0:19 So, brothers and sisters, I'm happy to see you all again. And what is on my heart this morning is 0:38 from the first letter of John. 1 John chapter 1. In 1 John chapter 1, he says Let me read this to you. 1:03 He speaks in verse 2 of the life that was manifested in Christ in verse 3, "What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you." That is the gospel. And what is the purpose of that gospel being proclaimed? Listen to this. It's very important to 1:23 understand this. "So that you too may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ." So, 1:39 the purpose of preaching the gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose again and ascended is that we might have fellowship, not just forgiveness. Very often 1:57 for Christians they think only in terms of my sin must be forgiven or I must go to heaven. Like they're saying, "My sins are all forgiven. I'm on my way to heaven." But there's a lot more than that. The purpose is that 2:16 we may have fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ and fellowship with one another. So, that is the goal towards which the purpose with which Christ died for our sins and rose again. 2:35 And he says, "That is the message we are proclaiming." So, I want to ask you, dear brothers and sisters, very lovingly have you understood that? Have you seen that is the main purpose? Our coming together, I mean, we come 2:52 together on Sundays like this. And the purpose is that we might build fellowship with the Lord and with one another. That's why we emphasize so much in this church the importance of fellowship 3:11 between husband and wife and between brother and brother and sister and sister. And he goes on to say that verse four 1 John 1:4, "These things we write so 3:28 that our joy may be made full." So, there's a close connection between fellowship and joy being full. Now, I have found in my observations of Christians 3:47 in many countries Excuse me. that very, very few Christians live a life of constant rejoicing. The Bible says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." But there are very few Christians who live 4:06 in that life of constant joy in all circumstances and every day, morning till night. It is not That is not my experience for many years, even after I was born again. But I can say it has become my experience. Because I have valued fellowship. And I 4:24 want to say to all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, it is not God's will that you should be gloomy and upset and disturbed at any time. God wants us What does it say in verse four? These things we write 4:42 so that your joy may be made full or complete. But that is based on fellowship. So, I want to emphasize that word fellowship. There's a close connection between that and our fellowship with the Father being always without any disruption. 5:01 Then our joy will be full. Now, we can listen to that and say, "Oh, yeah, I know that." But I must not rest satisfied until it becomes real in my life, not just once in a while, all the time. 5:20 I'll tell you honestly, that's my goal that I'll always rejoice in the Lord, whatever the circumstances, and that is based on constant fellowship with the Father and with Jesus, His Son. So, John says, "This is why I'm writing all 5:38 this." And then he speaks about sin and light. So, the first thing he says here is What is the purpose? Verse three, let's get this very clearly. That you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father. You 5:56 know, like the two arms of the cross. Fellowship is always twofold, vertically with the Father and Jesus and horizontally with one another as brothers and sisters. And then he goes on to say, "This is 6:16 possible if to experience this, you must first understand this message very clearly. And though it's very simple, we think we have understood it. But I want to show you today that many of you have not understood it. What is 6:35 the message? Verse five. God is light. And there is zero darkness in him. So, if you say verse six, 6:52 "If we say we have fellowship with him and there is any area in our life that is darkness, we are telling a lie. We are not in fellowship with him and we are not practicing the truth." Did you hear that? 7:11 If there is any area in your life where there's darkness, what does that mean? That means there's some area that you want to hide. Something in your life that you don't want people to know about because you're 7:30 ashamed of it. And you try to cover it up. Then you're walking in darkness. And then the whole purpose of Christ dying on the cross is defeated because you can't have fellowship. 7:49 The secret of fellowship with God all the time and with one another is one simple thing. God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So, verse 7, if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have 8:08 fellowship. With one another and with God. And when we come into the light, we are revealing and exposing to God where we have failed. We don't hide anything and then immediately the blood of Jesus cleanses 8:27 us from that sin which we have exposed to God. This is the meaning of confessing our sin and having our sin forgiven. Verse 9, if we confess our sins, he forgives us. So, even though this is very simple, you may think you've understood it. 8:42 But if you've understood it, I'll tell you your life will be full of joy all the time. And if you if you're not rejoicing in the Lord always, you have not understood the simple message. And that is why I want to emphasize it. 8:55 You may you You may think this is like ABC, but are you experiencing it? These things we write to you. Let me repeat it. I'm