0:00 Those [Music] two hymns we just sang, what beautiful words. First of all, that the Lord has promised never to leave us alone. 0:18 I will never leave you nor forsake you. Is a promise that lasts forever in every type of situation. I want to show you some promises in the book of Hebrews in chapter 13. In Hebrews 13, we read 0:50 last part of verse 5, he himself has said, that is Jesus, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. There are some verses you need to color or underline in your Bible. I did that 1:10 when I was a young Christian and I did not know anything in the Bible. I started reading it. Whenever I found a really good verse, he said, "I don't want it to get lost. I wanted to underline it so that sometime when I flip through the Bible, I can see those 1:23 verses I underline and or color. I used to color them in red. I will never desert you. I will never forsake you." He doesn't there's no condition there, you know, that if you are faithful, boy, if there was a condition like that, I'd give up hope. 1:39 It's unconditional because none of us are 100% faithful. I can certainly raise my hand and say I have not been 100% faithful from our time I was born again. But God has been 100% merciful to me. I've tried my best 1:58 to live for the Lord but made many blunders and mistakes. Gradually becomes better and better. It's something like handwriting. You know, you see the when a little child start to write ABC, it's all crooked. Very often they put the C the wrong way and the E 2:16 is the wrong way. But gradually they become and sometimes they become such fine artists that they can write beautifully. It's like that. Christian growth is like that. We shouldn't get discouraged because we fail and we slip up but we 2:32 get up. The only person who's a failure is the one who doesn't get up when he's fallen. I decided that even if I fall a thousand times, I'm not going to lie on the ground. I'm going to get up. I'm not going to boast that I've never fallen. 2:46 I'm going to boast that I every time I fell, I got up. And I can also say the result is the falls become less and less as time goes by. And uh I I can never say it at any point that from now on I'll never fall. Let 3:04 him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Very important. That's a word in scripture. Let him who thinks he stands. 1 Corinthians 10. Lest take heed lest he fall. God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability. That's a I will never leave 3:23 you. I'll never forsake you. In Hebrews 13:6 says, "Therefore we can confidently." See that word confidently is very important there. Boldly say, "The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me or 3:42 what can the devil do to me? The Lord is my helper." You know Jesus is called the lion of Judah. And if even if I'm going into a forest, if the strongest lion there is my friend and walking beside me, I'm not afraid of any of the other animals, even tigers 4:01 and leopards or whatever they are. It's interesting. The Lord is called the lion of Judah and he says, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you." So any of you who are facing difficult trials and problems, I want to encourage you to believe one 4:16 thing. I don't know why God has allowed so many trials to befall his children, but that seems to be the New Testament way. In the Old Testament, the blessing of God was prosperity. In the New Testament, the blessing of 4:38 God is tribulation and trial because God has got more confidence in us than in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, if God allowed somebody to 4:53 suffer being harmed by other people, they they would have lose their faith in God. But throughout the Old Testament, the story was whenever Israel was faithful, they were prosperous. All their enemies were subdued. 5:11 And whenever they were when whenever they were faithful to God. Whenever they were unfaithful to God, then they had famines and sicknesses and the enemies overcame them. But it seems to be the other way around here in the New 5:24 Testament. You read the Old Testament, it's always consistently whenever I mean the Israelites were obedient to God and faithful to the Lord. He blessed them. The enemies were all defeated always. And uh they prospered. They had plenty 5:43 of money. Their crops came out well. But when they were unfaithful and started worshiping idols, then they had sicknesses and problems. All types of things like that. But God could not trust them with anything more than that. It's like 5:59 little babies. You got to keep feeding them and they'll be happy when you smile at them and they be happy when you give them whatever they want. They cry for milk and you give them milk. They can't handle any trial. But with a grown-up 6:12 son, you have a grown-up son who can handle any trial and any tribulation. and he goes for a job and he's treated unrighteously there and he loses his job and he comes back cheerful saying Jesus Christ is still my savior he's allowed 6:27 me to you know I faced situations when I was in the Navy where because I stood for the Lord my senior officers would who were all non-Christian would trouble me in some way I remember once when I stood for a ma matter and I said I sir I 6:43 will not sign a false statement there I'm a question. I was transferred from my job in half an hour. I said fine, praise the Lord. Always spiritually I got something better. Materially, physically, it doesn't matter. Spiritually, 7:02 every time I took a stand for the Lord, even if I suffered in some earthly way, it was spiritually it was a step higher. And thus the Lord prepared me for my ministry which I started serving the Lord in 1966 7:20 which is going to be 60 years now. And in the in the ministry also I found the same thing. God took me through many trials and tests. And I I got great comfort in things like this that when God wanted Joseph to be the second ruler 7:39 in Egypt, which is the biggest nation on earth, how did he train him? He did not send him to some college to get a post-graduate degree. You know how he trained him? To be thrown into a pit by his 10 brothers. 