0:00 and we'll pray. Uh uh please open your Bibles to Luke 12 uh 35 and 40. Luke 12 35 and 40. 0:18 Be dress in readiness and keep your lamps lit. and 40. You too be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, pray that you 0:38 would uh speak to us today from the word that you have placed in my heart. I pray that you'd help me to communicate clearly. I pray that I would speak the only the words that you permit me to speak. I pray that um uh that we would be able to understand 0:57 what you want to say and help us to take the warnings in the scripture you have given to us seriously. Uh thank you so much Lord for your faithfulness uh all these years uh Lord in speaking to us and I trust that you would do it today 1:10 again and I commit myself into your hands in Jesus name I pray. Amen. So as I was praying uh one of this phrase that I just read uh that has been in my heart and this is a 1:29 phrase that I was thinking about uh for this message today. Be dressed in readiness and keep your lamps lit. uh it's very important for the times we are living in as we see uh the sin is becoming more sinful and the love of 1:47 love towards God is becoming cold. Everything is accepted now in these days. Um so we as a children of God we should not be surprised about what is happening and we should be prepared. So we should be ready. We should be dressed 2:04 up in readiness and keep our lamps lit as Jesus explained in those verses. And um I also want you to open Luke chapter 17 and uh which where Jesus explains what are these times like the times when the son of man will be coming his second 2:22 coming um the day of the lord how those things would be would look like and Jesus repeatedly and the scripture repeatedly talks about the second coming and um these are the verses uh that explain a little bit more clearly Luke 2:37 chapter 17. Um, and just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating, they were drinking, 2:57 they were marrying, they were being given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot. They were eating, 3:16 they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that the Lord that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven 3:34 and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. So Jesus took two examples, the days of Noah and the days of the lot. And these 3:51 two examples he explained what people were doing at the time. Uh very normal activities that we typically do uh especially in the days of Noah. We see they were just eating and drinking which we also do. They were marrying and also 4:09 given in marriage until the day of the flood. So what happened? Everything looks normal just like the way we see today, right? Um we are also doing the same thing normal activities. What exactly happened? Why God had to destroy 4:26 the entire creation except for Noah and his family. Uh because Noah found grace in the sight of God. uh we will uh briefly look at chap Genesis chapter 6 shortly but everything looks normal that normaly the spirit of normaly and we 4:42 also see that um in these days yeah things are going normal but think about the days of Noah nobody expected that there would be a sudden flood and everything was destroyed everything except for Noah's family and same thing 4:58 in the days of Lot they were again eating and drinking king and they were buying it's even better like farther buying and selling which shows there was times of prosperity they were like they're thinking that this is the world 5:13 they're going to live in they're buying and selling they're putting their money uh and they're also planting and building signs of prosperity and again we see those those things even these days uh I think ever since covid days a 5:27 lot of people are trading stocks bitcoin crypto uh buying and selling houses and all of that is happening. We're eating and drinking just the everything is normal. But even in the last days, Jesus said it will be like the days of Noah. 5:41 It will be like the days of Lot. And it is up to us for us to be prepared for the days of uh the day that son of man is going to come back. Um so we should not be taken up with surprise. The people in the world who do not know the 5:57 scripture will be taken up with surprise about the son of man coming back. But not us if we are rooted in the scripture. And again the similar uh verses we find in Matthew 24. Uh if you want to quickly look at um Matthew 24 6:15 35-39 Matthew 24 35-39 so when scripture repeats itself we must take all these warnings seriously and that is my burden today for all of us. 6:34 35 Jesus is saying heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away. If you have any doubt whether this will be true, this will become true. Even heaven and earth will pass away. But not my words. Jesus says, but of the 6:48 day and hour, no one knows. Not even the angels of heaven, nor the son, but the father alone. No one knows exactly that pinpointed time. But what he explains next verse, for the coming of the son of man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those 7:07 days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away. So will the son of man coming of 7:22 the son of man be. So it's again the same similar explanation. We do not know the exact timing but we know the signs of those times. So for us for the spiritually if you want to be spiritually discerning we need to discern understand the times 7:37 that we are living in uh so that we won't be unprepared. Um so let's uh read from Genesis chapter 6 what exactly was going on in the days of Noah. uh Genesis chapter 6, it explains a little bit more 7:54 clearly uh why God repented that he created um the world Genesis chapter 6 there multiple things were happening. Uh first verse 8:11 five. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The wickedness was great on the earth. Every intent of the thoughts of the heart was 8:30 only evil. So if um we as human beings cannot understand the thoughts and the intents of the heart of other person but God knows and he this is the statement he made the wickedness was so great and every intent of the thoughts of the 8:43 heart was only evil and he was sorry that he made man on this earth and then uh other thing is and was corrupt and full of violence. If you see verses uh uh 11, now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God. Earth was filled with violence. 9:03 There was so much of violence going on just like the times we see. We see lot of mass shootings and uh people killing each other. Uh again full of violence. This is again the thoughts and entrance of the heart were evil, wickedness. It 9:18 was corrupt, filled with violence. And again some strange thing was happening that is in uh in the beginning of the verse uh beginning of this chapter verse two um that the son of sons of god saw the daughters of men were beautiful and they 9:35 took wives for themselves whomver they chose. This is very strange. The sons of God is some angelic beings, spiritual beings uh possessed some men and they married the daughters of men, the human beings because they chose they found 9:50 they were beautiful and they uh then we see that they had uh children and they called the raise of Nephilim. Uh we see that in the next few verses uh verse four that Nephilim were on the earth. very strange something demonic 10:04 corruption like the spiritual beings marrying um human beings and something very very strange all these things were happening when the flood came uh along with eating and drinking and participating in the normal activities 10:21 uh the regular people didn't even know that all these things were happening uh people were not spiritually discerning and uh similarly uh the days of Lot we see that there's a rampant homosexuality. Um because of that the 10:37 word the city's name Sodom is used for for the word sodomy and it is uh it is a abomination. It is such a grievous sin that was happening there and before the Lord rained sulfur and brimstone on and destroyed everything and there were a 10:56 lot of things uh like that were happening and we see some some indications in Ezekiel Ezekiel 16 you don't have to open it also explain that verse explains the root cause uh they were proud they were arrogant the the uh 11:12 fullness of bread the idleness neglecting the poor, being indifferent and um and all of that led to this homosexual sins. And one of the incident we see when the angels go to rescue Lot. Uh there was attempt to gang rape uh 11:29 homosexual gang rape there and uh thankfully that did not happen but that was the culture they were living in and leading to that fiery destruction. again they were eating and drinking and buying and selling planting and building. So my 11:45 dear brothers and sisters even in these days let's uh examine uh the times that we are living in so that we will not be caught unprepared. Uh Jesus never gave us the timeline exact time but he gave us these signs of this time. Um and he 12:02 also used this expression right the Lord comes at a time when you're not expecting he will come like a thief. The thief who wants to steal from your house will not come will not tell you at the time that he's coming. He will tell at 12:17 the time you don't expect you least expect. Uh that's how we we are taken up by surprise. Um let's read this uh verse a couple of verses from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 4 to8. 