going to go very slowly today. Verse 4, these things I'm writing so that your joy may be made complete and full. 9:12 That means that there should be no time in your life when you're gloomy. Do you believe that? I believe it. I believe there should never be a time in my life when I'm gloomy, discouraged, head hanging down. 9:32 You say that's impossible to live in the world like that. Is the Bible telling us an impossible command when it says rejoice in the Lord always? No, it's because Christians have not taken the challenge to live at the standard God wants us to. One of the 9:51 things we emphasize in CFC from the beginning is this is God's standard. Most Christians are not living at this standard. They're living way below that. And we are seeking to lead people not to some impossible level, but to the 10:05 standard of the New Testament. That means I'm not saying you'll never sin, but if we sin, it says there if we sin we confess our sin. And the blood of Jesus cleanses us and that's constant. In other words 10:23 if if if for example I slip up and have a bad thought I don't wait 1 second before confessing it. If your eyes see something that tempts you and you look at it for 1 second you immediately turn away. Because you value fellowship with God. 10:47 If you accidentally spoke a rude word to your husband or wife immediately you stop. And you say I'm sorry. My dear brothers and sisters, I want to ask you an honest question. 11:07 How many of you are living like that at home? I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. I'm trying to tell you that you're living at a low level. You can 11:26 rise higher. The word of the Lord is come up higher. Come up higher. God wants to have fellowship with us. And he wants us to have fellowship with one another. That is the purpose. We These things we write to you, verse 11:38 three, that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father, Jesus Christ his Son. So, let me repeat again. In order to come into this fellowship, you must understand clearly God is light, and there is zero darkness in him. 11:56 That means the moment your conscience tells you something is wrong, you must drop everything and settle that. It's like I've often said, like a thorn gets into your foot. Don't you drop everything and pull it 12:14 out? We don't want supposing a accidentally a pin gets into your skin. Don't you pull it out because it's hurting? We must treat sin like that. That is what we stress and emphasize in 12:32 CFC. Because God is light and there is no darkness in him. Now, if you will listen to this simple message, I'll tell you something, a little bit of which I've experienced myself. Your home life will be something of heaven on earth. 12:50 God's will is that our days, like it says in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 11, must be like the days of heaven upon earth. Please take that challenge. Lord, I want my days on earth to be a little foretaste of heaven upon earth. 13:06 I want my home life to be a little taste of heaven upon earth. And that is possible. It was not possible in the Old Testament, but it's possible today because the Holy Spirit has come. And if you open your life to be filled 13:21 with the Holy Spirit, like we sing in that song, heaven came down. God is That is God's purpose. So let me repeat this to you. It's very very important that we don't allow any darkness to come into our life. One verse six 13:39 here, if we say we have fellowship with the Lord and walk in darkness, we are liars. I want to say that to strongly to everybody here. If you say that you have fellowship with the Lord and you're allowing any area of darkness 13:58 in your life, in your office, or in your home, in your relationship with your husband or wife, in your financial marriage, you allow one area of darkness in your life, I want to say to you what God's word says 14:15 in verse six, you're not a believer, you're a liar. Let me say that again. 1 John 1:6, if you allow darkness in any area in your life, you're not a believer, you're a liar. I've decided to take the Bible 14:38 seriously. I say that to myself. If I allow darkness in any area in my life, I'm not a believer, I'm a liar. I'm not walking in the truth. 1 John 1:6. And because I have spoken to myself 14:56 strongly like that, I take sin seriously. And I do not believe that all of you sitting here have taken sin seriously. What is the use coming to CFC if we don't take sin seriously? That's the most important thing we preach in this 15:13 church, which makes us different from so many other churches. Every sin is serious. Sin in speech, in thought, attitudes. It's all serious. It's darkness. And if we permit it, and we don't 15:31 immediately confess it, we are liars. And that's why it says, "If we confess our sin," verse 9, he cleanses us immediately. So, this fellowship, which is so important, there is only one condition. 