7:56 to be falsely accused, sold as a slave, separated from his parents. Is that how you train a man to be a ruler in Egypt? And then you go there and he's utterly faithful. He refuses to commit sin with his boss's wife. You think God should 8:15 reward him for that? Again and again, the boss's wife tried to make him sin with her and he says, "No, no, no." What is the reward? He gets jail. Oh, and he says, "I never did that. I never did anything wrong." No, you're 8:31 telling a lie. She got your coat. You went to molester. Complete lie. Only God saw the truth. And locked up in jail. Some of you think you have sufferings. Compare it with Joseph. Supposing your husband were accused like 8:50 that. How would you feel? Absolutely innocent husband. And he's there in jail day after day after day, year after year. He's wondering when will God deliver me. God gave me when I was 17 years old. He says, "God gave me dreams 9:03 that one day the sun and moon will bow down to me and my brothers will bow down to me." Nothing like that is happening. I simply bashed out bashed around and misunderstood and illreated and it's not one or two days, not one 9:16 year, two years. Do you know how many years Joseph was in jail? A minimum of 10 to 12 years. And those jails were not like jails today. Those were real horrible places. You just thrown in there. Nobody bothers about you. 9:33 My brother, sister, what are your sufferings compared to that? You say, "I'm a child of God." Joseph was called and then God gave him ability to interpret dreams. You know the story of Pharaoh's butler and baker came and he 9:50 interpreted the dream of one person saying Pharaoh will restore you to his rightful place to his right hand and the other fellow had another dream and said I'm sorry to say Pharaoh will come and kill you and it happened and the one who 10:05 was exalted to Pharaoh's right hand he told him Joseph said please tell Pharaoh that I'm unjustly put in prison and at that time Joseph was 28 years old. And do you know what the Bible says? Pharaoh's cup bearer forgot about 10:23 Joseph. Can you imagine a man who interpreted your dream supernaturally and it actually happened in your life? You're restored to the right hand of Pharaoh and you forget about this man who did such a supernatural revelation 10:37 of your dream. I can't understand it. But that's how human beings are. Have you had have you met people who are totally ungrateful for what you have done for them and they completely forget about you? That's nothing compared to 10:51 what Joseph faced. So he sat another not one or two days, two years. You know why? Because in God's eternal plan, he had planned that Joseph must become the second ruler in Egypt when he's 30 years old. 11:10 And when Pharaoh's cupbearer was released, Joseph was 28. He was not yet ready. He's got two more years of rugged jail life. I'll tell you one thing. It's nothing can hinder God's purposes. But see how 11:29 how the story ends in some miraculous way. Pharaoh has a dream. Nobody can interpret it. And Joseph is brought and Pharaoh has favor to him and says you're going to be the second ruler. Imagine a prisoner who was falsely accused. And that Pifer 11:47 who he was a slave to Pifer. Now Pifer is working under Joseph. Have you ever thought of that? And do you think he took revenge on Pifer's wife for locking him up? Not at all. I think I'll tell you I think Joseph did some good to 12:00 Pifer. Maybe gave him a promotion and blessed his wife. That is how a godly man is. Why do I say Joseph was like that? Because when his brothers who accused him came, he blessed them. That is a Christian who has been treated 12:16 badly, suffered a lot, and then blesses the people who treated him badly. That's tremendous. If you've had the opportunity to do that in your life to someone who treated you badly, you're walking in the right path. And it's not 12:31 just Joseph. Think of a man like Moses. God had a plan for Moses. And that plan was that at the age of 80, he should No, let me go a little further back. I think I'm telling you something 12:51 which you probably never heard before. God wanted to make Moses the leader of the Israelites to lead them out of Egypt. But uh you won't find this in the Bible, but 13:08 I'll prove it to you right now. God wanted him at the age of 40, you know what happened? He defended one of the Israelites and killed an Egyptian. How dare you slap this fellow Israelite? And he hit that guy so hard that the guy 13:26 died. He must have Moses must have been very strong man to hit a fellow so hard that fellow died. The news went to Pharaoh. And even though Moses I think was almost in line to be the next Pharaoh because he was the favorite of 13:40 Pharaoh more than his other son and he had to run for his life. And God took him out into the wilderness and he looked after sheep for many years. Can you tell me how many Moses was 40 years old when he went into the wilderness to look after sheep? Who can 13:58 tell me how many years he was there looking after sheep? Anybody? >> 40 years. Correct. At the age of 80, God called him out and he led the Israelites to be the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. 14:16 Now shall I tell you something that I believe God wanted him to be the leader at the age of 50 but he had not learned his lesson in 10 years. He had to spend another 30 years. Now why do I say that? 14:35 Uh if you turn with me to the book of Exodus. And Exodus is talking about the time when the Israelites were delivered. It's Exodus chapter 12. Sorry. Exodus 14:58 chapter 12. Read verse 40. Now, the time that the sons of Israel lived in Egypt, did you read it? 430 years, they were slaves. 15:17 At the end of 430 years, to the very day, exactly the last day of 430 years, the Lord sent them out of the land of Egypt. Got it? How many years were they in 15:34 Egypt? 430. Now turn with me to Genesis chapter 15. The Bible is a wonderful book. Sorry, Genesis 14. Oh, 15. Correct. 16:01 In Genesis 15. One day, verse 12, one day when the sun was setting down, have you got Genesis 15:12? A deep sleep fell upon Abraham and a terror and great darkness fell upon him. And God was giving him a 16:19 promise. He had told him in verse one, "Don't fear. Your reward is going to be very great." Verse one, okay? God said to Abraham, verse 13, "Know for certain your descendants will be strangers in a 16:38 land that is not theirs, that is Egypt, where they'll be enslaved and oppressed for how many years?" 400. But what would you read in actually they were enslaved for? 4. 