12:35 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 4 to8 But you brethren are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light, 12:52 sons of the day. We are not of night nor of darkness. Then so, so then let us not sleep as others do. But let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. So we are 13:10 called sons of light and we are called um uh sons of the day, sons of light and day. And we are not sons of darkness. We just heard in the memory verse uh we are no longer uh we now because of Jesus Christ we became the children of God. Uh 13:29 God became our father. We are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And we should not be caught unaware like the rest of the people do because we are the children of God. And uh while everyone is saying 13:42 peace and safety that destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman. And suddenly people who experience who are pregnant who gave birth sometimes the labor pains come suddenly without even at the time you 13:54 may not expect something like that or something like a thief attempting to rob uh thief coming and trying to steal at a time when you do not expect. So when we are like that when we are uh living like that let us be alert. Bible says let us 14:10 be alert. Let us not be like uh people who sleep. Um let us be alert and be sober. Um and also I want to say a few words, few warnings for those of us. I I I know in our 14:27 church most of us are born again. I I I can make that assumption because of uh people are born again. We are here uh we became part of the body of Christ. But certainly there will be some people who have not given their lives to Jesus 14:42 Christ, who have not uh come to the point where they have surrendered their lives to him or who have uh who are still contemplating or maybe on the fence or who have not made that decision. Maybe uh teenagers, maybe 14:58 adults. Um there's a a verse that I I I get scared of one verse in Hebrews 10:31. It says it is terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Um we have time. This is the time of grace. 15:16 God is extending the grace for all of us to repent. But the time of grace will expire one day. And it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Of all the decisions that are ahead of you, um this is one of the 15:31 most important decision you need to make. Uh when you come to Christ, you have to make him as the Lord. I whether you make him a Lord or you are rejecting him. Um if you want to postpone that decision I warn you there is no 15:44 guarantee for tomorrow. There is no guarantee for tomorrow. What would happen next moment? Nobody knows. Bible explains our life is like a vapor just for a moment. Compared to the eternity our life is like a vapor. How many 15:58 people see the vapor and it just comes and disappears. And all the prophecies for Christ's return are completed. That means his return is imminent. His return is imminent. If you think that I have time, think again. Uh we don't have 16:17 guarantee about our life and Christ's return is imminent. The grace period will expire. Now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Don't postpone my dear brothers and sisters. Um uh this is one of the 16:32 important one. I don't know whether I should not call brothers and sisters but my dear uh fellow people who are here who do not know you. The moment the it is it you're not coming to God on your good works on your merit. We do not go 16:47 to doctor after we get well. We go to doctor when we are sick and Jesus came for the sinners like you and me. And it is not like we become perfect and come to Christ. We come just as we are as we are today and he will make us righteous 17:03 and we do not uh come because of our righteous acts. Our righteous acts are are like filthy rags before God and they're not acceptable. Um today if you hear his his voice do not harden your hearts. Um and also one warning it says 17:20 in Isaiah seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek the Lord while he may be found. So I encourage and warn and exhort you all who have not made that decision. Please think again and seek the Lord while he may be found. It is a 17:36 terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is appointed for man to die once and then comes judgment. Um so that leads me to that u the judgment of the believers. So there is a judgment for unbelievers and there is a 17:52 judgment for believers too. Uh the judgment for believers is different from the judgment of unbelievers. Um let's read uh 2 Corinthians 5:10 quickly. 2 Corinthians 5:10. It says for we must all appear before 18:18 the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad. This is written to the believers. So this is uh for all of us who are believers. We must all all of 18:35 us no exception appear before the judgment seat of Christ and we will be recompensed for his for our deeds in the body whether good or bad and uh some of the works that we do for the Lord will all be tested through fire. There's 18:50 another verse which says that each man's work will be tested through fire uh so that it will reveal like some of the works will remain and you'll get reward some of the things will be burned up and we will suffer loss uh but we ourselves 19:04 will be saved. So some of the things that will be burnt up are the works that we do on our own merit or something that we initiated not initiated by God. But if there is a work initiated by God done through God's power, God's strength in 19:18 his will that work will last. And uh again recently I experienced watching some purification of gold. uh the gold has to be taken through fire and that's where