15:51 And that is verse 7, "Walk in the light." My dear brothers and sisters, always, always, always say, "Lord, I want your light to shine into my heart all the time. Show me anything that is displeasing to you in my 16:10 thoughts, in my words, in my attitudes to people, in the thoughts I'm thinking when I'm by myself." You know, very often when we are by ourselves, whether it's lying in bed awake at night, or when we are just by ourselves, there are 16:26 thoughts going through our mind. Are those thoughts thoughts that you can think in the presence of God? If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we're not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light, 16:46 we have fellowship with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. Our life can be thoroughly transformed if you take this message seriously. And I want to say one more thing. We treat the blood of Christ so lightly. I want to tell you, the blood of Jesus 17:02 does not cleanse anybody and everybody from sin. What is the condition? What is the condition for your saying the blood of Christ has cleansed you from your sin? Please read 1 John 1:7 carefully. If we walk in the light, that means you 17:21 hide nothing from God. Hide nothing from God. You walk in the light, but every area in your life, be honest about the wrong attitude you have towards somebody. That's means what to me That's the meaning of walking in the 17:36 light. Admit where you did something wrong. Be honest and confess. If you said something to hurt your husband or wife, or you did something to cheat someone, be absolutely honest. 17:55 That is to walk in the light. Then, and only then, 1 John 1:7, will the blood of Jesus cleanse you from sin. You just say, "Oh Lord, forgive me." You're not forgiven. Let me tell you that. If you don't walk in the light. 18:15 Please remember this verse all your life. The blood of Jesus, verse 7, will cleanse you only if you walk in the light. And in very simple words, walking in the light means being 100% honest. Lord, it is true. I did something wrong. 18:35 That was a bad thought. The way I spoke was not Christ-like. The standard is Jesus Christ. And he he he came and brought light into the world. He is the light. Lord, that was not Christ-like, the way I 18:53 responded to that person. Please forgive me. Immediately, your fellowship is restored. But if you don't admit it, and you justify yourself, and you say, "But it was because of this reason and that reason and the other reason." The 19:08 more you explain everything, the more you remain in darkness. The Christian life is a very simple life if you're willing to be absolutely honest. So, if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one 19:26 another. And that fellowship first begins with God and me, and then horizontally with each other. Now, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 6. You know, in Matthew chapter chapter 6, 19:47 we know what we have what is called the Lord's Prayer. In Matthew 6, He taught us to pray verse verse 9. Pray like this. In this way. It's not something to be 20:07 repeated. You can repeat it if you mean every word of it. But, the spirit of all of our prayers must be here. That's the meaning of it. Pray not as repetition, but pray in this way. In this way means the way he taught. That means put God first. Our Father who 20:26 art in heaven. Come to God as a father. I'm going to ask you a simple question. The answer is in this prayer itself. If you listen to it carefully, if you read it carefully, we don't have to repeat this uh 20:44 prayer, but we must pray in this way. That's what he said in verse 9. Now, my question is how often should you pray in this way? Once a week? The answer is every day. 21:04 Why do I say every day? Because there's one word in this prayer which says daily. Daily means every day. Verse 11, give us this day 21:21 our daily bread. So, from that word I learn that I must pray in this spirit daily. Even if I don't repeat it, this must be the spirit of my prayer every day. Okay. 21:39 Having understood that, here is something we have to pray every day. Verse 12, forgive us our debts or forgive us our sins. As we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. 21:56 Debts, he's talking about sin here. Forgive me Now, this is a prayer every day. Give me this day my daily bread, verse 11. I'm thankful for food every day and all of us eat food every day. And we have also got to pray, forgive me 22:14 my sins. Every day. Just like I have forgiven everyone around me every day. Are you walking in that light? Lord, I have forgiven my husband and my 22:32 wife every day because we are making mistakes every day. No one is perfect. That's why we need to ask God to forgive us and we need to forgive one another. Forgiveness is to be a daily matter. Give us this day our daily bread, verse 22:49 11. Forgive us daily our debt because you know, forgiveness is like a debt we owe to God but sin is like a debt which has to be forgiven. That's why he used the word debt. 23:07 As we for And if when somebody sins against me, it says he owes me a debt. Did you know that? When you sin against somebody, it's like borrowing a 100,000 rupees from him. You are in debt to him. 23:25 Sin is called a debt. Lord, forgive me my debts. I've sinned against you. And when people have sinned against me, they owe me a debt and I have forgiven them. And when I sin against them, I owe them a debt. Please look at this like this. 23:42 Whenever you sin against someone, when you speak a harsh word or rude word to your husband or wife, you're in debt. And that debt has to be cleared. That is why Jesus died. He shed his blood that we might not be in debt. 23:59 So, in practical terms, why do we have to say "Forgive me my sins every day." I used to think about that. Lord, I'm not consciously sinning every day. I mean, uh you come to a certain stage in life where you you don't tell lies, 24:16 you don't cheat anybody, you don't deliberately hurt anyone, and you begin to think, "What is the sin I have to confess today?" Many times I've thought about that. Lord, I'm not conscious of having had a dirty thought or hurting 24:30 anybody. What do I have to ask forgiveness for today? And what the Lord showed me, you know, when you walk in the life, God shows you things you never know otherwise. The Lord shows me that there are whole areas in your life 24:45 which you cannot see. It's