16:55 >> Did God know the future or not? Tell me. Does God know the whole future? Did he make a mistake in his calculation? How in the world did he say 400 and they ended up with 430? This is the advantage of reading the 17:14 scripture carefully, comparing scripture with scripture. I hope you'll never forget what I tell you today. I used to study scripture carefully and I come across this and I said how in the world God doesn't make a mistake and I 17:28 said Lord what is the meaning and this is the answer I got and I believe when we get to heaven you'll discover that what I say is right God wanted Moses to be 10 years a shepherd and at the age of 50 to deliver the Israelites but he 17:47 hadn't learned his lesson in 10 years. He hadn't learned it in 20 years. He hadn't learned it in 30 years. He finally learned it out of 40 years. And the Israelites who should have been delivered 30 years earlier when Moses 18:05 was 50 because the man of God was not ready. The Israelites suffered. They had to suffer another 30 years. I believe I'm 100% right because there's absolutely no other explanation. God knows the future. His plan was 400 18:23 years. They spent 430 years. Now, how does this apply to us? God may have a plan for you to have learned your lesson spiritually to be useful in his service at a certain age. But you're lazy. You're not wholehearted. You're not 18:43 radical. You compromise here and there and God's plans are frustrated year by year by year by it gets delayed and maybe at the age of 30 you should have been an outstanding servant of God but you failed ultimately you catch up at 19:00 the age of 40 or 45 it's not God's will permissive will seek to live in God's perfect will now we can't do anything about the past but we can certainly do something about the future So we got to learn that God has a plan 19:16 for my life, his plan from eternity, but it's not necessarily fulfilled because I fail. God called me to build our first church 19:31 started in our home in August 1975. This month it is exactly 50 years. On the 17th of this month, it'll be exactly 50 years since my wife and I started a meeting in our home and one family 19:49 joined us. We were two families and we started meeting in our home and we started meet we I was thrown out of the church I was preaching in because I preach the baptism in the Holy Spirit and that is the unforgivable sin to 20:06 preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a Baptist church. You don't go to a Baptist church and preach baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is an unforgivable sin. And so they wouldn't forgive me for that. And they said, "You got to leave, Zach." 20:23 And I said, "The board members, I said, can I," it was a Wednesday or Thursday. I said, "Can I say one farewell? I've already preached here six months. Can I one year rather can I preach one farewell message next Sunday morning?" 20:36 No. Okay. But after one day, they relented and say, "Okay, you can give one farewell message." And I got up that Sunday and said, "Brothers and sisters, I was preaching to the probably 100 people in that church. You have come to the borders of the 20:52 promised land like the Israelites. God is seeking to lead you to something beyond what Baptist doctrine has taught you. You have learned about immersion in water. You have not learned about immersion in the Holy Spirit. Baptism in 21:11 water. You have you teach it. That's why you're different from the Methodists and the Anglicans. You're baptists because you preach water in water baptism. But there's another baptism being immersed in the Holy Spirit. You have come to the border. You can 21:29 either go in or turn back. And they turned back. Three months before that, a brother had come from abroad and preached in that in that church who knew me. And he preached a prophetic message 21:48 3 months before this event before they checked me out. And he said he was a godly man, baptized in the spirit person and he said he knew that this church was not accepting my message and he made a prophecy there. I remember it in April 22:05 1975. He said if you don't receive the message that this man of God is preaching in this church, God will take him away from here and he'll start another work in the same city to which place a fire will start burning 22:24 there to which many people from many places will come to be warmed and you'll miss the opportunity. Three months later, they threw me out. And there was one brother who was working in that church who said, "If you throw Zach out, I'm going out, too." Cuz 22:43 he had also been baptized in the Holy Spirit. So, we went out together and started the first CFC church. We met on the 17th of August, 1975. Two families, we were united. Jesus said, "If two people are together, I'm in the midst." 23:03 And from that day I worked with that brother for 50 years. He died last year. He went to be with the Lord. 49 years I worked with him. Let me tell you something about my testimony with him. He was a very different community from mine. Just like 23:20 Jews and Gentiles were different and God united Jews and Gentiles. He was a completely different community from me. And in India those two communities never worked together. They never mingled together. God chose somebody who's just 23:34 like the Gentiles were the opposite of the Jews. Somebody who's completely opposite community to mine brought me together. You know how in India you probably don't like know this but the people who speak Tamil like to be with 23:45 the people who speak Tamil and the people who speak Hindi like to speak be with those who speak Hindi and people who are one part of India like to be with people in that part of India for various it's convenient when people are 23:56 of the same temperament and mind and all that but Jews and Gentiles were so different and God brought this brother together with me and united us baptized us in the Holy Spirit and let me give you my testimony we were very different 24:10 very different in our personality and gift and ministry. His gift was completely different from mine. He was more of a shepherd and mine mine was more of a prophetic ministry. And in 49 years, this is my honest testimony. 24:26 We never broke fellowship even for a single day. We could look each other straight in the eyes. We loved each other in Christ. We disagreed sometimes. Then we'd say, "Okay, let's work that 24:44 out how to do it." He was not a blind follower of me. No. And I was not a blind follower of him. I'd express my opinion. He'd express his. And sometimes where we disagreed, okay, let's pray about that a little more. And we'd work 24:57 out and come to a common decision and say, "Okay, now we can move forward." But we never clashed. We never broke fellowship. There was never a single day when I could not look him straight in the face. when I could not embrace him 25:09 as my brother in Christ. And I learned that through all those 49 years that we can disagree with someone and love and come through to a right decision. Sometimes he was right, sometimes I was right. I'll give you one example. 