0:18 I want to ask you all a question, all of you sitting here. Do you know there's a chapter in the Bible on love? You know which that chapter is? It's 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Many of you know that there's a chapter 0:36 if the full chapter is about love and it says love is the greatest. And uh if you don't have that love, you're just a noisy gong. And in that chapter there are many qualities of love mentioned. And many of you read the chapter. Can 0:56 you tell me what is the first quality there? You know what it is? I hope you know it. 1 Corinthians 13, the first quality of love mentioned in that chapter. Okay, I'll read it to you. Please turn in your Bibles. It's 1 1:14 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 4. Love is patient. Have you got patience? And that is tested in situations like this. Whether you get worked up 1:36 and upset, irritated with somebody, blame somebody or blame the devil. I don't even blame the devil. I see the problem is as long as we are on earth, everything is imperfect. So sometimes connections are not perfect. Uh I have learned I I didn't learn 1:59 patience overnight. I went through many situations where I was impatient, but gradually I worked out my salvation. And I believe I've now come to the place where I've learned to be patient no matter what happens. Because 2:13 I believe that God is in control of everything. That's one of the most important things you must remember throughout this year. I don't know what all situations you will face or I will face in this coming year. But if you can remember one thing 2:31 that your heavenly Father is in control of everything. Small things, big things, whether it's some big calamity that hits your house or your family and it's a test of whether we are growing spiritually or not. Love is patient. 2:51 And it also says in James chapter 1, you need to turn with me to James chapter 1. And verse 4. In Anyway, the King James version, it says let patience 3:10 have its perfect result. So that you will be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. So I learned from that that God allows so many circumstances, small and big even just like this interruption that 3:29 we've had for the last 45 minutes to teach us to be patient. The world is not going to collapse if something doesn't happen uh when we expect it. But if we learn in all types of in your office, you'll find some situation 3:47 where you can get irritated and upset with somebody who doesn't do the work immediately or as soon as you expect it. And the same thing can happen in the home between husband and wife. And if you look back, all of you married 4:01 people you look back over your past life and see how many times you got sort of impatient and upset with your marriage partner, impatient and upset with the children. And let's pray that this year will be different. That right from the very first beginning 4:20 and right from this meeting onwards and when you go home you say, "Lord, please help me to learn this one truth that you are in control of everything." You know, Jesus taught us to pray "Our Father who art in heaven." 4:38 Please remember those those four words or five words, "Our Father who art in heaven." Five or six words. There are two facts there. One is that God is our Father and the second is that he's ruling this universe from heaven. 4:55 If you don't begin there it's as if the Lord is saying, "Don't pray." Because it's a waste of time praying if you don't believe number one that you're talking to your Father who loves you immensely. And if you don't believe that he's in 5:11 heaven controlling this whole universe. If you can't believe these two things, it's pointless praying. That's why Jesus said, "When you pray, even if you don't repeat those words please remember these two amazing truths. 5:26 You're talking to your heavenly Father who loves you immensely, more than anybody, more than your parents and more than anybody else in the world. And secondly, you're talking to your Father who is in heaven who not only controls this earth but 5:41 controls the whole universe. Now, both of these things, if you believe, then only begin to pray. So often we pray without believing these two things. That we have a loving Father who is almighty. So at least this this year as we 6:00 enter into the year, please begin with this faith that I'm whenever I pray, I'm talking to a my own Father in heaven. My own daddy who is almighty. And some of you may have not had good fathers, so you don't understand the 6:18 love of a father. But your heavenly Father loves you immensely. Jesus The God says in Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget her sucking child? Even if she may forget but I will not forget you." It's very important. 