such people. They'll just drift along. You can't even say about such people that they lived. They existed on earth as believers. to live with a capital L is quite different. 50:57 Will he find faith? Not will he find people who are not. He's not asking will I find any widows on earth who are muscular enough to drive the enemy out. No, no, no, no, no. Will he find helpless widows who have faith to believe that their heavenly 51:13 father will come down and support them and drive the enemy out of their lives and their homes? That's the question. You're supposed to be a helpless widow. It's wonderful the picture the Lord gives me. I said, Lord, the pictures you 51:25 give me of myself. What am I supposed to be? A widow. Helpless old widow. That's a jackpun or a sheep. Dumb sheep. If I don't have a shepherd, I'm lost. I can follow the cliff. That's that's me. 51:45 Or the other picture the Lord gives is a little baby. He picks up the little baby and says, "The kingdom of heaven belongs to this." I love these pictures because I see that's no problem, Lord. If you if I'm only supposed to be like a helpless 51:58 widow or a sheep who doesn't know head or tail about what to do or like a baby that I qualify. Sure. Some dumb person. Me. What did Jesus ride on? Not on a horse. You know why he rode on a donkey? Because that's the dumbest animal. Like 52:16 it says in Genesis 3:1, the sharpest animal was the snake. The dumbest was a donkey. And all rulers, all kings in those days rode on horses. Caesar and all the others. And here's the king of kings who came on the earth. Like it says in 52:36 Zechariah, "Behold, your king comes riding on a donkey." And you know it says that when he sent his disciples to loose that donkey to bring him. If somebody asks you why are you losing this donkey? Tell him the Lord has need 52:52 of him. I have a picture in front of my table where I work. It says it's a picture of a Jesus riding on a donkey. And underneath other words, the Lord has 53:10 need of you. I say, "Thank you, Lord. That's the place I always want to be. The Lord has need of me." And when people appreciate me and throw their shirts on the the coats on the ground and says, "Hey, what a wonderful things happening here." I 53:26 don't think that they're celebrating me. is because who is riding on me? And if he ever gets off me, that'll be the end of people throwing any quotes in front of me. The dog knows that. And I hope you and I know that. Never, never forget 53:42 that we're not worthy of anything. But that is God's will, my brothers and sisters. I hope you will believe that God wants you to be victorious and triumphant, not defeated. His children are not supposed to be defeated. I don't care 53:58 what your circumstance. I think of those early Christians how brave they were. I read of a disciple of the apostle John which I read it in Christian history. His name was Poly Polycarp. Polycarp was the leader of some church 54:17 there and u the Roman soldiers were sent to capture him because he was confessing and he was about 90 years old or so he'd been preaching faithfully and when they came to capture he said just hang on let me pray and then I'll come and he came 54:34 with him and they brought him before the magistrate and the magistrate said deny Jesus and we let you go and appar Apparently Polycarp said 80 and 6 years 86 years 54:53 I served my savior and he's done me nothing but good all these years. How can I deny him? You can do what you like. And instead of saying Caesar is Lord, they would all say Jesus Christ is Lord. 55:13 burn him. They burn him. You and I are going to meet these people in heaven and they'll tell us their testimony. I want to have something to tell them also 55:31 of what the Lord did for me. I don't want to be ashamed in that day and said, "Well, Polycarp, I thought I'd lose a little money there." So, I told a little lie. I thought I'd lose my job, so I did not 55:50 confess Christ. Imagine telling Polycarp that story when we meet him in heaven. I don't want to say that. I don't care which job I lose, which money I lose. or what I lose. I remember in the early days 56:09 way back in 1975 when we first started CFC in our home, the Lord said to me, you know, people would come and go, come and go. Hardly anybody left from those days today with us because so many would there was a big turnover. 