0:07 We are thankful to the Lord for having given us a very good day yesterday. And uh it shows us that God is not just interested in giving us sermons. 0:25 He wants us to have a good time. And he wants the children to have a good time, too. So many people think of Christianity as a boring religion. It's not true. I found it to be exciting. And I've been a Christian 63 years. 0:44 And in the early years I did not find it exciting because I did not know the way of the cross. And I did not know the new covenant. So in there there's an external enjoyment that the children have here. 1:03 But for those of us who are grown up, we want something more permanent. There are two things you need to clearly understand and experience. One is the way of the cross. The other is the new covenant. 1:20 Those have been the things that changed my own life. When I was born again, I almost as soon as I was born again, the only church that was nearby, the Believers Church, was a church 1:40 which majored on the study of God's word. And I was very thankful. Born again people, they preached the new birth and study of God's word. And that made me study God's word in depth for the first seven years of my life. I was very, very thankful. 1:58 But, what they did not preach was the way of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit. So, if you have only a study of the word, and you keep on listening to messages, good messages, etc., 2:18 you can end up being very, you know, ill-mannered and in bad moods and lose your temper and those things don't disturb you. And I found that some of the leaders in those churches were like that. Their daily life didn't seem to match up 2:35 with their emphasis on the study of God's word. So, each church can have major on something. I found among the Pentecostals, for example, they major on times of loud singing and praise on Sunday morning. And I found they didn't sort of continue 2:56 throughout the week. Anyway, I was young. I was only 22 years old and I I said, "Lord, I don't want to I don't want to find fault with others. I want to worry about myself." And I wanted to know that life in the spirit, 3:16 that's been my longing right from then. It took me a long time to experience it more and more. But, I knew that the secret of Jesus' life was not just that he knew the word of God. In fact, he didn't have a Bible. For 1,400 years, Christians never had a 3:31 Bible. The printing was discovered only in the 1400s. So, if people heard the Apostle Paul, they had to sort of remember what they heard. And of course, Paul wrote later on and wrote it down on parchment. And there may be a few copies of it. 3:50 Nobody had a copy at home. It was too expensive to have a parchment handwritten letters of Paul. So, how did those How did God expect those early Christians to live? It's a good habit to read the Bible every day. 4:08 But I see lots and lots of people who read the Bible every day, who have family prayer, but they lose their temper. And it doesn't seem to convict and then they they years and years they're being believers 30, 40 years and still 4:23 losing their temper. Or they never seem to come to the light where they are always in a good mood. I don't think they even have a desire to be always in a good mood. They say, "Yeah, we're on this earth, we'll have bad moods now and then." 4:39 Well, don't blame that other guy who says, "I We're in this world, we just lust after women now and then. Once in a while I watch pornography, there's no other way for me to survive life on this earth." There's no difference in that guy and 4:52 the guy who says, "I get in a bad mood once in a while." If your problem is a bad mood, his problem is pornography. You got to learn to do that. But is that the Christian life the New Testament offers us? No. And I want to say, dear brothers, 5:11 if you are satisfied with anything less than what God has promised in his word, that's all you'll get. I have observed believers in many countries over many, many years. And I've seen this is true. 5:30 When a person is satisfied with his current spiritual level, that's all he'll have. But see what the Apostle Paul said towards the end of his life. Well, not exactly at the end of his life, but I've been a Christian for 5:49 many, many years. Philippians 3 and verse 12. This should be our attitude till we see Jesus face to face. I can say honestly before God, this is 6:09 my attitude. Philippians 3:12. Not that I have already obtained or have already become perfect. Now, I have met certain groups of Christians who boast, "I have 6:27 victory over sin totally." I say to such people, "You haven't seen yourself. That's why you think you've got victory over sin totally. You have You can have victory over sin in the areas you have light on, which is 10% of your life. 90% of your 6:46 life, you don't have light." Till you walk with the Lord, God gives you more light, then you realize that what you boasted about is not true. So, Paul is very honest. He's lived close to the Lord, and he discovered that he was not perfect. 7:03 Now, I'm sure every one of us sitting here will acknowledge, "I am not perfect." But he didn't stop there. But he says, "I want to press on to become perfect." Now, that everybody doesn't say. I think most Christians would 7:21 acknowledge that I'm not perfect. But they don't go on to say, "But every day of my life I'm pressing on to perfection because I want to lay hold of," it says in verse 12, "that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me." And I want to tell you, 7:39 Christ Jesus did not lay hold of Paul to make him an apostle first. That was secondary. Remember in the Lord's plan for our life, ministry is always secondary to life. 7:55 Life is more important than ministry. Like we say, health is more important than money. So, Paul had a fantastic ministry, but that was not primary in his life. He says, "I want to lay hold of 8:13 that for which Christ laid hold of me." So, if I were to ask you, "Why did Christ lay hold of you?" I hope you know the answer. I did not know it when I was first converted because people didn't tell me. Now I know. 8:35 Christ laid hold of my life to make me like himself. Very simple words, to make me like himself. 