like there can be a snake in your house that you don't even see, just crawled in. Like that, unconscious sin can be there in your life which you have not noticed. And if you ask God to show it to you, 25:03 he'll show it to you. I asked the Lord, "Lord, show me areas in my life that I don't see." Like some corner in your house where you're not seeing the dirt or the filth or the snake crawled up over there. Lord, show me. Is there any area in my 25:19 life which where I can't see? There are some things I can see very clearly. I hurt somebody or I tell a lie or do something like that. But there are areas in our life I don't see and there is sin there which we call unconscious sin. 25:35 And that is why we need to pray for forgiveness every day. Even that unconscious sin has to be cleansed in the blood of Christ. And if you are eager about it, God will give us light on that unconscious sin. That is how we grow 25:48 from one degree of glory to another. That's how our fellowship with the Father becomes more and more glorious. I want to ask you whether you're walking in this way. This is very, very, very important. So, from there I want to go on to 26:06 another step. That is in Matthew's gospel in chapter 18. Please turn with me now to Matthew's gospel chapter 18. We are talking the subject is fellowship. Fellowship with the Father and fellowship with one another. What is the thing that hinders 26:29 fellowship? I hope you understand as we've seen step by step. Sin. There's only one thing that will hinder your fellowship with the Father. Sin. And there's only one thing that will 26:48 break your fellowship with a human being. Sin. And that's why we must confess our sin to God as soon as you're aware of it. It's like, you know, if the night at night an electric wire in your house is cut, 27:06 the electricity goes off. When you reconnect that wire, the light comes on. And we would not like to live in darkness in our house. Whenever you sin, remember that connection with 27:23 God is broken and darkness has come in. And just like you are eager to switch on the light in your home to reconnect the electricity, you must be just as eager to reconnect with God and live every moment in fellowship. This is my desire. 27:40 I don't want to break fellowship with God even for a single moment. When Jesus was praying in Gethsemane, "Take this cup from me." What he was afraid was on the cross, his fellowship with the Father would be broken. That was the most valuable thing for 27:56 him. But for our sin, that fellowship was broken. But in our case, it need never be broken. Jesus' fellowship with the Father was broken on the cross for our sin so that our fellowship with the Father may never never be broken even for 1 second. It's 28:12 like saying, "I never want to lose the electric light in my house at any time. I don't want to live in darkness in my house." None of you would like darkness in your house. As soon as you go into a dark room, what do you do? First thing 28:25 you do when you enter into a dark room in your house, what do you do? You switch on the light. We hate darkness. No one likes to sit in a dark room. Have that attitude towards your relationship with God and your relationship with your husband 28:43 and wife. Lord, there There be no darkness. I want to switch on the light as soon as darkness has come, I want to switch on the light. I don't want to live in darkness. And so, we spoke about our fellowship with God. As soon as you're aware of something, we 29:01 confess it and our sin is forgiven. Now, it's now talking about fellowship with one another. Listen to this. If your brother, verse 15, Matthew 18 verse 15. If your brother sins against you, 29:19 what should you do? It's a very serious thing. He has committed a crime against God by sinning against you. Now, if he's a stranger, you just say, "Forget it. I have no 29:38 responsibility for him." But if he's your brother, if he's if your brother is injured in some way, will you help him to be healed? If your son fell down and hurt himself and his knee is cut, will you go and help him to be 29:58 healed? Yes. Sin is like that. If your brother sins against you, show him his fault in private. Very important words. Don't go go around telling the whole 30:16 world, "He did this." or "He said this." Show him his sin in private. Take this seriously. He's talking about fellowship now. You come to that. If your brother sins against you, maybe he uh he doesn't understand it. Show him his fault in private. If he 30:35 listens to you, you have won your brother. You brought him in fellowship with you. If he does not listen to you, and I'll tell you this, here is something which almost no believer obeys. You know, the words of Jesus. It's in your Bible, the words of 30:53 Jesus, but I tell you this, hardly any believer who obeys this. Because we don't take the words of Jesus seriously. If he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you. And tell him 31:15 what he did wrong. What is your aim? Your aim is not to condemn him. Your aim is to restore him. So that the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact is confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to even those two or three, 31:34 tell it to the church. This is the responsibility of an elder brother. And then, if he refuses to listen to the church, that is the leadership of the church, treat him like a heathen. 