56:26 People would come and go and come and go because message was too strong. We spoke about spiritual harlotry. We spoke about Babylon the harlot. We spoke about being free from the love of money. Being free from anger and bitterness and murmuring and complaining 56:43 and sexual lust and everything. We spoke about the same thing we're preaching today. And little by little, people came and it go away. And the Lord said to me one day, "What if finally only you and your wife are left?" I said, "It makes no difference. You'll 57:02 be with us and that's enough." And I'll tell you, I there was another brother who with me at that time, uh Ian Robson, he stuck with me. I knew that. I mean, we were grip both of us. But I said, "If everybody else goes, 57:18 it's almost become like that now. All those people were with us, they were all gone. But this brother and I are sticking together." And the Lord said, "If they've all gone, what will you I say, "Lord, we'll still be here." So 57:30 what if we are like Noah, only eight people. You know, he had only eight people in the ark that says the last days will be like the days of Noah, full of sexual evil and violence. But I also see that the last days will have people like Noah on earth 57:48 who stood true. Even they had only eight people in that church, even though he preached for 120 years. Some of my great heroes in the Bible have been Noah, Elijah, John the Baptist who stood and were stood for the truth 58:06 no matter what happened whether they lost their head or whatever. And Noah the last days reveal at Noah that God God wants families like Noah. You see Noah one good thing about him he had his family in the Lord. He brought his wife and his children up 58:25 properly that they got into the ark with him and believed him. He was a wonderful father, a wonderful husband, a wonderful family man who brought all his children into the ark. I don't forget that the last days will be like the days of Noah. Let 58:43 there be any amount of sexual evil and violence and terrorism and all types of going down in the sexual area, marriages and all types of marriages. I won't be surprised if they finally start marrying animals as well. That's the next stage. 58:58 By the way, it'll happen. Mark my words. And they legalize it. The world is going in that direction. In the midst of such a world to stand true to the Lord, it'll it'll be unpopular. Sure. I mean, if you want 59:17 popularity, forget it. Go and join something else. But if you want to stand true to the Lord, stick like Noah. He never changed his message for 120 years. Peter calls him a preacher of righteousness. It's a wonderful title. A preacher of 59:34 righteousness who never compromised. No matter if people called him mad man or crazy or whatever it is, it didn't make a slightest difference to him. Dear brothers and sisters, God wants you. I think of you young people here listening 59:47 to me. I hope you will grow up to carry this torch in the next generation. You can't become a prophet overnight, but you can become one if you're faithful. The great godly men did not become godly 1:00:05 men overnight. God worked on them, disciplined them over a number of years, maybe got a hold of them by the time they were 15 or 16 or 17 and worked in them and led them through all types of disappointments and frustrations. by the 1:00:19 time they are 30 or 35 years old, they are into a ministry God has for them. That can happen to you. Yes, I want it to happen to you. And if some of you are older than that, never mind. You started late in the race. It doesn't 1:00:33 matter. You still press on. God needs you, my brothers, sisters. God does not need just three or four people getting up here and proclaiming the truth. He wants many because the more he has the more he can spread the word to many many more people 1:00:48 through your to your witnesses to all the people who you communicate with. But you got to know the word. You got to know God's word. Let me conclude. Turn with me to Hebrews and chapter 5. 1:01:09 Hebrews 5. This is really the burden which I've been sharing. He says, "I want to speak to you about Jesus." Hebrews 5:8, the son of God, how he learned obedience by the things which he 1:01:28 suffered and he became perfect means complete and he has become the source of eternal salvation to those who obey him. And concerning Jesus in this way as our forerunner who has gone ahead of us, there's so much I want to show you about 1:01:48 Jesus as our example. But it's very hard to explain. Not because you guys are not clever enough, but you're dull of hearing. Your conscience is not sensitive to sin and has made you spiritually deaf. And because of that, by this time, verse 1:02:06 12, you should have become teachers. Instead of that, you're sitting there like babies still wanting to be taught. Some of you should have been like Caleb and Joshua, but you're not. You're sitting there waiting. Somebody 1:02:22 has to teach you again the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you still need milk and not solid food. You know what milk is? God loves you, brother. He desperately in love with you. God is madly in love with you. He cares for 1:02:41 you. He rejoices over you with shouts of joy. It's true. I mean, I drink milk even at my age, but I drink a lot more than milk. I eat a lot of solid stuff, too. I'm not against that milk. Sure, we need to know all our life that 1:02:59 God loves us immensely. In fact, it's one of the great truths in my life that God loves me immensely. But that's not all solid food. This love of God is so wonderful that he doesn't want a single giant to live in my life. He 1:03:15 not only died to forgive my sins, he died to deliver me from sin. That is the love God has for me. But everyone, listen to this verse 13. Everyone who partakes only milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness. Word of righteousness is solid food. 1:03:35 Compare verse 12 with verse 13. Milk and solid food. Verse 12. In verse 13 is milk and the word of righteousness. So you know solid food is the word of righteousness. That is what we've been and he says that's what we've been preaching. 