6:37 Jesus also, when he came to earth, he said "If one of your children ask you for some food will you say no? How much more your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him?" So Jesus compared the love of a earthly 6:55 father with our heavenly Father's love. Now, that may be a very simple truth but I found even after I'm a believer I've been a believer now 66 years. But I still want to find my security in the fact that I have a Father who will 7:10 not refuse anything that is good for me. Because so often the devil keeps telling you "God's not going to give that to you. You don't deserve it." Well, for that matter, none of us deserve anything. But God's already given us the greatest 7:23 gift of forgiveness of sins. He's given us salvation, made us his children. And why won't he give us everything else? So that's very very important to keep that in mind when we begin our prayer. I want you to turn now to Hebrews in 7:45 chapter 3. Turn in your Bibles, please, to Hebrews chapter 3. We are told here about the Israelites who came out of Egypt but who did not enter into the promised land. In Hebrews chapter 3, it says in verse 8:04 15, Hebrews 3:15 "Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart." "Remember those who in the wilderness provoked him." Verse 16 those who came out of Egypt and only two people entered into the land. That is Joshua and Caleb. 8:23 Then it says in chapter 4 verse 1, "Let us fear now lest a promise enter remains of us entering into God's rest some of you should come short of it." When the children of Israel were taken out of Egypt, it is a picture of our 8:39 salvation. They put their faith in the blood of a lamb which they put outside the door, which is symbolic for us of the blood of Christ. And then they went through the water in the Red Sea, which is symbolic of 8:57 baptism. And then when they came out the other side, a pillar of cloud came down upon them, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit. But with all this, what all did they have? The blood, symbolic of the blood of Christ ba- going through the Red Sea, symbolic 9:11 of baptism and thirdly the whole cloud from above symbo- symbolizing the Holy Spirit. Exactly what we have when we are born again. In spite of that we know the story that 600,000 men did not enter the land. So that is a picture of how it is with 9:31 so many Christians today. They've accepted Christ, they've baptized in water, they are born again, but they don't seem to come into a life of victory. One part of that victory is patience, particularly in our homes. So it says here, "There is a promise 9:49 that God will help you to enter that land." That life of rest. And that's what it says here in chapter 4 verse 1, let us fear lest when a promise is given to us that we don't enter into it. In chapter 4 verse 11, let us be diligent to enter that rest so 10:08 that no one will fail. I spoke to you about patience. That is a life of rest where whatever happens around me, we must believe that God is in control. It's I believe you're going to have faith that even more and more as we 10:23 approach the end of time. The world is going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. Jesus said it'll be like the days of Noah. And people are going to hate one another and particularly it's not going to be easy to be a Christian in the last days. 10:39 It's very, very important, dear brothers, in every situation, to look up to your heavenly Father and say, "My Father, who is in heaven, runs this universe." And even in the little things that happen in your home, say, "Lord, please give me the power of 10:57 your Holy Spirit to be patient here." Things that happen in your office, things that happen in your place of work, when things don't go exactly as you expect them to go. Say, "Lord, please help me to trust in you. You're in control of 11:15 everything." And here is the a promise that has helped me through all my 66 years of being a Christian. And it will help you to Turn with me to 1 Corinthians in chapter 10 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 11:32 and verse 13. Here it says in the middle of that verse, "God is faithful." It's a promise that we've quoted many, many times in this church. And he will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability. 11:51 Now, we've heard it, but I want everybody here. Some of you have heard it well, well, maybe you have entered into it, brother. I believe there are many sitting here who have not entered into the reality of believing that throughout this year, 2026, 12:08 I will never Can you say this? That throughout this year, I will never face a situation which is too much for me. Can you believe that? Can you start this year with this confession? 12:27 I have a father who loves me, who rules this universe from heaven, and he's my own father. And he's promised me here in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that I will never face a situation at any time in this year, 12:45 in my life, regarding my health, or regarding my family, or my children, or my finances, or anything that will be too much for me. But God will give me grace 13:05 to be a victor, to go through that situation triumphantly. That is the confession of faith. You know, there's a law in the New Testament where Jesus said, "According to your faith, be it unto you." Let me give you 13:26 an example of this. There There's a There's a story in the Old Testament, uh sorry, in the Gospels, where two blind men came to Jesus. And uh he he asked them a question. 