100% And once I see that, I say, "Ministry is secondary." I said, "Lord, 8:57 if you don't want me to preach, you make me dumb. I'll be quite happy." Becoming dumb won't prevent me from becoming like Christ. It'll prevent limit my ministry. Fine. You want me to be bedridden? I'm happy. Only thing I don't want to be a burden 9:14 to others, so don't make me better. That's something I constantly pray. I never want to be a burden to anybody else in my life. Financially, physically, or anything, no matter how old I am. But, my passion is not ministry. 9:31 I do long to spread the gospel. I do long to see churches built are reflecting the new covenant, but that's not my primary desire. Underneath it all is a tremendous longing that I have every day of my life 9:48 to become a little more like Christ. And I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters and children, have this desire in your life. Lord Jesus, I want to be more like you. And if you have a passion for that more and more, the Lord will help you. 10:06 And that is the main reason why he sent the Holy Spirit. Because in the Old Testament, they didn't have the Holy Spirit. They just had a lot of commandments. Do this, do this, don't do this, don't do this. And it's very easy for us to listen to 10:21 messages with the same spirit that those people listen to the law in the Old Testament. Don't do this, do this, do this, don't do this. And I try to do all that and I don't manage to do everything perfectly, but that's not the goal of the Christian 10:35 life. Then we are under the spirit of the law. We're under grace today. And I see that God's grace is primarily to help us to become to fulfill his purpose. When God made man, 10:53 he did not primarily want a servant. He wanted a son. He wanted a daughter. He not somebody to serve him in the garden. He had millions who served him already. Do you know that God made 11:09 angels before he made Adam? And so all those millions of angels were serving God. They could do anything he commands and they had a lot of supernatural powers. But when God made Adam, it says 11:27 he made him in his own likeness. That is the first he created in his likeness. And I think the devil was the highest angel before he became the devil. He was a bit jealous of that. 11:44 Why? We We angels were not made in his likeness. Why in the world has God made someone in his likeness there? I'm going to spoil that. I'm going to destroy that. And he succeeded. And you see when if a God makes somebody 12:00 in his likeness, he's got to not make someone like a robot who will obey him 100%. But someone who will obey him out of a free choice. That means you can't have free choice unless you have the opportunity to disobey. 12:18 If God said, "Do anything you like." You know, obedience is not tested. But when God told Adam, you see the For example, like I've often said the planets and the stars, they obey God 100%. And they've been obeying God for 12:35 thousands of years. But they don't become sons of God. They don't become Christ-like. And God finds no delight in all those things obeying 100%. And it's interesting that there were angels who were obeying him on uh in heaven 12:52 who were obeying 100%. But God was still not happy with that. You've got to see. God wanted to make someone like himself. Just like parents want to have children. God is a father. 13:11 So, remember this, my dear brothers. If you want to satisfy God's heart, it's not by reading the Bible every day. It's a good habit. I've had it for 63 years. I don't despise it. It's helped me tremendously. And ever since knew the 13:28 uh importance of being filled with the spirit, that's another thing I seek God for really, but I know what delights God's heart is not these daily practices. It is reflecting the image of his son. If you can see make that the passion of 13:47 your life. Lord, I want to increasingly reflect the likeness of Christ in my relationship with everyone. And especially at home with those whom I meet every day. It's easy to be kind and gentle and gracious to people we meet once in a 14:07 while. I mean a lot of There are a lot of unbelievers, atheists, who are very well behaved. You meet them once in a while and they uh look so nice. They're not always like that. And they're certainly not like that in their home. 14:24 So, we want to be like Christ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 24/7. I remember in the early days when I was studying the Bible and I found all these other people around me emphasized Bible study, but even the great leaders who got up and preached in 14:42 that church, they would lose their temper and get angry at each other and I heard it was like that in their home as well. And I said, "Lord, there's something I've missed here." Bible study is not all and they uh I wanted the fullness of the Holy 15:02 Spirit. And that's when I began to seek God for the power of the Holy Spirit. And I mentioned this before, the Lord said to me, "You cannot have that without the way of the cross." And I saw that when That's when Jesus was 15:20 anointed with the Holy Spirit, when he submitted in baptism you're submitting to somebody else putting you to death. That's meaning of baptism. Maybe you didn't understand what you did when you got baptized, but let me tell 15:32 you now. Most of you here are all baptized in water, perhaps all of you adults. What does it mean? You're allowing some What are you allowing in baptism? You allowed somebody to push you right under water. And if he kept you there, you'd be dead. 15:51 You wouldn't be here today. But then he lifted you up. What is the symbolic meaning of that? We talked about the symbolic meaning of the Lord's table yesterday. What's the symbolic meaning of baptism? I am willing, Lord, 16:07 for anybody in the world to put me down to death. I will not fight. I will not resist. I will die to myself life. I'm not going to be doormat to let them run over me. But if somebody decides to put me to death in some way spiritually, 16:26 I'll accept it. I'm not going to fight with him. Because I believe my heavenly Father will not allow me to stay under water like that. That man who baptized me lifted me up. And God is more faithful than that. That if I allow 16:45 as someone else to put myself to death, my Father in heaven will lift me up. You must have this confidence. Why do we resist when people treat us badly? I don't have the confidence that God will lift me up. 17:03 That's why I don't take up the cross. The reason Jesus submitted to the cross was he was absolutely sure he wouldn't be dead in the grave. His Father would raise him up. And I have that now after so many years of experience. 