all the impurities will be removed and the gold will remain as gold even 19:34 through the fire that's how our works will be tested through the fire and the works if they are done through God's power they will be they will remain and God will reward us so let's think about this judgment seat uh of Christ uh where 19:49 we are all going to meet it's not like uh okay because just because we are believers we are the children of God we don't have any judgment. There is a judgment but the judgment about how we lived on this earth. And um also I want to show you one verse 20:06 that was in my mind. This is uh from the book of Amos uh speaking on on the subject of uh judgment. Please open Amos. Amos is a small book uh It comes after 20:44 I have these verses here. So Amos 4:12 it says there is an expression that comes. It says prepare to meet your God, O Israel. So I was thinking why God said that verse there and there are there is a reason why he said those verses uh 21:02 that statement prepare to meet your God O Israel. Um in the same chapter chapter 4 if you see there are few verses uh where God sends some afflictions on Israel but this expression comes yet you did not return to me. Yet you did not 21:19 return to me. So verse six, I gave you cleanness of teeth, yet you did not return to me. Which is which means famine. There's no food. Cleanness of teeth. Our teeth will be clean when we don't eat anything. So that's what 21:33 that's experience. They had to go through famine. Yet the Israel did not return to God. And verse 7 to8, drought and thirst, God withheld rain, yet they did not return to him. uh some sometimes God sends some afflictions for us so that we'll become 21:53 we'll return to God and to become closer to him. And then third one verse 9 a crop failure. Uh he stuck with the um the crops and then there's no there's no um there's no um nothing was yielding 22:11 and there's no food. So again, they did not return to God. And there was plague and war. Verse 10, I sent pestilence, killed your young men, yet you did not return to me. Again, such a um pain and affliction God had to send uh to make 22:30 them return. Yet they did not return. And at the end, they he sends some terrifying catastrophe. Verse 11, yet they did not return to God. That's when he says verse 12, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Um, so this expression, 22:46 let's think about it. Are we are we prepared to meet our God? Uh, just think about it, contemplated because the reason I say is one more year is coming to an end. Uh, we I still remember the beginning of this year. Now we at the 23:02 end of the year, we'll be very busy with a lot of activities activities during this time. Let's not forget these warnings uh that we just heard days of Noah, days of Lord and so that we can set things right when we have time and 23:16 be prepared to meet. Uh did you ever think Lord is this is tonight? Is it your coming? Is is this the day? Is this the hour or is this the year of your coming? Am I prepared? Am I ready to meet you? Am I dressed up in readiness? 23:33 Are my lamps lit? or if if you sense that God is coming now, you have some things to do. If that is the case, I think we need to correct our actions. We need to take care of ourselves and uh set things right and be prepared to meet 23:48 God. Um few things I have written down as part of that preparation. Uh I just want to go over them. Um first, first and foremost is focus on purity in inner life. Uh this is very important because many 24:08 Christians focus on the external testimony how we look like outside to the people. But Jesus said clearly in Matthew 23 uh if we clean inside the outside of the club cup also will be clean. The cleansing should start from inside. I 24:27 will never drink coffee if my wife has not cleansed the inside of the cup and she says okay I cleaned it outside. Take the cup of coffee. No, please clean it inside. And God cannot fill us with the Holy Spirit. If we are not cleansing 24:39 ourselves and of all known sin, if our inside of the cup is so unclean, how can he fill us? So it's not the external testimony that's the most important, but the inside of our cup, inside of the cup, inside of our hearts. Let the 24:53 cleansing start from inside. Let us examine our thoughts. Uh let's examine our attitudes and motives. Um recently I was uh listening to one sermon from CH Spersian. Um it's about life and what we say our life and words basically what we 25:11 confess is it matching with the life that we live. Uh I want to read few quotes that really challenged me. It says, "If someone could if someone could not hear a single word you say about God and could only watch the way 25:27 you live, would they still know you belong to Christ?" Suppose someone comes to your home, they don't know you are Christians. You don't share the gospel. You don't talk about Bible. But just they will observe how we live with your 25:41 wife, how you live with your children, how you conduct yourself, your your workplace, your integrity