25:27 There was a sister there in our church who her daughter had gone abroad somewhere and she had to look after her grandchildren and those grandchildren some of those grandson was misbehaving somewhere in a very bad way and she she 25:44 was not controlling at that point she had been warned earlier so I told my fellow brother I think we should put her out of the church we can't allow this type of indicisipline I was very strict And this brother was always the one who 26:00 moderated my strictness. I'm thankful for that. When you have a husband and wife like that where one who's very strict and the other is also strict boy then the children have a tough time. But if one can moderate that and control it 26:13 a little bit. So I was very thankful this brother was different from me. But then you know if he was all alone the whole church would compromise. So I was there to pull it back. So it's wonderful when you have two brothers like this. I 26:25 think Paul and Barnabas was like that you know Paul was a strict nononsense type of person and uh I don't know whether you know that story in Acts I don't have time to share it with you read it sometime in Acts 13 they were 26:38 called by God together Barnabas was known as an encourager his main ministry was encourage encourage encourage Paul was the guy who straight down the line just like Jesus would take a whip and chase the money changers out 26:50 Paul was that type of person and they went to a place called uh in Cyprus and they h had they the leader there was the governor of that place was sort of getting responding to the gospel but that governor had a chap whom he had 27:10 employed as a magician and that magician was so scared that Paul is getting influence over the governor and he tried to oppose the governor and saying don't listen to this man Paul and Barnabas are standing there. And you know what Paul did? 27:27 He went to that magician and said, "You son of the devil. You enemy of all I'm not exaggerating. You read it in Acts 13. You enemy of all righteousness." I felt sometimes I would have spoken like that exactly like that. 27:41 You enemy of all unrighteous all righteousness. Won't you try? Were you trying to subvert God's ways? God will smite you. You'll be blind. I've never gone that far with people, but you'll be blind. And he became blind and the governor saw it and he got 27:59 converted. I've often thought if Barnabas was handling this situation, Barnabas would have put his arm around and say, "Brother, let's not talk like that. We should allow him to listen to the gospel man." Nothing would have happened. That guy 28:17 would not have got converted. And there are times when you need a Barnabas to encourage people. So it's wonderful when a Barnabas and a Paul can work together and each appreciate one another. The sad thing is that after a while, 28:32 after a couple of years, Barnabas got a little favoritism towards his cousin brother Mark because they want to they went together to the ministry. Mark was not called. Only Barnabas and Paul were called. Mark tagged along and John Barnabas told 28:51 Paul, "Hey, he's my cousin, man. Bring him along." And that guy the very first trip he got a he saw all this happening with the demons being cast out and all. He said, "Hey, listen. This is not good for me." And he dropped and went out, 29:02 went back. So after a couple of years when they wanted to make another tour of all these churches, Paul said, "Let's go." Barnabas, let's go again. And Barnabas said, "I got to take my cousin." And Paul said, "Hey, we took 29:13 him last time." And you know what happened? He dropped out. We can't take him. No. Barnabas said we have to take him. And they had a disagreement. Two people called by God. Within two years they disagreed. On what point? Barnabas says, "I got to 29:29 take him." Paul said, "Sorry, I will not compromise. A man who drops out like that in God's word, I will not accept him." And the sad thing is two people whom God united, Paul and Barnabas, two years later, the devil succeeded in 29:46 separating them. These are lessons for us to learn. And so Paul went with Silas. And listen to this. You never read of Barnabas again in the Acts of the Apostles. 30:04 You read of Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. Well, I'm not trying to read too much into it, but I see it's significant that the Holy Spirit does not mention Barnabas again when a man, he was a wonderful man. He was called a son of encouragement, great 30:19 brother. In fact, he was the one who brought Paul into the church when everybody rejected him. But when a man favors his relative and goes against the leading of the spirit, something serious happens. 30:39 When a man is willing to break up a godappointed relationship because he wants to favor his cousin or his uncle or his wife or you know you read in the book of in revelation chapter 2 theatra the elder was being influenced by his wife 30:58 you read that I don't have time to turn there the holy spirit said through John you leader of theatra your wife is a Jezebel you know what a jezebel is jezebel is guy in the there was a woman in the Old Testament who influenced Ahab to turn 31:12 against God's servant Neabbath got him killed and here was somebody who's called with the same spirit of Jezebel trying to influence her husband against the way God wants to lead that church. I've seen that type of situation 31:28 where a wife influences her husband who's an elder in a church to turn against the way God wants to lead that church. Be careful. If God has called you to something, don't let your wife influence you in the wrong direction. I 31:43 remember when Annie was proposed to me and I was proposed to her by a very godly man. The one man whom both of us respected, I told her before I got married to her, I said, "Listen, Annie, you'll always be number two in my life. 31:56 You'll never be first." You know how when they pe people when they get married, they say, "Oh, my darling, you'll be always be number one in my life." I told her, "Darling, you'll always be number two in my life." And I 32:07 said, "I want to be number two in your life, too, because I want Jesus to be first in your life and mine." We have married now for 57 years. I still tell her the same thing. Darling, you'll always be number two, and I want to be 32:19 number two. That's why we have a happy marriage. You put Jesus second in your life, I can give you in writing, you'll have a miserable marriage. Always make your wife second to Christ, your husband second to Christ. So Paul put Christ 32:35 first. Barnabas put his nephew or his cousin, whatever Mark was. But one good thing I see. Paul was not an unforgiving type of person. Oh, I'll never have anything to do with Mark at all. He wanted to redeem that guy, young 32:53 chap. And later on he tells in one of his letters, "Bring Mark along because he's profitable to the gospel." Mark learned a lesson that the great apostle Paul rejected me. He repented. That's great that he repented and 33:12 uh because Paul was strict. Sometimes you have to be strict with a person and if that person repents, he responds. And you know what he did? He wrote the gospel of Mark. You know the story behind the gospel of Mark now. So it's wonderful how God 33:27 leads. So when you read scripture carefully, you see some amazing things. God allowed Moses to go through that and God said, "Okay, four 2 million Israelites, 600,000 men and many women and children have to suffer for 30 years 33:43 more." Why? Because a man of God is not ready. And the way it has come to me is like this. I was 35 years old when God called me to start CFC, the first church. 