17:20 I have the absolute confidence cuz I've seen that in every single situation where people have put me down, God has raised me up. If I accept it. I I resisted. For example, take the simple matter of getting angry. 17:40 Why do we get angry? Jesus spoke against it. He said it's so serious and Matthew 5 at least said it can finally take you to hell, you know, if it's uncontrolled. It's because somebody does something or says something that irritates the self 17:56 of mine. And I have asked myself, if you get angry at a dead man, how's he going to react? There would not be any change in his expression. In the early days when I began to understand this that if I want the power of the spirit, 18:15 and I picture Jesus receiving the spirit when he was baptized, submit when he submitted to death. And I said, "Lord, if that's the way, I want to choose that way." And I remember the one thing the Lord spoke to me very clearly in my heart at 18:29 that time. I The Lord said, "As As long You know, Jesus' baptism was symbolic of his accepting death and the spirit came upon him. And the Lord said to me, "As long as you're willing to choose this way, my power will rest upon you." 18:47 And that's what I wanted. But the day you feel, the day you choose to stop walking this way, my power will depart. So, I realized that today, I can experience God's power in my life and ministry for years and then it can 19:05 go. It can go if I don't choose the way of the cross. So, if you want a home glorifies Christ, a life that glorifies Christ, a ministry that glorifies Christ, there is no other way than by accepting the way of the cross, which is 19:24 when God allows people to put you to death inwardly. You say, "Okay, I will not resist." So, let me show you some verses. You know, in the Old Testament, 19:44 once a week, on the Sabbath day, they were not supposed to do any work. They were supposed to spend their time with God and go to the synagogue and hear the scriptures, etc. So, their life was sort of holy, apparently outwardly holy, one day a 20:01 week. And the other days, they did what they liked. But, in the New Testament, it's so different. Once the Holy Spirit came, there was no such thing as once a week. That's where the the Seventh-day Adventists, some of them are believers, 20:18 I think most of them are not, because they emphasize that you can't be saved if you don't keep the Sabbath. That's like in your in Paul's time, some people said, "You can't be saved if you don't get circumcised." It's similar similar. 20:31 You can't be saved unless you keep the Sabbath. It's a lot of garbage, rubbish. That's not the way of salvation. Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and repentance. But, what changed in the new covenant is what was once a week Sabbath 20:48 became a perpetual Sabbath. That means every day of the week I'm with God. But, not in the way of stopping to work, but in the way that I don't believe that I can do that work. Every day, 21:06 I want to allow God to do his work in me. That's the meaning of the sign. So, that's the meaning of living by faith. They did not live by faith in the Old Testament. And the finest expression of faith that I have found in the New Testament 21:24 is John chapter 15. It helped me tremendously in my life and my ministry. This to me is the definition of faith. John chapter 15. Verse 5, the last part. Apart from me, 21:49 you can do nothing. I want to ask all of you a question on that. Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that apart from Christ you can do nothing of spiritual value? Yeah, there's a lot of ugly things you can accomplish. You're very clever, 22:08 accomplished, capable. But things of eternal value, anything you do apart from Christ will not have eternal value. I'm convinced of that, and that's what's helped me to know. So, the life of faith is the life of perpetual dependence on him, like it 22:26 says in the same verse. You are the branch, and I'm the tree. It's a beautiful example. Because we see trees and branches all over. You know, any branch would speak, it would say, "I can't do anything if I'm cut off from the tree. 22:43 Not even for a single moment, even if I've been in the tree for 50 years producing apples. You cut me off, I won't be able to produce one apple." So, what is faith? Faith is that branch depending upon the tree perpetually, 50 23:00 years later, saying, "I'm just as helpless today as I was on day one. I need to receive the sap, there's a little liquid that flows from the tree into the branch. You know, you children, that's how that liquid is what produces the fruit, 23:16 whatever fruit. All the fruits that you eat come through some branch producing that fruit because of a liquid that flows from the tree into that branch. That's a picture of the Holy Spirit. You cannot produce anything without that 23:32 Holy Spirit empowering us for our life and our ministry. We need the power of the Holy Spirit all the time. That's why things changed on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit come to earth. So, this is my definition of faith. To 23:48 live by faith is to perpetually recognize I must be in the tree all the time. How to be in a good mood 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? You think it's possible? Impossible. Something or the other will happen to disturb our mood. 24:07 Now, my next question is, if you abide in Christ, is it possible? If the life of Christ is flowing into you all the time, is it possible? I believe it is. And that's what we got to learn. Lord, I want that life of Christ flowing into me all the 24:26 time that my my Christian life is not in pieces. It starts, then for some time I'm very spiritual, and then something happens and I get in a bad mood, or I become all worried and anxious for a length of time. And then that problem is solved and then 24:42 I've gone in a bad mood, gone in a good mood again. Then what's the difference in us and other people in the world? The other people in the world live exactly like that. Something goes wrong and their whole mood is disturbed, and then everything 24:53 gets settled all right, and then they're in in mood again. What's the difference in you and them? Except that we go to church, read the Bible, and claim to have a lot of spiritual understanding. But daily life is very much like theirs. 