in workplace, your work ethic, your finances. They just observe. You don't speak a word. Will they know that you belong to Christ 25:55 is a question. And again, he says it's a dreadful thing when a man's religion lives entirely in his mouth. uh we become experts in explaining the ex uh scripture in our times of sharing we come up with very good thoughts I'm 26:11 blessed by a lot of them but that doesn't mean that we are living by the words we spoke not everyone who says lord lord will enter into the kingdom of god but the one who does the will of my father are we the people who does the 26:27 will of the father is a question god is not impressed by our words he's after our hearts uh our mouth can be full of God while our life is far from him. Is that true? In our lives can we examine um words weigh nothing before the throne 26:44 if the life does not agree with them. All these are quotes that I have written down from this sermon. very challenging uh because sometimes in churches like we are in uh we have lot of head knowledge which has not become true and because 27:00 I'm speaking from my own life um the gap between what we profess and the way we are living the obedience the gap could be widening sometimes we need to make put every effort to narrow the gap lord whatever I profess let it become true in 27:15 my life let me obey the inner reality should uh uh my external testimony should match the inner reality. What I confess uh should match with how I live. Uh the same thought is you can see that in uh in the parable of the wise virgins 27:32 or parable of the wise virgins. Five virgins were wise and they got the extra oil and they were even trimming their lamps as the bridegroom was coming. They were trimming the lamps. Are you trimming the lamps? Are you purifying 27:47 yourself as God exposes something so that you know I don't know whether you lived uh with those lamps I lived in India so we did not have electricity sometimes I go to my grandmother's house it's a village where there is no 27:59 electricity we have this kerosin lamps and there's a small uh uh I don't know what to explain but you have to rotate it and then it comes up and then it keeps burning but sometimes at the evening the women they trim the lamps so 28:13 that it will burn efficiently because there will charred and all of that. So, it has to be removed so that it'll burn efficiently. So, this uh these wise virgins were trimming their lamps and they were ready for the bridegroom. When 28:25 the bridegroom was announced, they were ready to meet him. But the five foolish ones, they did not have the extra extra oil. Their external testimony was good. But the inside their life was not ready for the Lord's coming. That's when they 28:38 had to go out to buy the extra oil and the bridegroom came and the door was shut. I recently I was at a wedding in India and um one of the ceremonies when the bridegroom comes we're all supposed to go and meet him. We're all busy with 28:52 meeting other people and all of that. Suddenly someone hey the bridegroom has arrived that their caravan has come we need to go. Uh if I missed that I would have missed the part of welcoming him uh into the party. So we need to be alert. 29:06 We need to be ready when that's when I thought about this parable. uh like the wise virgins were ready to meet the bridegroom. Um so one way we can do as uh Kalian explained purifying ourselves just as he is pure when we meet him. So 29:22 there is a double hope right we meet him and when we meet him we will be like him so let us purify ourselves just as he is pure that's the first one focus on the inner life uh very important the second live with heavenly mindset we don't live with 29:40 heavenly mindset when we get to heaven we live with heavenly mindset right now I think we heard about this rubber band uh mentality uh the illustration of rubber band brother Zach explained it so many times We should be like the rubber 29:54 band where our mind should be set on heaven and when we do our work attend to our day-to-day activities we attend we stretch ourselves and attend take care of the responsibilities and the moment it is done it is released it is gone 30:10 back to the heaven. So our mind should be constantly revolving around u the heaven the things of God. Uh Bible says set your affection on things above where Christ is seated at the right right hand of right hand of God. Is that true in 30:24 our lives or is it constantly on this earth what is happening on this earth and all of that. What the the test that we have we can exam we can use to examine ourselves is what do we do when we have a free moment? Do you think 30:39 about God? Do you think about things pertaining to heaven is a good question to ask. Um again when we live with the heavenly mindset um the blessing is even if we are going through afflictions remember my brothers my dear brothers and sisters it's only 30:57 for this life. There is a timeline for that it will be done. God will wipe away every tear. So it's only for this earthly