34:00 I said, "Lord, I don't know. Was I supposed to be ready at the age of 30 like all your servants were called? I don't know. Did I delay your purpose? If so, I'm sorry. I don't know. I don't know what your plan for my life was." 34:18 But I have thought about that and I said, "Well, Lord, I if it was like that, I'm sorry that I wasted five years and made other people suffer. But I want to take that seriously. I want to repent and make sure that I don't delay any 34:30 more of your purposes. I'm I'm 85 now and I really sought thereafter these 50 years along with my wife to try and listen carefully to what God is saying and never compromise. It has le it very often it has led to suffering and people have taken me to 34:48 court in different situations because I've stood for the truth but that's okay. I said I'll be true to you God. I I don't care if I suffer financial loss. I don't care what people have called me the devil and all types of things. 35:00 People would publish tracks saying that I was an agent of the devil and that what I was spreading was poison. I said I'll forgive them. I love them. I will have nothing against anybody, but I don't want to miss God's plan for my 35:14 life. I don't want God's plans like in Moses case for people to suffer for 30 years or even one year because of my failure. God has got a calling for your life, my brother, sister. Don't frustrate that by supporting your 35:31 relatives, whether it's your wife or your cousin or your whatever it is like John Mark or like the elder in Theatra. Put Jesus first. You'll never lose out. I've had to offend a lot of my relatives. Some of my closest relatives, 35:49 they haven't entered our house for 20 years. They're supposed to be believers, but because we stand for the Lord. That's fine. What can I do? I love them. I don't wish any evil for them, but I have to take a stand for the Lord. 36:06 It can be like that with you. And I want to ask say this to you any of you here who bend towards your relatives. There was a verse in Leviticus where the Lord said, "I called my people out of Egypt to make them walk upright." 36:24 God wants you to make upright that nobody can bend you, that your wife cannot bend you, that your husband cannot bend you, that you walk upright, that Jesus holds you upright, that you don't bend to anybody. Your boss cannot bend you. You say, "I'm 36:39 sorry, sir. I can't do that. I'm a Christian. I've had I said that many times in the Navy, I'm sorry, sir. I'm a Christian. I can't do that." If you refuse to bend, I'll tell every one of you sitting here. God can do miracles through you, an amazing 36:55 ministry through you. But if he sees that you bent, either you may completely miss out on God's plan for your life. Let me give you another example which you know very well. Do you know that before Jesus selected his 12 disciples, he prayed all night? 37:15 Is the only place in the Bible where we read he prayed on many times he would go out into the wilderness and pray. But in Luke chapter 6, we read in verse 12, at that time, Luke 6:12, it was at this 37:30 time that Jesus went into the mountain far away from any human beings alone to pray. And he spent the whole night in prayer. Now, he didn't do that regularly. Most nights he slept well. But sometimes he had a 37:49 tremendous burden. There are times when you have a burden in your heart and you have to pray until that burden goes. A burden and he had a burden to pray all night. And his burden was Lord Father 38:07 I have time has now come to select who is going to continue the work that I have started. I've had that burden too. The work that we started 50 years ago that the Lord started. I'm getting old and through the years I 38:25 said, "Lord, there has to be someone to take over that work." And God's raised up in India 12 brothers who've taken over the work. I've handed it over completely to them. I don't have anything to do with the 38:43 work in India. Now they ask me now and then or if they have any advice but they've I've trained them through the years to take over the work completely. So I can understand how Jesus was burdened. Who shall I hand over this work to? I'm 39:00 not going to be here forever. He knew that it was only a very short time. He had a ministry of only three and a half years. And in three and a half years, I mean I took 50 years to train these 12 brothers. Jesus in three and a half 39:13 years he had to train these people. And it says he went he woke up in the he woke up he didn't wake up. I mean he finished his prayer time and when day came verse 13 he called he had many disciples from that he chose 12. 39:32 He said these are all disciples. These 12 are apostles. How did he choose them? After a whole night in prayer, he thought of this name, this name, this name, this name. Maybe there are hundred of them. All his disciples, this one, this one, and the 39:48 father says, "No, no, no. I want to be sure, father. I want to be sure. Am I making you?" You remember he came here as a man. I mean, it was not that God spoke to him this name, this name, this name, this name. Then he needed only five minutes 40:03 or one minute to get the 12 names. Why did he have to pay all night? Because he came like you and me. And very often we cannot find God's will. So God doesn't just speak like that. Write it all down. He had to pray all night to get 12 40:18 names. Now I don't know why God made it like that, but God made it like that. That we had to wait on the Lord to get the answer. If you're in a hurry, you may miss out on God's best. You or you may get it all 40:35 wrong. He would have got 12 wrong names. But he decided, "No, I want to be absolutely sure. Okay, it seems to me these are the names my father's impressing on my mind, but I want to be sure. Wait, wait, wait, wait. By early 40:48 morning, he's sure. These are the ones my father has selected." And he came and he called all his disciples. And he said, "Simon, verse 14, you're going to be an apostle. Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew." 41:07 He's calling out different one. There are 100 disciples there. Out of that, he's calling out names. Matthew, Thomas, Camir, James, I mean the James, the son of Alfus, Simon, and Judas. Verse 16, the son of James, and Judas's Scariot. 