25:07 It should not be like that. I must be fed up with that type of similarity between my life and the life of people in the world. I say my life must be fundamentally different from theirs. And that's only possible if I recognize 25:22 I am a helpless branch. Scriptures help me the most when it says the righteous shall live by faith. It's not just that I believe that Christ died for me and he rose again, and he's coming back. That's just intellectual. 25:38 The Bible says the devils also believe. You think there's a single demon in hell that doubts that Jesus came, that he died, that he rose again, he's coming back? I tell you the devils know the Bible better than us. And they believe everything written in 25:54 it. But it doesn't change their life. And we have to remember that it's not by a lot of knowledge of the Bible that we become spiritual, it's by a helpless perpetual daily dependence on the Lord. And so, since this is the new covenant life, you 26:13 have some amazing statements in the Bible. I want to show you some of them to see what is wrong, or way God wants us to live. Let's begin with the statement in Acts chapter 2. Well, before that, 26:37 one of my favorite verses, 1 John chapter 2 verse 6. This is amazing, exactly what I've just been saying. 1 John 2:6, we'll begin here. The one who says he abides in Christ, I think all of us would have ourselves say that. 26:55 I'm in Christ. Okay? What does God expect of you? Every single day to walk on earth in the same manner as he walked. Do you believe that? Do you believe that's God's will for 27:16 you? You'll almost never hear anybody preach on this verse. Go and search YouTube and see if anybody preaches on 1 John 2:6 and tells you how to live that way. You won't find it. Cuz people don't believe it's possible. They say I believe in the Bible and 27:35 every word is true, but they don't believe this is possible. Everyone who says he abides in Christ ought means it's a responsibility to walk in exactly the same way as he walked. And this is not the testimony of some new convert. 27:52 This is a man called John who's writing at the age of 95 who was filled with the Holy Spirit when he was 30 years old. And for 65 years he walked with God and he writes this. This is not some young fellow giving some testimony. 28:10 If I were to paraphrase it, John is saying brothers and sisters you would say little children, that's what he says in verse one. He's only a little younger than me, John says. He's speaking to his little children. Let me tell you 28:21 something, from 65 years of my experience, if you say that you're in Christ, you must walk as he walked. Take it seriously at least from today. Say, "Lord, I haven't got there. It may take me a long time to get there. Maybe it may take me years to get there, 28:37 but I'm going to get there." Determine in your heart. That's what I determined long ago and that's what made me crave for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And that's where the Lord leads the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the way 28:52 of the cross. You can't They do go together. So, when we come to that light, now we can turn to the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2. How did Jesus live? He who says he abides in him must walk 29:10 as he walked. How did he walk? Verse chapter 2 verse 25, David says of Jesus, "I saw the Lord always in my presence." He always lived in the presence of his father. That's why he never did anything wrong. 29:36 He He is always the father was there before him. I've often said to married couples, "How do you talk to each other when you're all by yourself?" Be honest. When nobody else is listening. Maybe one day when a lot of things went 29:55 wrong in the house or in your work. How do you talk to each other? You say, "Well, because of the pressure." Okay. On that particular day when there was a lot of pressure, things went wrong. Supposing Jesus physically came to your 30:10 house and stood between you, then how would you talk to each other? Would you still make the excuse all because of the pressure of the work I had to speak to my wife or my husband like that? No. The presence of Jesus would immediately 30:24 make you change your tone of voice and your Why, even a If a believer from the church came to your house, you'd change your tone of voice and the way you speak. Leave alone Jesus himself. So, when we say the Lord is with us, 30:41 do you really mean it? I'm asking the hard questions I ask myself. And I said, "Lord, it's not true. But I want it to be true in my life. I want to see the Lord always in my presence. It'll take time. 31:00 It took your little child a long time to walk. It took it even longer for it to run. It took a long time for you to earn your living, to get a job. Everything in life takes time. It may take time for me to come to the place where 31:17 the Lord is always my presence, but you'll never get there if you don't aim for it. I There's some saying that if you aim for the stars, at least you'll reach the top of some mountain. 31:34 So, aim for Lord, I want this life where I'm always in the presence of the Lord. Think of that word always. Then turn with me to Acts chapter 24. 