life. So when we live with a heavenly mindset we can go through the afflictions joyfully. And again when we 31:09 become prosperous, when God blesses us, when uh money increases, we don't have to like put our hope on it. It is again uncertain. It's again for temporary. So even if our riches increase, we do not set our heart on them. Um both 31:24 afflictions and riches. And again, we need to be like a sojourer. We need to be like the people uh who transit. Recently, I did uh I travel overseas. So there's we transit in one country because it's a long travel. I don't get 31:38 I don't get too comfortable in the transit area. I just get down, use a washroom and get some food, take some rest and get onto the next flight. I won't think about how how do I build a homes here? I mean how do I settle down? 31:51 I don't want to get too comfortable. But there's an exception. I heard one story when one person because of his visa issue, he stayed in uh airport terminal for many years. That's an exception. But most of us will transit in few hours and 32:05 we'll go on to our destination. When our destination is heaven, we don't get too comfortable in the transit area. And uh when our uh we are living with the heavenly mindset, we will see everything that we see as temporal. Things that are seen are 32:20 temporal. In 2 Corinthians 4:18, it says, "But the things that are not seen are eternal. But we may be living exactly opposite way. The things that we see we think that they are permanent and things that we don't see we think that 32:33 they are not permanent. But Bible says exactly opposite. So when we are constantly being renewed uh uh by the word of God we our mindset changes because by default our mindset is earthly mindset. Let us be I think one of the girls who are sharing that verse. 32:49 Let us be uh let us let us renew ourselves with the word of God so that we can be transformed into his likeness. And um Moses also prayed this prayer. Teach me to number my days so that I may live wisely with wisdom. With wisdom uh may 33:07 that be our prayer too. So living with heavenly mindset is the second point I wanted to make. And the third one uh victory over sin and living debtree. Uh victory over sin and living debtree. uh we must as we grow in in increasing 33:24 measure we must be experiencing the victory over sins. uh the sins that were mastering over us uh should not be I mean many years ago at least we should have a victory over some of them and we should be working on the remaining uh we 33:38 should not be going in the backward direction in increasing measure we must experience this promise that sin shall not have any dominion over us because we are not under the law but under the grace of God. Uh so the question I want 33:52 to ask all of us in this year we are in December December 7th right? uh uh in this year did you experience some victory over the sins you are dealing with? Uh if not why uh is the grace of God not sufficient? Uh are we are we not experiencing the 34:11 power of God in certain area? Um so one of the thing that I want to say is um brother Zach says this many times uh in the new covenant life getting offended getting offended is like a kindergarten lesson we should be done with long time 34:29 back. Uh this is one area maybe I think this could be that lowhanging fruit people say right? Um Lord, I want to get over I want to overcome um this um sin of getting offended for what people have done for what people have not done to 34:49 me. for what people have spoken to me against or what people have not spoken to me against or whatever wherever our self is hurt uh wherever our egos are hurt uh if God has taken us through situations where uh our egos are hurt 35:07 and we this is a great indication that the self is still on the throne or at least it is trying to get back on the throne Christ is not on the throne uh it is a sign of spiritual maturity um How do we react when we are corrected? 35:22 Uh do we receive the correction with grace when in a in a family setting in a church setting? Um because that's a sign of uh a healthy family, healthy church where we constantly uh give feedback and correction especially as a 35:35 responsibility as parents or as elders. Um the question is itself still reigning on the throne. How do I react when I am corrected? Am I deeply disturbed when my reputation is impacted and not so much when the Lord's reputation is impacted 35:50 or Lord's name is dishonored? So I was thinking about Judas. Judas was publicly corrected when Mary has put the costly perfume and he got offended. He took offense and that's when he went and betrayed the Lord. The Lord whom he 36:06 called master, one of the 12 disciples. Can you believe Judas went and betrayed? Um, so do we betray someone because we get offended because of a rebuke or criticism? This is one question we could ask. Um, this is something and even when 36:23 we receive a strong feedback from our spouses, uh, husbands especially, do we harbor bitterness against our wives because she said