31:53 Put him out of the church. We've done that. We've obeyed that exactly. Somebody does something wrong, and we go and speak to him. He doesn't listen, we take two or three elders and speak to him. He doesn't listen even to them. 32:14 We tell the church, the leadership of the church. And he doesn't listen. We treat him like an unbeliever. We say, "Brother, you're no longer a part of CFC. You go where you like. Goodbye." You say, "We are so hard on people." No, 32:31 no, no, no. We're not being hard on people. We're just obeying Jesus Christ. Most people have no respect for the words of Jesus Christ. That's why they don't even read these words. They don't know these things are written 32:40 in scripture. Why is this so important? Because fellowship is something the Lord values very highly. And if a person acts in such a way that he breaks fellowship, you have to do something to restore him. And if he's not interested in 32:55 restoration, you say, "Brother, there's no place for you here. We believe in building fellowship." Uh I don't know if you've come across churches that take these words very strictly. Treat him like a heathen. That doesn't mean you hate him. No, no, 33:15 no, no, no. How do you treat the heathen? Are you supposed to hate all the heathen? No. You must love the heathen. Treat him like an unbeliever means you love him, but you don't have fellowship with him. Not that you hate him. If you hate him, 33:29 something's wrong with you. We're not supposed to hate anybody in the world. Even if somebody's put out of the church, you're not supposed to hate him. God so loved the world, and we are to love the world. We are to love the unbelievers. So, when 33:46 you say, "Treat that man like an unbeliever," it doesn't mean you hate him. You love him, but you have no more fellowship with him. There's a lot of difference between loving people and having fellowship with them. I'm supposed to love everybody 34:00 who I meet. I'm not supposed to hate anyone in the world. But I don't have fellowship with most of them. What did we read in 1 John 1? We can have fellowship only with God if we walk in the light, and we can have fellowship 34:12 with one another only if they walk in the light. But when a brother or sister does not walk in or to walk into the light, we have no fellowship with him. Then we try to restore it with one or two other people, and he doesn't want 34:29 restoration. We tell it to the church, he doesn't want a restoration, then he's like a heathen. You still love him, but we have no fellowship with him. And he goes on to say here in verse 18, 34:46 that if things get really bad, he speaks about binding what is bound in heaven. I don't want to go too much into that, but uh he's speaking about how satanic influences can come 35:04 when people don't seek to restore fellowship. The great danger of not restoring fellowship between two brothers or between a husband and a wife. Listen to this very carefully. If you don't seek, let's take a home first of all. 35:19 Say there's a break of fellowship between husband and wife there. Something you said or somebody said something and you got hurt and you're not talking to one another. There's a little break has come. Do you know who's waiting for that 35:31 opportunity to come between you? The devil. He's just waiting. Ah, there is a gap there between the husband and wife. Now, I can Here's a husband and wife so close together and the devil can't come between. Some little gap comes and he comes right 35:49 through. And you know who's he's coming to hurt? Your children. You may be strong enough to resist him, but when he comes through, he's going to attack your children. Many children are attacked because the husband and wife opened a gap between them and the 36:05 devil could come right through. You close that gap. Husband and wife stay together in fellowship, the devil will not be able to enter your home. I I can tell you that. That's why we emphasize so much the importance of This is what we call 36:20 fellowship. No gap between husband and wife. And if we are like this, we can preserve our homes, we can preserve our children, our children will grow up in godliness, and our children will grow up to follow 36:39 the Lord. Look at the number of Christian families where the children are wayward, they've grown up, and the parents don't even seem to be bothered that their children are not born again. But if Christ were to come today, your 36:54 children are going to hell. You're not bothered about that? Eternally separated? How will it feel like sitting in heaven and seeing your children burning in hell forever? I don't want to see that. I don't even want to see my grandchildren in hell, 37:08 leave alone my children. Do you have a burden? Do you believe these things are real? That's why I say, keep fellowship. Don't let a gap come between you and your wife. Immediately, as soon as that gap comes, close it. It's very easy. 37:23 Very easy. Humble yourself. Confess your sin. Say, "Please forgive me. That was my mistake. I'm sorry." Risk It's so easy. Just a few words in sincerity, you ask God to forgive you, you ask your partner to forgive you, you ask that brother or 37:40 sister to forgive you, come back into fellowship, and the devil will not be able to come between you. See, we have By the grace of God, there's been a tremendous unity and fellowship in CFC for nearly 50 years. This is 49 years now 37:59 in this year. And one of the main reasons for that is Brother Ian Robson and I have remained in fellowship all these years. We may have disagreed, but we've never broken fellowship. I'll tell you this honestly, we have not 38:12 broken fellowship in all these 49 years. See, you can disagree with your wife, but you don't have to break fellowship. We have When we disagreed, we have spoken to one another frankly, but we never broke fellowship. And that is why the devil couldn't come 38:30 through into CFC all these years. Do you think the devil hasn't hated CFC? Seeing what CFC stands for for all these nearly 50 years? Of course the devil hates it. Why is he not been able to come through? Why is he able to come so many other 38:44 churches? Why is he able to come to so many homes? He breaks fellowship between the leaders, between husband and wife, between the elders. And he comes right in and attacks. And that's why Jesus spoke here about just two or three. What is a church? 