41:23 Read carefully. He was not a traitor. He became a traitor later on. When you say that somebody became a leper, was he a leper always? No. Remember this. He was not a crook. He was one whom the father said to 41:41 Jesus, "Select him." Judas's scariot was the cleverest of all the 12 disciples apostles. How do I know that? You know, if you can live with people, they all, you know, the 12 disciples 42:00 moved around with Jesus constantly. They go to an inn and they would all stay in the same inn. They travel together three and a half years or at least three years, they were always together. You know, when you interact very closely 42:14 with somebody for 12 years, every day, you really get to know them in different circumstances, how they react and you get to know them. And at the end of 3 years with 12 people like that, if you are one of them moving around, moving 42:30 around, you you get a pretty good idea if somebody is a crook or not, you will know. Yet at the last supper when the Lord says, "One of you is going to betray me," nobody thinks is Judas. Nobody thinks in the I know it must be 42:46 Judas. How is that? How could a man who is a crook move around with 11 sharp clever people and never get exposed? Because he was a clever guy than all of them. Judas was the cleverest and I have a 43:05 theory that Judas's the cleverest most educated intelligent of all those 12 people. How do I say that? because he could live 11 three and a half years with these 11 people and none of them discovered he was the crook. They always keep asking, 43:20 I don't know who is it, Lord. Who is it, Lord? Who's it? Is it me? They never look at Judas and say, he's the one. Therefore, I think he was a very, very clever man. And my theory is that he was the one who was supposed to 43:32 write the all the letters to the Corinthians and the Ephesians and to go around planting all these churches. But he lost his crown and Paul Paul got it. I believe Paul is God's second choice. The first was Judas's Scariot. Now, I'm 43:48 willing to be wrong there, but I believe that type of thing has happened in the in the world where God selects somebody and he doesn't, you know, doesn't he's not faithful and God gives that crown to somebody else, gives that ministry to 44:02 somebody else. I've been very concerned about that myself. I said, Lord, I don't want to miss the ministry you gave for me because I went after money or went after some honor. I mean for example if when God called me at the age of I was 24 44:18 years old when I heard the call of God very clearly. I remember it on the 6th of May 1964 God spoke to me so clearly. You are my servant. I have made your mouth like a sharp sword and you are an arrow in my quiver that I shall use to fire at the 44:33 enemy. I said Lord I'm ready to leave. and I left my job and it was confirmed to me by God's servants and I said Lord I don't want to miss out on your will supposing I had said no at that time no I I want to live a comfortable life I'm getting a good 44:52 salary I've got a good position I've got a chance to go right up to be a admiral of the navy and all that God would not have forced me he said okay go ahead and I'd have completely missed God's will I wouldn't have married Annie 45:08 I don't know. I have married some other girl who was interested in position and honor and I'd have missed completely God's will. It's possible. It's just a slight deviation of the path God wants you to take. I'm mentioning this for people 45:21 like you, young people. God's got a plan for your life. Don't miss it. I knew it would be a line of life of sacrifice and self-denial. It's not going to be a comfortable life like it would have been if I was in the Navy. 45:36 And because I said yes, I'm very thankful 50 years now, 66 years later now. I say 60 years later, thank you Lord that you helped me at that time to take the right decision. I'm saying that for your encouragement and challenge. 45:50 If the path looks difficult, if God calls you, he will stick with you till the end. I can say that on the 6th of May 1966, two years after I was called, the Navy released me. They took a long time to 46:08 release me. From that day till today, the Lord's taken care of me. We've been through a lot of financial struggles. God gave me a wife who was willing to go through it all because God called her also. And we went through many financial 46:25 struggles. We went through difficulties. We've been through sicknesses. We had sicknesses with our children and some serious sicknesses. But God healed them, delivered them. God Annie has been sick. I have been sick. God's healed us and 46:40 taken us through so many things. But ultimately, we say, "Lord, you've been faithful. You've preserved us. We're happily married. We've seen so many churches planted in so many countries of the world. And the word of God has gone 46:54 through almost every nation on the face of the earth with the our YouTube messages and word for the week. We counted once it was 186 countries they were receiving the message. So we praise the Lord and how you could you could 47:09 miss all that just by a slight turning just a little five degrees to the right and you missed God's will. I'm saying this for you that you should not miss God's will. Everyone sitting here, whatever your age, you cannot do 47:23 anything about the past, forget the things that are behind. That's what Paul said. Reach forward to the things are in front of you. God's got a plan. If you're single, please don't get married to the wrong person. Marry someone who loves the Lord like 47:42 you. If you're half-hearted, become wholehearted. then look for a wholehearted wife or a wholehearted husband. I would ra it's better to be single than to marry the wrong person. Your hell will begin on earth if you 48:01 marry the wrong person. And your heaven can begin on earth if you marry the right person. It's true. Our home is a little bit like heaven today. I can honestly say that before God. You'll never hear raised voices. It wasn't like that in the beginning. We 48:19 slowly came to to that place. We progress spiritually. God wants every one of you here, those who are single, he wants you to have a home which is like heaven. Won't come overnight, but it'll get there if you marry the right 48:33 person. Those of you who are married, if you do choose the way of the cross, deny yourself every single day. I remember when I was met Annie and before our marriage I I asked her what type of books do you read and I found 48:50 that the same type of books about the way of the cross that I was reading. I said wow that's wonderful and this is the right person because she understood the way of the cross that I understood too. And uh so make sure that the person you 49:06 decide to marry has got the same vision and goal as you to live for God 100%. Don't look for the earthly values first. I've often suggested when you get when you want to get married, man is spirit, soul, and body. That's what the Bible 49:25 says. Spirit is the godward part. Soul is our earthly part, soul and body. Soul is the mind and emotions and the spirit is our relationship with God. So I say whenever you want to get married if you give marks out of 100 49:42 give 50 marks out of 100 for spiritual values in choosing a partner 30 marks for intellectual and uh the other ways in which our personality agree with each other. 