something that you did not like? Maybe she's right. uh uh maybe but because of our self being on the 36:37 throne we harbor bitterness. Good question to ask. The second one I want to say some of the uh areas we could work on if we are not already working on hypocrisy. Um hypocrisy is very serious because that's God judge hypocrisy in a 36:54 very severe manner in the early church. Um because I I was grieved when I heard one member of the church said, "Oh, I don't mingle with the members too much because they're far ahead of me spiritually. They're like almost so holy 37:08 that I cannot even fellowship with them." Uh that's sad. Uh if we project a Christianity that is not true and we we project something that we are holier than other people uh than what we really are, we cannot be an encouragement to 37:23 others. Let us be true. uh even if we are at a kindergarten level, we can say we are at kindergarten level. If you're a first grade, we are at first grade. Uh let's not pretend that we are at 10th grade, 12th grade or PhD when we are not 37:38 there. If we are true to the Lord and we are true to each other, we can help each other in this race to become Christlike. We can use every opportunity to encourage. Yes, brother. At this level, yes, sister, I can I can encourage you. 37:51 This is how the Lord is working. I'm not there yet, but this is my goal. So um our genuine walk with God will and with sincerity will encourage others also do not seek to impress when you share uh here when you share uh in the uh on 38:07 Friday meetings let us not seek to impress people let's just share from our lives which is true that will bless people more than anything else and um the same thing do not owe anything to any man this is a verse from Romans 13:8 38:22 do you owe anything to any man like not just uh money, not just uh uh like debt in terms of money but debt of forgiving others, debt of asking forgiveness. Uh did you fulfill all the obligations uh 38:38 uh of like owing nothing to anyone? Uh it says owe nothing to anyone except for your obligation to love one another. Let's read that verse. Romans 138. We're almost at the end. Romans 138. 39:05 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. If God has been prompting you to settle some debts, to seek restoration of relationship, uh to ask forgiveness, to forgive others, are 39:21 you obeying, are or are you quenching the inner voice of the Holy Spirit or are you putting it under the rug? Um everything will be judged one day. So I I I urge or I appeal all of us to take this verse seriously. Do not owe 39:37 anything to any man. This is one way to be dressed up in readiness. When the Lord comes, I don't rush. Oh Lord, wait please. I need to settle some accounts. I need to ask forgiveness. I need to settle some things. That would be that 39:50 would not be the time to do that. This is the time. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day appointed time to do all of that. Uh so and tomorrow is not guaranteed in our lives. My dear brothers and sisters, if you 40:02 have hurt someone or slandered or gossiped or damaged someone's reputation or whatever harm someone anything that you have done, think about it. I mean, I just wrote few examples. Uh settle that, make it right. Um don't 40:18 u so that we'll be ready for his coming. The last one, um staying focused and fighting the distractions. I think our generation is one generation where we have so many distractions. The notifications will come endlessly. We 40:37 are saturated with entertainment. I tell my children even if we continuously watch YouTube videos, we have enough videos to watch for our entire lifetime, right? We are saturated. And I tell you being in the tech industry, how these 40:52 companies work, they want to make us hooked on to their website or to these videos. continuously the algorithms are working against us to keep us hooked. Uh so that will weaken our Christian power because we are distracted so much. We 41:08 are not focused. We are not being watchful or alert in prayer. We are like that Gideon's army who was sent home. We are like uh distracted. We are not focused and alert. The 300 men in Gideon's army who were alert, they were 41:23 the ones who were selected for the battle. um rather than being full of holy spirit maybe we were full of information about the world and they we are information loaded overloaded in many ways and I myself battle with that 41:37 uh constantly because I want to do something using my phone but there is a distraction but this is not impossible we can uh we can seek the power of god the holy spirit to help us to stay focused uh I'm afraid that this 41:51 generation people are entertaining themselves to destruction people who do not know god on there is on demand unlimited entertainment. When we were growing up in India, we had specific times when uh there was a television 42:04 broadcast, there's a movie time on Sunday afternoon or some Saturday, some sports, that's it. And we have to work, we have to finish our homework