13:44 He said, "I can heal you. Do you believe that I can do this for you?" Before he healed them. And I've often thought of this situation that supposing the uh one blind man goes into the room first. And uh and he says, "Lord, I'm I'm totally 14:01 blind. I've been blind all my life, but I believe you can open at least one eye." And the Lord says to him, "According to your faith, be it unto you." One eye is opened. And he comes out, and he's extremely thankful because he was blind. Imagine 14:16 how thankful a blind man is because he's got one eye open. Now, the second blind man goes into the room, and Jesus says, "Do you believe I can open both your eyes?" He says, "Yes, I believe." And he comes out with both eyes open. 14:30 Why did one person get more than the other? Because of this principle, "According to your faith, it will be unto you." And this is what makes the difference between one believer and another. Why do you find some believers accomplishing a 14:46 lot more for the Lord than you do? Why do you find some believers having overcoming many problems in their home, unlike you? The principle is this. Do you believe that your Father in heaven can solve every problem? Do you believe, 15:04 as in that promise that we read, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability? I have so claimed that promise numerous times. And it's helped me again and again and again in all types of situations, in financial difficulties, in difficulties 15:23 with people, and all these things. Lord, I don't know what people are planning to hurt me or harm me, but I I believe nothing will come to me that is too much for me. So, I I want to repeat that because for many of you people, you don't 15:39 realize what all is coming to you to you this year, but you must believe that it God will help you to overcome. Turn with me to Romans chapter 8. These promises of God are very, very important, and if you write them down or listen to this 15:53 message later on, you can claim these promises. Romans chapter 8. He talks about even in his day, there was even the danger of being put to death. Romans chapter 8 and verse 35. Please get familiar with these promises. 16:19 Romans 8:35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Do you sometimes doubt that something will separate you from the love of Christ? Never doubt it, my brother, sister. Throughout this year, please remember what I'm saying now. 16:38 Right from the beginning till the end of the year, Christ is going to love you. And he's He will not allow you to be separated. You don't separate yourself by unbelief. Faith is the hand by which we hold onto the Lord. 16:56 If you lose faith, your grip on the Lord is gone. So, in every situation, >> [clears throat] >> look up and say, "My Father, you love me, and you're in heaven, and you run this universe, and this problem I'm facing now, you can take care of it." 17:14 Who can separate me from the love of Christ? Romans 8:35. Will tribulation Tribulation means other people coming and troubling you. Maybe in your office, maybe your relatives that cannot separate you from the love of Christ. 17:29 What about distress? Problems that you face in life cannot separate you from the love of persecution. Maybe persecution in your office. Maybe your boss is a troublesome person. Or or your neighbor or your some family member is troubling you. It 17:46 cannot separate you from the love of Christ. Famine, nakedness, that means not enough food to eat, Christ will not forsake you. Not enough clothes to wear, Christ will not forsake you. In danger, or if even if people try to kill you, 18:00 Christ will not forsake you. It's a tremendous verse. Romans 8:35. Keep it in mind. And say to yourself, "Who can separate me from the love of Christ?" All these problems I'm facing will not separate me. But verse 37, Romans 8:37 is a wonderful verse for you 18:17 to remember by heart. All of you must remember this verse by heart. In everything, in all these things, we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. We are more than conquerors because of God's love for us. 18:37 I hope you will keep this in mind throughout this year, my brothers and sisters. We don't want anyone in this church to face a situation in this in this year where you get gloomy and put your hand on head on your hands and 18:50 say, "Oh, how terrible. What's going to happen next?" I'll tell you what's going to happen next. God is going to come and help you. So, don't ever sit down and say, "What's going to happen next?" I'll tell you right now, God will come and help you. 19:00 He loves you. So, who can separate me from the love of Christ? In all these things, we will conquer, and not only conquer, but overwhelmingly conquer. Now, Paul wrote this after many, many years of experience. And he says, "I'm convinced that nothing 19:16 can separate me from the love of Christ." That's very, very important for every one of you to be not just to believe it, but to be gripped with it. Nothing will separate me from the love of Christ. I don't mind repeating it any number of 19:33 times. God will not allow me to be tempted beyond my ability. Every situation I'm going to face this year is going to be within my ability. He will not allow you to run short of money. That's a tremendous promise. 19:52 See, I've trusted the Lord for my financial needs for the last 60 years, 6 0. 60 years. I've never received a salary or looked to any man for money. I've trusted God to provide my needs. All of you have got jobs and secure 20:12 income. I've never had one like that the last 60 years. But God has taken care of me because I trusted him. Because I believed one promise. A well-known promise in Matthew 6:33. If you seek the kingdom of God first, all the other things will be added to 20:32 you. I can tell you from my own experience. My wife can I can tell you. You If you honor God, it's amazing how he will honor you. And you'll have an experience to tell your children one day of how God did miracles for you. 20:49 The miracles are not just what you read in the Bible. You'll experience them in your life. I could tell you numerous things that we've experienced as miracles in our life. And you must have that experience too, brother. 