50:00 and 20 marks for physical appearance. You say, "Brother Zach, you mean physical appearance is also important?" Well, you have to be attracted to her. You You have to be attracted to him. There's nothing wrong in physical 50:15 attraction. She doesn't have to be the most beautiful woman in the world. No, she must be beautiful in your eyes. Please don't go and marry a Miss Universe because hundreds of people will be after her and you'll have a miserable 50:29 life. But in your eyes, she must be the most beautiful woman in the world. For all your life, she will be the most beautiful woman in the world. So I mean in your eyes 20 marks for physical qualities, 50:46 30 marks for intellectual, emotional likeness, similarity, and 50 marks for spirituality, God-fearing, humble, seeking to f of Christ first. That's the way you should consider marriage and God will lead you to the right person. And you pray, God 51:05 will lead you to the right person. So what I'm trying to say is God's got a plan for your life. Moses didn't miss it, but he missed it for 30 years. And many people suffered because of that. Joseph didn't miss it. He suffered and 51:21 the and the at the age of 30. He became the second ruler. Jesus didn't miss it. At the age of 30, he went to baptism. And the father said, "I'm well pleased with you. Go out. You're anointed. You're going out into my ministry. 51:36 Sometimes we go on the wrong parts. The Apostle Paul, for example, he went on widely wrong parts. He was persecuting Christians completely out of God's will. But at the right time, he repented. I think he was also around 30. And the 51:55 Lord met with him and turned him around. And when he turned around, he turned around radically. The one who was persecuting Christians now began to lead people to Christ. So all these examples in scripture are a tremendous encouragement to us but they 52:11 go through suffering. David for example. I think he was about 20 years old when Samuel poured the oil anointing oil on his head and said you are going to be the king. And at the age of 20 he went and killed Goliath. The entire army of Israel was 52:28 scared. And he goes with a stone and kills Goliath. He's ready to be king at the age of 20. But no, God's plan is he has to be king at the age of 30. So I say, why didn't God anoint him just one day before he was 30 or something 52:46 and anoint him? No. Then he's got to be prepared to be a king. How do you prepare a person to be a king? Not by sending him to colleges and schools and all. send him into the wilderness and get king Saul to chase him and he 53:01 has to run for his life. Is that how you train person to be king? Yeah, that's how God trains his people. Run for your life. Go and hide in a cave and then take Saul will come after you there. Run from there and go to another place and 53:14 you have to run for your life all the time. For 10 years he was running for his life. One day Saul was at his mercy, lying in his sleep in a cave. Cave where David was hiding. Saul came and slept there. And David's friend said, "There he is. God 53:32 has delivered him into your hands. Kill him. He'll be the king." David said, "I won't touch him." He cut a corner of Saul's dress. And when Saul got up and went away, David said, "King Saul, I could have killed 53:50 you. Here's a bit of your robe. I wouldn't touch you because I fear God." What a man he was. He would not grab the kingdom. He waited for God to give it to him. A little bit of advice, 54:05 brothers. Don't grab. Don't grab. I believe that I never grabbed Annie to be my wife. I believe there was a reserved mark, invisible reserved mark written on her 54:23 that nobody could touch her till I came along. And I've said that to young people. If you are walking in the will of God and God's planned some girl for you or some boy for you, there'll be an invisible reserved mark there. God will not allow 54:40 anybody to take him or her till you come. God is almighty. There's wonderful ways he can reserve somebody for you. So young people don't grab. You don't have to grab anything. Let keep your palms open. God will dump it in your 54:59 God. I did not grab any ministry in my life. God just dumped it into my hand and gave it to me when I was ready. And so everything in your life we must receive from God and give it to him. Don't grab. No, our palms must always be 55:17 open. I see the only thing only person I'll grab is God himself. I'll grab a hold of Jesus. And I have open palms for everything else in the world. Even the money I have, I always say, Lord, I'll keep money in my open palm. It's in a 55:31 bank account in my name, but it's an open palm. You can take it. You can take it all away. Sometimes God has allowed me to lose money in the business I do. I've supported myself with a small business through all these years because 55:44 that's how Paul supported himself and I tried to follow that example and sometimes I've lost and the Lord has said that is to answer a prayer you have been praying. What was I praying? I saying Lord free me from the love of money. So he allows 55:59 me to lose a huge amount of money. That's how he made freed me from the love of money. So if you we have to be free from the love of money to love God. But the way he'll make you free from the love of money is make you lose a huge 56:10 amount. Praise God. Every time I've lost I've said praise God I'm a little more free from the love of money. I say I'm more interested in being free from the love of money than seeing whether my bank account is bank balance is 56:24 increasing. When my bank balance goes down because of some blunder I made I say praise God I'm free from the love of money. Do you ever look at it like that? That's how a godly person sees. I'm not interested in my bank balance going up. 56:38 I'm interested in being free from the love of money. You take these things seriously. And I tell you, there's no limit to how much God can use you. I remember once I asked the Lord this question. I said, Lord, India has got 56:52 nearly two billion people. I some number, I don't remember the exact number, but it's the largest population in the whole world. We overtook China some years ago. the largest population in the whole world, so many thousand million people. 