1:03:51 the life of righteousness, overcoming sin, where every area of her life becomes righteous and they don't want that. They want always God loves you. All the songs you sing must be how wonderful you are, oh Lord. 1:04:08 How wonderful you are. How much you love me, how much you care for me. When you were dying on the cross, you thought of me. Oh, and I get moved with all these songs. What about a word of righteousness like sin will not rule over you. Rejoice in 1:04:26 the Lord always. Give up all murmuring and complaining. No, no, no, no, no. I can't chew. It's too hard. I'm still a baby. That's a solid food. Verse 14 is for the mature who because of practice have their senses discern trained to discern 1:04:42 between good and evil. Therefore challenging us, leave aside these elementary teaching about Christ. I wish I could go across Christendom and proclaim in every church. Leave aside this elementary teaching about Christ 1:04:58 and press on to maturity. That's the verse we put on our CFC pullpit right from the beginning. Let us press on to perfection. When people accuse us of claiming to be perfect, I said, "Read what's written there. We are pressing on to perfection, 1:05:18 which proves we are not perfect. If you guys don't preach it, you're the guys who think you're perfect." We are publicly confessing, "We have not become perfect." When you read that verse in front of our pullpit, and every person 1:05:29 who stands behind that pulpit and preaches is proclaiming, "I'm not yet perfect, but I'm not lazily sitting there drinking milk. I'm pressing on to perfection." Let us press on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of 1:05:42 repentance and belief in the forgiveness of sins and baptisms and laying on of hands and healing and resurrection of the dead. He told let's move on. Let's move on to follow Jesus who is our forerunner. Verse 19, who's gone in 1:05:57 within the veil as our forerunner and overcome. Let's follow him. That's our message in this church and that's the message we have preached for more than 40 years and those who have years to hear have heard it and many lives have been changed. Many 1:06:16 families have been changed. Many young people have grown up to be wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ. And I pray that'll be true here as well. I pray that all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, will grow up to be those 1:06:30 who challenge others by your way of life. That when people see your life and your family life, they'll be challenged. That your life will be a rebuke to their defeated life. Like, you know, the book of Hebrews is one of 1:06:49 the strongest books with some of the passages I just read. strongest letters in the New Testament and u by the time he comes to the end of that letter um he's concerned that a lot of people would 1:07:08 think this is too strong and so he concludes like this in Hebrews Hebrews 13 and verse 22 dear brothers please bear with this word of exaltation and challenge 1:07:27 and it's 13 chapters long but he says I've written unto you briefly. So even if I spoken one and a half hours I've spoken briefly. Please bear with this word of exhaltation because it is for your good and for the 1:07:45 glory of God. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, help us never to disappoint you by the way we live in our homes. 1:08:05 Help us never to let you down by our language, the way we speak, by our attitudes, by anything in our life that the devil can accuse us to you. 1:08:24 Lord, we want to shut the mouth of the devil as far as we are concerned in our families that the devil will have nothing to open his mouth about concerning me and my family. I pray that it'll be true of every family here. 1:08:42 Give us a burden. Help us to be true disciples who love you more than we love our parents, more than we love our wife and children and brothers and sisters. Help us to be disciples who take up the cross every single day and never get 1:08:58 tired of it because we are following Jesus. Help us to be disciples who are detached from our possessive attitude to earthly things. Give us grace. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