31:55 You know, God has set the Apostle Paul as an example for us just like Jesus. I think that's because when we say follow Jesus, it's just too high a standard. But you know, Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1. He 32:12 said, "Follow me." Is it right for a man to say follow me? If you don't know that verse, look it up. 1 Corinthians 11:1. Follow me as I follow Christ. Jesus said, "Follow me." Period. Paul did not say, "Follow me." Period. 32:32 He said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." And the picture I get is a mountain, say the highest mountain in the world, 30,000 ft, Jesus has reached the top. And his footsteps are there in the snow. And Paul says, "I'm walking in the 32:49 footsteps of Jesus. I'm only maybe at 1,000 ft. I'm a long way from me to reach 30,000 ft. I've not reached there. But I'm following Christ. Now, he says, "You see my footsteps behind me?" Now, you may be at 100 ft. See my 33:04 footsteps, Paul says, and you you'll be able to follow Christ because I'm following Christ. And those of us who are older and mature, parents, that's what we got to tell our children. Learn. Daddy and Mommy, you're an example for 33:20 you. How we should speak. How we should behave. And as they grow older, how we should handle money, how we should be upright. How we should forgive others. How we should love those who hate us. How we should stop gossiping, 33:34 backbiting. Follow me. Every father and mother should be able to say that to children, "Follow me as I'm following Christ. See my footsteps." We're not perfect yet. We haven't reached the top of the mountain. That's what I mean by being perfect. But we're 33:50 moving on. We're not in the same place we were in last year. We moved a few steps further than we were in last year. It's a little better. Not perfect yet. Next year it will be still better. But it won't be better if I'm not pressing 34:01 on. So, Paul in Paul is an example. Let's learn something from his life. How to live always in God's presence. See what Paul says in Acts 24 and verse 16. I do my best in some beautiful 34:22 expression, Paul says. He doesn't say I'm perfect. But I do my best to maintain again that word, always. What does he do his best always to have? A conscience without blame. Before God 34:41 and before men. You see, there are certain sins we commit only before God, like in our thoughts. You have a thought. You haven't hurt anybody. But you sin before God if it's a bad thought. If it's a dirty thought. A sinful thought. Or you have an 34:58 attitude towards somebody which even your husband or wife can't see. It's an inner attitude. A prejudice against someone. A sinful attitude. I would have a clear conscience before God. Or you're doing something 35:17 with a wrong motive. Nobody sees it. The action itself is excellent. And people appreciate you. But you've got a wrong motive. That's a sin before God. Or you become a little proud that people appreciated what you have done. 35:35 Oh. People think highly of me because I did that. Or I preached that sermon which blessed them. And that little inner pride has come to me. I'll tell you honestly. And I fight it and I hate it as soon as I see it and it gets better and better. 35:54 Like I said with Paul, I'm not perfect but I'm pressing on. Believe me, I'm pressing on. And if you do that, you'll go higher and higher in the mountain. But if you don't do that, you'll be stuck in the same place year after year after year, defeated in the 36:08 same place year after year after year. It's like your children sitting in grade one up to for 20 years. You wouldn't want your child to sit in grade one for 20 years. You wouldn't want your child to sit in your grade one 36:20 for even one year more. One year is the maximum. Next year they should be on. You don't want your child to sit in the same grade for 2 years. But we shouldn't be in the same place spiritually for 2 years. We should be moving on. 36:34 And the way he says is, "I keep my conscience blameless always." That's something we can easily do. It's not like asking us to jump over a 10-ft wall. All it means is, 36:52 if a thorn gets into your foot, pull it out immediately. Is that difficult? Is that an impossible command? If a speck gets into your eye, get somebody to blow it out. Pour some water and pull it out immediately. Don't keep on 37:08 keep it there. As soon as you get hurt with a with a thorn, pull it out immediately. That's what I see as a blameless conscience. I'm pricked by a thorn in my skin or by 37:27 the Holy Spirit in my conscience, set it right immediately. Have you ever waited whenever you got pricked by a thorn for time, "So, let me think about it and meditate on whether I should remove it or not." Or argue about, "Well, somebody pushed 37:46 me and that's why I got thorn into me." It is my own question. Thorn is not in your foot. Don't blame anybody else. Get rid of it. Even if an ant is biting me, I get rid of it. I don't love that ant to remain there. Keep your conscience clear 38:03 24/7. Always means 24/7. And that is how we can live in God's presence all the time. It's not that difficult. But determine that you want this life. Let this be a day when your life is 38:20 turned around. Say, "Lord, I'm going to pursue this life. Even if it takes a long time to get there, I'm going to get there." And never give up. Don't change your mind 1 week from now. I'm going to keep my conscience blameless before God. 38:37 That's one. And before men. That means if I hurt somebody, I want to apologize to that person as soon as possible. Can you remember when was the last time you said sorry to somebody? Or to your wife. 38:55 Or to your husband. Can you think of times when you knew you should say it? And you found so difficult for those words to come out of your mouth. Can you think of such a time? And you claim to be a better Christian than those other 39:13 Christians in the denominations who are not born again. You say, "I'm a born again Christian." Better than those who are not born again. But I find it difficult to say sorry to my husband or to my wife. I struggle with it. 39:31 Well, I'll tell you the truth. You will not be able to live in the presence of the Lord always. You just won't. You can listen to any number of sermons, but you will not live in the presence of the Lord always. You got to humble yourself. 