39:02 A church is basically two or three people in leadership here. In verse It's See Matthew 18:20. Now he's talking about the leadership in a church. Two or three or in a home. Let's say two. Where two people have gathered together. This is talking 39:18 about fellowship again. Where two people are united in fellowship without any sin between them. That means they have confessed their sin. The Lord says, "I am in the midst." I'm there between them holding them together. 39:38 That's how I have sought to live with my wife all these years. The Lord Jesus is between us all the time. If we slip up, we ask forgiveness from one another immediately. No room for the devil. And let me ask all of you husbands and 39:57 wives here, do you allow sometimes something to happen that brings a gap between you? Do you realize that that's all the devil requires? Just a little gap to come through to attack your children, whether it is with sickness or sin or 40:16 whatever. Immediately set it right. Because if we are together, it's not only that we have fellowship with the Father and with one another. Listen to this. Matthew 18:19, this is a blessing of 40:35 fellowship. And two of you agree, that means you're in fellowship, they can ask for anything. There is a power in prayer when they pray together like that. It's no use husband and wife praying 40:54 together and saying amen if there's anything between them. There must be nothing between them. There's a tremendous power in prayer. We've seen some remarkable answers in prayer, my wife and I, in prayer for ourselves and our prayer 41:10 for our children when they were small, in all types of situations, just by ensuring, according to Matthew 18:19, that we are in fellowship completely. They can ask for anything. Look at that word anything in verse 19. Did you see that word 41:27 in your Bible? Anything. It will be done. What a wonderful privilege. And what is the condition? Fellowship. Immediate confession of sin. It's not 41:46 difficult to have fellowship. He's not asking you to be perfect. Immediate confession of sin. That's it. That is the secret of fellowship. They can ask for anything, it will be done. I cannot think of the number of times my 42:07 wife and I have experienced the reality of that verse. I believe it's especially for husband and wife. For those are the two people who are always living together. I mean, you don't live with any other brother 7 days a week. Who do you live with 7 42:20 days a week? Your husband, your wife. 7 days a week. See to live in agreement. Imagine if you can live with experiencing Matthew 18:19, what a lot of problems would be solved in your life. What a lot of problems in your past life would have 42:37 been solved if you had lived in agreement with one another. You could immediately set matters right. Immediately restore fellowship when it was broken. What a lot you have missed in your life so far. Don't waste any more days. 42:56 The Lord is in the midst where two people are brought together like this. Not only that. First of all, let me go step by step. Verse 20, the Lord is in our midst when you are together. Second, there is a power in prayer, verse 19. 43:15 We can ask for anything. And third, here's the third thing, verse 18, we can bind the power of Satan in our home. If you are united like this. In heaven means in the second heaven. Satan is in the not in the third heaven 43:32 where God is. He's called the prince of the power of air in the heavenlies. He can be bound because we bind him on earth, he's bound in the heavenlies. It's a wonderful promise. Not only we can protect our children, we 43:51 can bind Satan's activities in our home. So much is dependent on fellowship. I have grasped this so thoroughly the last few years that it has been the sacred secret of our home life. That we do not allow Satan to come in 44:10 even for a single moment in any area. We're not perfect, but we immediately if there's a gap comes we immediately close it. We don't even wait, I don't wait 1 second. Must be closed immediately. What is the result? Satan does not enter our home. Our 44:28 children are protected. Do you want that in your home? God has made the way. Walk in the light. Don't blame one another. See what is wrong in your own life. Don't look 44:46 at the speck in the other person's eye, but see the beam in your own eye. That means see the bigger sin in your own eye instead of some small thing in the other person's eye. These are things that Jesus spoke on and we've heard it so often, but we don't 45:02 take it seriously because we don't value fellowship. So, I hope you'll understand the importance of fellowship. And I want to say some more thing, that's not the end. We want to go into be realistic about this. Go down to verse 45:18 21. Peter says, "Well, how many times should I forgive my brother?" You know, among the Jews I think the rule was two or three times you must forgive. Peter thought he'd go one step higher and say, "Seven times, can I forgive my brother seven times in a 45:38 day?" Jesus said, "Not seven times, but 70 * 7." In other words, all the time. In another place, Jesus says, "If a brother sins seven times in a day," I think that's in Luke 17. 