57:08 Where are the prophets? Doesn't the country with so many people so many people in it should have at least a few prophets who speak God's word fearlessly? Where are they? I see I look around and I see every Christian running after money and every Christian 57:25 writing letters to America and Germany and Europe to tell people, "We're doing a great work. Send us money. send us money and deceiving people and and all the Hindus in non-Christians in India say all these Christians are just 57:38 beggars who write abroad for money money we don't want that religion and they turn away from Christianity because of that I said Lord where are the prophets who will stand against all this where are the people who will take a whip and go 57:54 into the temple and drive out the money changers and expose the lovers of And the Lord has spoken to me. He said, "There are many people, young people I called to be prophets in this land. 58:13 But somewhere along the way, they took the wrong turning. They married the wrong girl. They went after some other place to make money. one after the other again and again and again. I called them for the ministry and they 58:31 missed out. They missed out. They missed out. And it's broken God's heart. Where are the prophets in the United States today or whichever country you're from? 58:51 You think they're all following the Lord? people in your country. Every country in the world, people are as heathen as they are in India. And it's worse to be a heathen with a Christian label than to be a heathen 59:09 with some other religious labor. God needs prophets and women who will marry such prophets and support them 100%. That's what this country needs. It's what every country needs. And that's what the Lord said. Somebody 59:27 got deviated with money and somebody fell in love with some girl and somebody got attracted with something else and someone would compromise watching pornography and wouldn't give up that or somebody wanted a little more money 59:40 somewhere or cheated somewhere. And the one whom I called to be a prophet ended as a backslider. And people are in hell today who should have been prophets. The Lord didn't say that we can make ourselves a prophet. It says in let me 1:00:00 show you this. I wish I could go on for many hours but I think I'll stop here. Matthew chapter 9. Now think of the people in your country 1:00:19 when you read this verse. Matthew chapter 9. Jesus from heaven is looking at the people in your country or your town or your village or your little town from which you have come to this conference wherever you come from 1:00:36 whichever state or whichever town apply this to your situation. Now turn to Matthew 9:36. Seeing the people, the people in your town, wherever you come from, Jesus felt compassion for them. 1:00:55 I believe with all my heart, you can apply that to the town you come from. Jesus looks at them, he has compassion for them because they are distressed. That means they led astray. They are dispirited. Many of them are 1:01:12 suffering. They they've given up hope. And the devil has led them astray. Like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep without a shepherd just wander led astray by deceivers. That's how the town you and I are in. 1:01:30 And then he said to his disciples, "There's a plentiful harvest here. Apply that to your town. But the workers are few. True laborers. People are willing to work hard and persspire and sweat it out to serve the 1:01:49 Lord. And they will do it not for a salary but because they love Jesus. That's all. Zero salary. Zero gifts. But we'll do it out of love for the Lord. So what shall you do? Did he tell them? So go out. That's not what he said. And 1:02:07 that's not what I tell you. The workers are few. Don't go. Pray. Pray that the Lord will send the right workers. It's interesting. These 12 disciples are listening. He didn't say go. Pray that the Lord will send out the 1:02:29 workers he has chosen into this harvest. If you go without being chosen and sent by God, you'll make a mess of God's work. I've seen that people say, "Oh, I want to go and do that." And they make a mess. If they had stayed away from that, 1:02:44 at least something would have happened there. They go and spoil the whole thing. So pray, beseech the Lord. Pray. Beseech is a strong word. Lord, there's a big harvest here in my hometown. If I'm not fit for it, send somebody else here. But this work 1:03:03 has to be done. Send out workers into his harvest. May God bless you all. Thank you for coming for this conference. I hope you got something here that you will never forget and that'll challenge you to seek the Lord with all your heart. 1:03:22 I'll tell you this. After being a Christian for 66 years, it's the best life you can ever live on the face of the earth. And if God calls you to serve him full-time like me, then you are truly blessed. And you may be in a 1:03:36 secular job and still God's work. I know many people in our churches in CFC churches who are elders, they are actually better than the full-time Christian workers. you doing a job earning a living just like Paul worked to earn his living and I worked 1:03:53 to earn my living but um our main calling is serving the Lord so praise God for such people and you can be one like that don't give up your job and become full-time worker without being able to support yourself find a way to 1:04:07 support yourself and serve the Lord with all your heart that's the best way to do it in our time and day age let's way. One of the wonderful things is in our day and age that we have technology by which you can listen to this message 1:04:26 again when you go home and get the things you didn't get when you listen to it here. If you felt challenged by it, go home and listen to it again. It'll be there on YouTube in a few days. Heavenly Father, I pray for every single 1:04:44 person here. I believe people who have spent so much money to travel and come here. So much money to rent a hotel and stay here. They did not come here to waste their time. They came here with earnestness to hear your 1:05:04 voice. And I believe they heard it. And I believe they are sincere. There are such a lot of sincere people sitting here and who are listening right now in different places. I believe you got a plan for every single one of their lives, young and 1:05:21 old. And my prayer, heavenly father, is not one of them will miss your plan because your plan is the best. So that when they come to the end of their life, they can say, "Lord Jesus, like you said, I have finished the work God gave me to do. 1:05:41 Help us all to be able to say that Lord. Help us to seek with all our heart to remain to be filled with the Holy Spirit and remain filled with the spirit to glorify your name. Bless this church and all that it does to spread your word across this country. 1:06:00 Thank you for this time and all these days in Jesus name. Amen. [Music]