39:49 Keep a good conscience before God. That's easy. It's very easy to confess our inner sins to God that nobody knows about. Now, one would think that it should be more difficult to confess our sins to a holy God than to confess our failure to another 40:05 fallen human being like myself. That person is a fallen human being and I'm a fallen human being. Should be easy to confess our sins to each other because we are both in this low level. But we think we can confess to God 40:16 almighty who's so holy? We're fooling ourselves. We think we're confessing to God. If you find it difficult to confess to a human being, I would seriously question whether your confession to God is genuine. How can it be 40:38 that you can't confess to a fallen human being like yourself, and you say you're confessing to a holy God? There's a lot of Christians fooling themselves, and I don't want to fool myself. I don't want to one day stand before the Lord and discover that I 40:51 fooled myself for most of my Christian life. That's why I speak these things straight. And I'm speaking things I've discovered in my own life. Dear brothers and sisters, if you cannot confess to man, to a human being, ask yourself whether you're really 41:09 confessing to God or you're saying some pious words. And that's why you keep on falling into those sins. Those same things that come in your thoughts come again and again and again and again and again, because you're not 41:21 really confessing to God. You're just thinking that you're confessing it to God. Because it's a silent thing, you think it's real. No, it's not. The test is, can you confess to a human being? Who's sinful. 41:37 So, that's another always. Let me give you another verse. This is This is not possible in the old covenant. In the old covenant, it was once a week Sabbath. One day a week, just keep your life holy. 41:55 In the new covenant, it is a perpetual Sabbath, every day, always, always in the presence of God. Here is another New Testament passage. These are verses only found in the New Testament. You will not find it in the Old Testament. 42:10 Keep your conscience always clear. Never in the Old Testament. Impossible, cuz they didn't have a Spirit. And that's why I say most Christians are living in the old testament. They're living just as if they didn't have the Holy Spirit. 42:24 They imagine they have. Okay, take another verse. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Verse 42:42 17. Pray without ceasing. Pray always. Jesus also said that in Luke 18:1 men should people should pray always. What does it mean to pray always? It 43:03 doesn't mean I have to be on my knees most of the time. We can't be on our knees. We can't be on our knees beyond a certain length of time. It's not being on your knees. The only way You know, praying always means what? In the middle of our work? 43:21 And when we're lying in bed or anytime anytime we are awake we should be praying. And if you keep doing that all the time and you understand how to do it, you'll find that even when you are asleep your spirit is in communion with God. 43:38 It's a wonderful thing. That will save you from dirty dreams. That will save you from fearful dreams. All human beings have either dirty dreams or fearful dreams or both. Jesus never had them. 43:57 You want to be like Jesus? I have discovered one thing that a lot of my dreams are depending on how how I think during the day. If I think pure thoughts, loving thoughts, 44:15 humble thoughts, seeking to live in God's presence during the day, it'll make a tremendous difference on the dreams I have at night. Any time I used to pray, "Lord, 44:36 let all my dreams be found on holy ground." Pray always means an attitude of communion with God all the time. It's related to having a clear conscience. I'm not saying anything I'm 44:56 not saying, "Lord, most people's prayer is I want this, I want that, give me this, give me that, heal me, and get rid of this and solve this problem for me in work." And it's always asking God for something or the other. 45:08 Yeah, there's nothing wrong in that. God is a father who loves to give us what we need and if we have a problem, the right person to go to is God, certainly. And I would never discourage you from that. Take uh what a friend we have in Jesus. 45:22 Everything let's take it to God in prayer. But prayer is not just asking God for this, that, and the other. It's fellowship with God. It's talking talking to him and more than talking to him, listen to him. I used to wonder what did Jesus do when 45:38 it says he would go out and spend hours in prayer. Many times the scripture reads somebody prayed all night or went out in the wilderness, spent long hours in prayer. I said, "Lord, what were you praying?" Was he telling God all the things he 45:53 needed in his life or what was happening around him? What he was telling, "Father, this is happening here but Father said, "I already know it. You don't have to tell me all that." What was he doing then? Well, for myself, 46:06 this is the answer I got. That 99% of the time Jesus was listening more than talk. And I'll tell you how I got that answer. Because I tried to find out this question of prayer always means what? Jesus went and would spend hours 46:23 in prayer. And I I find I would find that even a few minutes if I started praying something, my mind would get distracted. In fact, in the early days I found that as soon as I knelt down to pray, I remember all the things I needed to do 46:36 or haven't done. In fact, I told people if you ever want to discover what all you haven't done, just kneel down to pray. It will actually bring to your mind all the things you need to do you know, haven't done. And I said, "Lord, there's something 46:48 wrong here." And I discovered that Jesus was not telling God this, that, and the other. The Father would say, "I already know that." He was listening, because he said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 47:05 that proceeds from the mouth of the Father." Not proceeded, but proceeds. Matthew 4:4. Man shall live not live by bread alone, but by every word that present tense, present continuous