21:00 Brothers and sisters, and I'll give you one more bit of advice. And that is when you experience some miracle in your life, make a note of it somewhere. In some notebook or if you have a computer, open a folder and write it down there. 21:18 Just in a few sentences, the details of the miracle God did for you in some situation. Maybe a healing, maybe a financial provision, maybe some situation in your marriage, maybe some problem with your relatives. Just write down in three or four 21:34 sentences with the date and the details what God did for you. And then again something happens another day. And if you keep on doing that, I told people this. One day when your children are grown up, give them a copy of that book 21:53 or that folder, print it out from the computer. All the things that God did for you in the last 20, 30 years. And give that to your children as a printed book. That will be a second Bible for them. Of the living experiences that God did 22:08 in your life. I've encouraged people everywhere to do this. God is a miracle working God. I've Some of the things, you know, many years ago people asked me to write down a little bit of the experiences I had and that's what I wrote in my book called The Day 22:24 of Small Beginnings. You can go to the CFC website and I would encourage you to read it. The Day of Small Beginnings is a is full of many incidents in my life which where I found God's provision. But I had to write bring it out from my memory. It 22:41 was very difficult. That's when I urged people to write down as soon as you experience something, even in a few words, write it down somewhere. And accumulate it over the years so that you have a record of the miracles God 22:55 did for you that you can share with your children. One day when they leave leave your home to get married, you can give them that book of 40, 50 pages that they can read and see how This is how God worked for my my parents. And I believe this God 23:10 will help me. It's a tremendous gift you can give to your children so that they realize that it's not only in the days of the Bible that God did miracles, but in your lifetime he did it too. So, let's have some experience like that 23:23 that we can pass on to others. God is sovereign. He's in charge of this universe and we look up to him and say, "Our Father who art in heaven." Okay. I want to say one more thing which I never forget to say. And that is one of the things the Lord 23:39 taught us in that prayer is that he will forgive us. Listen to this. He will forgive you in exactly the same way that you forgive somebody else. Okay? That's a law. All of us have experienced people 23:59 harming us. Even a 10-year-old child will say somebody has harmed me. As we grow up in this world, many, many people harm us. What should you do? Do what Jesus did on the cross. As soon as he was crucified 24:19 and the cross was put into that hole in the ground, the very first words he said was, "Father, forgive them." You say the same thing. Nobody's going to hurt you more than they hurt Jesus on the cross. Father, forgive them. 24:35 Please develop the habit throughout this year of forgiving people as soon as they hurt you, whether with words or with actions. If people hurt you, forgive them immediately. 24:54 And speak it out. Father, I've forgiven them. And help me not to remember it anymore. And when I see him next time, let me not remember, "Ah, this is the guy who hurt me." I'm not saying we should not be careful with crooks and people who try to cheat 25:09 us. Be careful. And if somebody's cheated you, be careful next time. But don't hold a grudge against people because that will destroy you. I hope all of you sitting here today right now, if you have a grudge in your heart 25:23 against anybody right now, I would urge you to get rid of it before you leave this hall. Before you leave this hall, you say, "Lord, I forgive that person. I forgive my mother-in-law. I forgive my brother-in-law. I forgive the fellow who 25:37 cheated me. I forgive the boss in the office who harassed me. Maybe somebody in CFC who you felt hurt you. Forgive him. Forgive her. It's very, very important. My life has been supremely happy because I've forgiven everybody. 25:54 Everybody who's ever hurt me in my life, I've stood before God and said, "Lord, I've forgiven them." And that's made my life not only happy, it's made me healthy. By God's grace, he's kept me healthy. My wife and I have been married 26:12 57 years. We've never been to a hospital even one single day with a sickness. Whenever we get sick, we forgive everybody and pray and trust in the Lord and he takes care of us. God is a good God. He can heal your sicknesses. But if you don't forgive 26:30 others, you got a grudge against somebody, you will be sick. I'll tell you you'll be sick. Many sicknesses are because they got a grudge against someone. They haven't forgiven somebody. I'm not saying that is the root cause of 26:43 all sicknesses. There are many sicknesses which may never be cured. I'm not talking about that. But there are many sicknesses which can be cured if you forgive people and you don't have a grudge against