and then go and watch. Now we have it on our fingertips. We can watch uh we can watch 42:17 so much. Uh being uh in India, there is a 1.2 billion population. I think this is one of the biggest uh uh population where we have like I think close to 1 billion people have smartphones. So much of uh content is created every day and 42:32 people are hooked onto the phones and I have seen that trend increasingly over the last few years and that takes away the precious time with the family, precious time with God. So be on alert as Bible says so that we will be ready 42:46 for his coming. Um so these are the areas we could work on. Uh this is not a comprehensive list obviously so that we could be dressed in readiness and keep keep our lamps lit so that we'll be ready for the son of man is coming at an 43:03 hour when we do not expect. May the Lord help us. Thank you. Thank you brother Surin for the 43:27 exhortation and uh the warnings. Um a loving father uh will tell uh if there is any danger if he has noticed whether the children likes it or 43:46 uh don't like it uh if as your elders if you don't warn you uh we are accountable to the lord text what do we do after hearing is um it's uh the listeners discernment Um especially 44:07 I was blessed to hear that and to see these things these warnings which are mentioned in the Bible or few things brother reminded these are from my loving heavenly father. These things are 44:22 coming um from a heart of love. 1 John chapter chapter 2 at the end. 1 John chapter 2 verse 28. 44:39 Now little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you 44:57 know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of him. We have choice to make our heavenly father and our lord Jesus Christ 45:12 happy, pleased by choices we make. One of the vers brother um quoted from Genesis chapter 6 and verse 6. The Lord was sorry. He was so sorry that 45:33 he made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart. Dear children, you can make your parents feel happy by the words you choose. 45:51 Um the obedience or rebellion. Um what do you want to pick? Not just the children, we also we are the children of God. 1 John chapter 3 verse one. See how great a loving father 46:08 has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God. We didn't earn it. He chose to give chose to give us is the gift of salvation which is free. For him it costed. I want to read a psalm. 46:25 I suffered much for thee more than thy tongue can tell. of bitterness of of a bitterest agony to rescue thee from hell. I have borne I have borne it all for 46:44 thee. Jesus says, what hast thou done for me? I have borne and I have borne it all for thee. What hast thou bone for me? I gave my life for thee. My precious blood I shed 47:02 that thou mightest ransomed me be and quickened from the dead. I gave I gave my life for thee. What hast thou done for me? Brothers and sisters, we have this great opportunity. uh without even opening our mouth 47:22 uh thankful I'm thankful this part of the uh United States I'm living with my family here we have a little bit freedom when we go to gym or rec centers in the schools office and restaurants in even in um grocery stores we have the freedom 47:41 to speak of Christ and uh um wish them the things but the other parts we can't even be local. What if if your co-workers and your team members are in California or some other places where you can talk about this living God, we 47:58 just by our living in the schools and wherever we go, we have an opportunity to live for him. Even if you have not if we have not given an opportunity to open our mouth and share our testimony through our life through our life we can 48:18 uh challenge people's I believe the Lord is uh so good so good towards us has been so faithful throughout this year. So um let us be thankful to him and to be his 48:37 witnesses wherever he has kept us. I believe the Lord will has help us. Thank you. Let us close with the word of prayer. Our dear heavenly father we thank you so much for loving us even though we are 48:55 unlovable. I'm sorry father in the areas where I have kept your heart grieved and made you feel sorry for making me. 49:10 Father, help us to realize the price your son and our Lord Jesus Christ had paid for our salvation. Lord, help us to recognize that and to live for you. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for the gift of the 49:30 Holy Spirit you have given to us. You knew that we can't live this uh life narrow way and picking your choices by our own strength. Not with our experience, not with our Bible knowledge, 49:49 but with your spirit. Help us to do what you asked us to do with you, with your help, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, you said when you receive the Holy Spirit, you will receive the power 50:06 power to be bold witnesses of you. Help us, Lord. Deliver us from every temptation throughout this week to honor you to glorify you in Jesus precious name we pray. Amen. 50:26 Thank you brothers and sisters who joined