45:57 So, here he's talking about seven times in a day if a person does something wrong, forgive him. And Jesus said, "70 * 7." That means if your brother sins against you 490 times in a single day, can you imagine that? 490 times is about 20 times every hour 46:17 means that every 3 minutes he's sinning against you or every 6 minutes a half a day in 12 hours. In every 1 and 1/2 minutes he's sinning against you. You forgive him. And then he gives this example. And then a story we have heard many 46:36 times, but it's good to listen to it again. The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with the slaves. He's talking about God and man. And one man had to settle 10,000 talents. It's a huge amount of money. 46:51 Let's say millions of rupees. And he says, "Lord, I can't pay it." And the lord says, "Okay, well, put him in prison with his wife and children." And he falls down and says, verse 26, "Please forgive me. I'll repay it." 47:06 And the lord had compassion, verse 27, and released him and forgave him his debt. Exactly like God has forgiven you your sin and forgiven me my sin. Then what do we do? That slave, that's you and me, we go out and we find another fellow slave, 47:25 another brother or sister, or your husband or wife, who does something wrong against you, some small thing, much less than what you did against God, some small little mistake, some little slip up, and you catch him by the throat, you 47:45 say, "Pay back. Why did you do that?" And that person says, "Please forgive me." He says, "No." And you throw him in prison. You break fellowship with him. I'm not going to have any fellowship with you 48:02 until you pay back what you owe. This man who had been forgiven so much by God could not forgive her husband, his wife, his brother, her sister, could not forgive. Now, what does Listen to this. This is a 48:20 very, very important passage of scripture. What does God do to a man or a woman who does not forgive somebody else? Please listen carefully. If there is anyone on earth 48:38 whom you have not forgiven, listen to this. The king calls the servant back and he's moved with anger, verse 34. He says, verse 33, "Shouldn't you Shouldn't you not have had mercy on your 48:57 fellow slave just like I had mercy on you?" What is the Lord saying to Perhaps he's saying that to somebody sitting here. Why have you not forgiven your wife or your husband? Why have you not forgiven that brother or that sister for what they did wrong? 49:14 You know they did wrong. God says, "I know they did wrong, but when you think of how much I have forgiven you," God says, "compare that with what that person did. Nothing. Oh, that person did nothing compared to what you did wrong and I 49:28 forgave you. And if I forgave you so much and I had mercy on you, verse 33, shouldn't you not have had mercy on that person in the same way that I had mercy on you?" Verse 33. And then, listen to this. The Lord moved with anger 49:48 and delivered him over to the torturers. Those are the demons. This is very serious. When you don't forgive somebody, the Lord hands you over to the demons. 50:05 Okay, go ahead and torture that man. Go ahead and torture that woman in some way or the other. Why? What crime did he commit? He didn't kill anybody. He didn't commit adultery. Why are the demons allowed to torture that person when he did not commit 50:22 murder, he did not steal, he did not commit adultery? No. He did not forgive somebody. She did not forgive someone. She said, "I'll never forgive you." Uh-huh. 50:40 God says, "I'll never forgive you then." Have you ever said those words to someone, "I'll never forgive you for that"? Beware of that. Go back and ask forgiveness for making that statement. My heavenly Father, verse 35, 50:59 listen to this, will do the same to you. If you don't forgive your brother, your sister, your wife, your husband from your heart, hands you over to the demons. Now, it doesn't look as if some people are handed over to the demons, but the 51:18 fact that some people live with depression and gloom and misery and grumbling and complaining and constant defeat, you wonder whether that brother or sister has been handed over to the demons. He never seems to be able to get out of 51:31 that situation. Are you in some type of tight situation you can't get out of? Consider the possibility that you've been handed over to the demons. And the reason is only one simple thing, you don't you haven't forgiven somebody. 51:46 You haven't forgiven your wife, you haven't forgiven your husband. You haven't forgiven your brother. You haven't forgiven your brother-in-law. Or you haven't forgiven your mother-in-law. Somebody you're not forgiven. And you've opened the door for the 51:58 demons to get at you. These are the words of Jesus. So, forgive that person, it says in verse 35, from your heart. Not just with words. From your heart. 52:17 So, every one of you sitting here today listening to me, I urge you there's a single person you're not forgiven, forgive that person from your heart. And seek for fellowship. There is tremendous power in fellowship. And where a person is unwilling to admit 52:36 they're wrong, fellowship is broken. There's no sin which is so great that cannot be forgiven. Every sin can be forgiven. Why is it we have had to put some people out of CFC? I'll tell you. Not because they committed some great 52:53 crime, but because they would not confess that crime and set it right. It's It's not because they did something very seriously wrong. We've all done many seriously wrong things. But those who admit it and acknowledge it 53:12 and ask for forgiveness, it's set right and they are in fellowship. But when they won't admit it, they're stubborn. We have had elders in CFC who've been put out of this church, more than one. At least two. We have brothers and sisters 53:30 who've broken away and gone because they will not set matters right. It just requires a little humility to To yourself and ask somebody, "I'm sorry. please forgive me, that is my fault. They won't say it. We have to say that not only to God, we 53:50 got to say that to one another. So, dear brothers and sisters, let's take this matter of forgiveness and fellowship seriously. There is no fellowship with God without asking for forgiveness. 