anybody. We read that Paul had a sickness that 27:02 the Lord never healed him from. So, sometimes that happens. But that is with a purpose. When the Lord Paul had he had some type of sickness and he said, "Lord, please remove this." And the Lord said, "No, I have to keep 27:15 that with you to keep you humble." So, sometimes God gives a sickness to his servants to keep them humble. That's another thing. But generally speaking, it's God's will to heal us. But forgiveness is a very, very important part of that. 27:30 And the second thing I want to say is if you have hurt somebody, you must ask his forgiveness. Otherwise, God will not listen to your prayer. These are Now, these are things I've said numerous times, but there are probably people sitting here who need to 27:44 hear it again strongly. Two things. First of all, anyone in the world who has hurt you, forgive them right now before you leave this hall today. Secondly, if you have hurt somebody, please decide right now 28:04 that you're going to ask that person's forgiveness by phoning him up or writing a letter or speaking directly where you and ask forgiveness. And many of you husbands need to ask forgiveness from your wives. Many of you wives need to ask 28:20 forgiveness from your husbands. Perhaps you have to ask forgiveness from your children. I've asked forgiveness from my children. Sometimes we've hurt our children unnecessarily. Sometimes we have punished them wrongly. Then we must ask forgiveness from them. 28:37 And children, you must also learn, all of you children, learn to ask forgiveness from your daddy and mommy when you have done anything wrong. You know, it's a tremendous power that comes into our life when we forgive others. 28:55 So, what have I been basically telling you in this session? Trust God, your loving Father who loves you, our Father, our Father who art in heaven, who runs this universe. And whatever circumstance he ever allows you to face in this coming year, 29:14 he it will never be too much for you. There will be a solution there. You pray to God and say, "Lord, you will not allow me to be tested beyond my ability. You'll find some solution for this situation I'm facing." Now, maybe 29:27 some of you are facing a problem right now. Say, "Lord, I want you to solve that problem. I want to trust you today." And the Lord will say to you, "According to your faith, be it unto you." Sometimes we wish God had said, 29:42 "According to my power, it will be done." No, it will be done according to his power, but it's according to your faith. If you when God's got a huge amount of blessing to give you, you go to him with a little teaspoon, that's 29:58 all you'll get. You'll get one teaspoon. Somebody else goes with a huge bucket, he gets much more. It depends on faith is like that. According to your faith be it unto you. So, I want to encourage you, my brothers, with these simple principles 30:12 that I've shared with you today. Please remember you can face the every day in this new year with tremendous boldness saying, "My God will help me to go through." And when something does not work out as soon as I expect it, 30:28 learn to be patient. That's a great lesson the Lord has taught us by the delay that we had for 45 minutes in this morning in this meeting. Patience, patience. And never to get worked up and irritated. My God is in control. 30:44 God is in control. That's what I felt. Okay. If the meeting is delayed or if I'm not supposed to speak, somebody else will speak. That's perfectly okay. It won't disturb me one bit because my God is in control. My father is in control of 30:56 everything. And if he opens up the way like he did for me to speak, okay, then I will speak. But I will never let anything that happens, whether it's a small thing like this of the audio in the meeting or some big thing outside in the world, I will never 31:11 let it upset my heart. Never, never, never. In my younger days, it did disturb me because nobody taught me what I'm teaching you today. Now, you folks don't have the same excuse that I had that I never had a spiritual father on earth to teach me 31:27 some of these things I'm teaching you today. So, I used to get disturbed. I used to get upset. I used to get discouraged. And I didn't know the answer. But you have someone to teach you all these things. Today I've taught you. 31:39 And my dear brothers and sisters, you don't have to live the rest of this year discouraged or gloomy. I believe God can help you to be a rejoicing Christian anxious for nothing. Let us pray. Please 31:58 think of something particular that God spoke to you today and say, "Lord, please help me to hold on to that and not lose it." And Lord, help me to forgive anyone whom I have to forgive. And help me to ask forgiveness from 32:09 anyone whom I've to ask forgiveness from. So, heavenly Father, we pray for all the dear brothers and sisters who are sitting seated here. I pray that every one of them will receive some clear word from you that will remain in their hearts 32:28 forever. That'll change the their attitude throughout this year to be one of overcoming in every situation. And that they can also teach that to their children to be overcomers from a young age. Thank you for today, Lord, despite all 32:44 the interruptions. We believe you have spoken to our hearts and you will lead us from one degree of glory to another. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