54:09 There's no fellowship with one another without asking for forgiveness. These two things go very closely together, as you have seen in these passages. And then we have authority over Satan. The Lord wants us to have a wants you to 54:25 have authority over Satan so that Satan and his demons can never enter your home. Can never have any place in your life. The Lord wants us to have such authority over Satan that he's afraid of you. 54:45 I remember the day the Lord spoke to me some years ago. Just like you were afraid of Satan for so many years, from now on Satan will be afraid of you. I believe that. I took it to heart 55:05 that Satan should be afraid of me. Is Satan afraid of you or are you afraid of Satan? It's not a very complicated procedure. If you confess every sin to God, and you immediately seek forgiveness from those you hurt as you might human 55:24 beings, Satan be afraid of you. Because there's there's nothing you're not set right in your life. If you hurt somebody, you immediately ask forgiveness. When you slip up with God, you immediately ask him to forgive you. 55:37 Satan has no power over you. We are quick to confess to God, but we are not quick to confess to one another. And so, Satan has power over you. And as long as you keep that unforgiving attitude towards your mother-in-law or 55:53 father-in-law or brother-in-law or wife or husband or neighbor or boss or anybody, Satan's got power over you. And you're holding on to this unforgiving spirit against somebody. You don't realize that you're opening the door for Satan to come and rule in 56:08 your life and ruin your home and ruin your children. Look at the havoc he's already done in many of your lives. Will you wake up today and say, "Lord, my eyes have been opened today, and I'm not going to let Satan have any 56:21 more power over my life or in my home from this moment." And it's very simple. I am going to forgive. I'm going to that I'm going to go to that person and ask for forgiveness. I'm going to write that letter and ask for forgiveness. I'm going to call up 56:36 that person and say, "Please forgive me." Don't you want Satan to release his grip on your throat? Resist him. But Satan will not go away. You can say, "Satan, I resist you in Jesus' name." Satan says, "I'm not going to go away. You haven't forgiven 56:53 somebody. How can you drive me away? How can you drive drive me away?" Satan got a hold of many people because they won't forgive somebody. Dear brothers and sisters, don't be foolish. Don't ruin yourself and your children 57:08 and your family by holding a grudge against some relative who cheated you or some in-law who took advantage of you. Forgive. Forgive. Release them right now. Don't wait till the even the meeting is over. Release the person right now. 57:25 And say, "In Jesus' name, I release that person." Lord, I've had a grudge against so many people, Lord, but I release every one of them. Forgive them, and then Lord Jesus, please forgive me as I have forgiven everybody. I tell you this day 57:40 you will come to a new level in your Christian life. God bless you. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads in prayer. And while our heads are bowed in prayer, I want to ask you for a moment 58:01 to ask yourself, have you forgiven everyone? Jesus said, "If you do not forgive others, your heavenly Father will not forgive you." Don't ask Jesus to forgive you even once in future if there is one human being 58:19 you have not forgiven. And you can do that in this moment while your head is bowed. Name them. Lord, this person who has harmed me, I forgive him. And that other person who has harmed me, I forgive her right now. 58:39 I forgive, I forgive, I forgive. And Lord, there are some people I have hurt. As soon as this meeting is over, I'm going to get the first opportunity to ask that person's forgiveness personally or over the phone or by email or some way, I'm going to 58:58 ask that person's forgiveness immediately. I do not want Satan to have any more power in my life or over my children or in my home. I want Jesus Christ to be Lord in my home. I want to live a new life from today. I want to walk in the light, Father. I 59:16 want to have fellowship with you, and I want to have a new level of powerful Christianity in my life from today onwards. Help me, Lord, I pray. I believe the Lord will help you. Heavenly believe the Lord will help you. Heavenly Father, 59:35 imprint these words on our heart, Lord, for the glory of God, not just because we want to have authority over Satan, but because we want our lives to glorify you. We want our children to grow up to live for you. Forgive us all the harm that as parents 59:49 that we have done to our children by opening the door for Satan to come through us between husband and wife and attack our children. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive us parents and help us to close that gap so that our children can be protected. 1:00:05 Every family here, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