tense. That proceeds from the Father. That means God is still 47:22 speaking. He spoke in the Bible, but if I read it, he can still speak to me through it. And he can When I get used to the the bi- Lord speaking to me through the Bible, he will speak to me without the Bible as well. At other times, 47:36 directly. That's what all of us need to come into that life. Man shall not live by bread alone. Is there a single day you go without food? Maybe you fast sometimes. But we can't live without food. We need it every day. But man shall not live by bread alone, 47:55 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Father. So, we need to hear that. That's how That's how we have to live. Those are the first spoken words of Jesus in his ministry. So, value that. Lord, that's how I want 48:12 to live. And that's to me, that's my understanding of praying. Praying is not Praying is communion with God. And I'll tell you how I learned that it is listening more than speaking. When I was a young Christian, if I went 48:28 to a more godly person or I spoke to a more godly person on the telephone, probably I had 1 hour with that person. A really godly person. I was a young new Christian, 20 years old. I'm speaking to this godly 60-year-old 48:44 man who's walked with God for years. Tell me who would do most of the speaking. I got to be a very arrogant person if I did most of the speaking. I'd let him speak more cuz he's more godly and there's a lot more I can learn 48:59 from him. On a phone, if you hear me speaking to some person spiritual things, and I'm listening more than I'm speaking, you will immediately conclude I'm speaking to a more godly man. On the other hand, 49:18 if you find that out of 1 hour of a conversation, I'm speaking 55 minutes, you'll be absolutely sure that person is a younger Christian than me. Right? Same Same with you. And that's how I learned that when I'm speaking to someone more 49:34 godly than me, I listen. When I'm speaking to someone who's less godly than me, I tell him. So, many people treat God as though he's less godly. And that's why you talk more than than you listen. That's how I learned it. 49:52 You talk more than you listen because you don't respect God for who he is. You tell You have to tell him 101 things, this, that, this, that, and the other, and then you say, "Amen." That's not how Jesus prayed. And I'm very thankful that I discovered 50:06 it. Because very often I tell God something, God says, "I already know it." Of course, we pray for one another. God already knows, but we express our fellowship there and ask and he He's given us the privilege of asking. Why 50:21 does God ask us to pray for something? So that we have the joy of an answered prayer. For example, if God healed your child without your praying, he could do it very well. You wouldn't have the joy of knowing that my heavenly Father answered my 50:37 prayer. But your child was sick and you prayed for that. And the child was healed, you have the joy of saying, "I prayed and God answered." That's why God wants you to express it in prayer, not because he didn't know your child was sick. 50:49 Not because he didn't care that your child was sick. He does care, and he knows, but he wants you to pray. And he wants you to persist in prayer because he wants you to believe that he's a loving Father. And he wants you to have more fellowship 51:05 with him. So, come back to me, come back to me, come back knock again, knock again, ask again, I'll give it to you. And I'll give you something better than you asked for. He always gives us something better, not the way we think it is. 51:19 It's always something better. So, let's learn this way of praying, the way Jesus prayed. Whenever you talk to God in prayer, ask yourself one question. Are you talking to someone who's more spiritual than you are or less spiritual than you are? That's 51:37 all you need to ask. And if he is more spiritual, and God is, then who should be doing all of the talking. I'm thankful that I learned that. I'm still learning. The other thing we had to do all the 51:55 time is verse 18 verse 16 rejoice always. That's not possible in the old covenant. They did Sabbath was once a week. Once a week you come to the temple and clap and shout and beat the drums and the blow the trumpets and praise the 52:15 Lord and rejoice in his presence. The remaining six days do what you like. Go and complain and grumble and do what you like. But don't forget on the Sabbath come back and say this. But now we are in a perpetual Sabbath and it says rejoice always. 52:33 And that's made more clear in Philippians 4 4 that we rejoice. It's explained. We complain compare scripture with scripture. When you don't understand one scripture, go to another scripture that explains it. So I get rejoice always explained more 52:50 clearly in Philippians 4:4 where it says rejoice in the Lord always. I can't rejoice in my circumstances always because circumstances may not be very good. For example, if I had a serious injury or a sickness, I don't rejoice in my sickness. 53:05 There's no virtue in rejoicing in some sickness you have. You pray for healing. I believe we should pray always for healing. But in the Lord always because he never changes. My physical circumstances, my medical situation may change. 53:23 So I can't always rejoice in it. The Lord is not unrealistic. Rejoice in the Lord. He never changes. That's why I can rejoice in him always even if I can't understand the his ways of dealing with me. Don't think that God always answers 53:41 prayer for healing. Paul was the greatest saint of his lifetime in his lifetime. And he had a sickness that bothered him so much. He called it a messenger of Satan. Have you ever had a sickness which you feel is directly from the devil 53:59 afflicting your body? Paul had one. It was definitely from the devil. And that's the man who writes here, "Rejoice in the Lord always." And he says the other words for in case you may think I made a mistake. Have you noticed that? Again, I say I 54:17 meant what I said, "Rejoice." Philippians 4:4. But those of you are not familiar with 2 Corinthians, let me read that to you. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Sickness is not something 54:37 we're going to have in eternity. But for some reason he allows it on the earth. And I don't believe that every believer's sickness is going to be healed. We must pray for it. And God keeps us healthy, generally 54:55 speaking. But Paul, far greater saint than any of us sitting here, says he got in verse 7, 2 Corinthians 12:7, a thorn in the flesh. And it was called See the way he describes it. 55:13 A thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan that tormented him. Have you Any of you had a sickness that torments you? Torment is a very strong word. Torments. And your mind and my mind says it and 55:32 it's like somebody whipping Paul, whipping, whipping, whipping. That's the word. Torment you. Whipping you, whipping you. And he says, I implored the Lord, verse eight. You know the meaning of implored? 55:51 Implored is more than asked. And he said, "Lord, please do this for me. Get rid of this. It's from the devil." And verse seven, "A messenger of Satan is tormenting me. It's like a perpetual thorn that I cannot take out of my flesh." 56:12 Please get rid of it. No answer. Verse nine eight, the second time I pray, no answer. The third time I pray, no answer. The fourth time, the Lord said, "No, I'm not going to take it out." Can you believe the Lord told Paul, "I'm 56:29 not going to give you your sickness." Lord, it's from Satan. Verse seven, "It's a messenger of Satan." No. You got to keep it. And uh I tried to figure out what was this 56:48 sickness. I'm a curious type person. Especially if it's in the Bible. If there's an answer in the Bible, I want to find it. There's no answer in the Bible, I say, forget it. And there is. Let me tell you. 57:07 See, you got to compare scripture with scripture. I'll show you. Acts chapter 16. I've mentioned this many times. You probably heard me say it. But in Acts 16, it says here, Paul was planning 57:26 to go to Bithynia, verse seven. No, it's a dream. Before he went there, he was planning to go to Asia. Asia is not the Asia we know today. It was known those days Asia Minor, a small part of Turkey. That's where he was planning to go. Acts 57:46 16:6. Passing through Phrygia passing through the Galatian Galatia was a state with many many towns. Having been I was going to go to Asia. That's what my goal was to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit stopped me. The Holy Spirit stopped me where I was 58:07 in Galatia. Verse 6. I was going passing through Galatia on my way to Asia, and the Holy Spirit stopped me in Galatia. So, my question is how did the Holy Spirit stop him? Was it a vision? No, it was not something spectacular like that. 58:22 It was through a sickness. He got sick in Galatia, so he had to stay there. He could not move on. He could not travel. And that's written in Galatians chapter 4. In Galatians chapter 4, he says in verse 13, 58:42 You know that it was through a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time. We learn a lot of things when we compare scripture with scripture. Paul is saying I was planning to go to Asia Minor, 59:00 that part of Turkey, and I was only passing through Galatia. I had no desire to stay in Galatia, but I got sick there. And I couldn't travel, bedridden. And the Lord said, "I want you to preach in Galatia." That's how he never churches in Galatia. 59:18 That's why he wrote the letter to the Galatians. There would have been no letter to the Galatians if Paul had not fallen sick there. There would have been no churches in Galatia. Because Paul's plan was something else. It's wonderful when God stops us 59:31 somewhere by sickness. I experienced once not by sickness, but I remember once I went to a certain country in the Arabian Gulf just to visit two brothers from India over there. 59:49 And I was I was only going past through there to go to another city, another country you know what I mean. So I thought when I'm there, I'll be there just two days and I get a visa and go to this other country. But I couldn't go through. I got stuck 1:00:06 there. Because I discovered that you know the big Muslim festival was going on and all the consulates were closed. I couldn't get a visa. I'm stuck there. For many days I said, "Okay, if I'm stuck here, let's have some meetings." 1:00:23 So I had some meetings and invited different people and today there's a flourishing church there. How did it come? Because I couldn't get a visa to go. I had no intention to have be there and have meetings. So Paul did something like that. He had 1:00:41 no intention to stay in Galatia. And he got stuck and it was this I had this bodily illness and he said something about this bodily illness. It was something that would make other people Look at this word, loathe. L O A T H E. It's not a word we use much 1:01:00 in English nowadays. But we would use a word like detest. Something repulsive. He said, "I had something in my body which normally speaking would people make feel repelled to see it. It was a trial to you. 1:01:20 It was But in spite of all of this something in his body that repelled people and he tells us what it is. He says you were willing verse 15 to pluck out your eyes 1:01:39 and give them to me. So from that I conclude that repulsive thing was not some inward cancer or something which we don't even know whether he has it or a stomach ache or a headache or something not visible it was something visible 1:01:53 something in his eyes. I believe there was some kind of pus coming out of his eyes while he was speaking which he couldn't control repulsive. You see you see a man speaking and there's always some pus coming out of his eyes he's always 1:02:05 having to wipe it wipe it wipe it. There's something repulsive about it. And Paul felt Lord this is a messenger of Satan. This is not from God. It's such a trial it's like a thorn in the flesh. Healing me. And the Lord said no. 1:02:29 You compare this with 2 Corinthians 12 that's what he prayed and Paul the Lord said to Paul the reason is this is to keep you humble. You are such a mighty apostle Paul you healed the sick you raised the dead you have written scripture you have 1:02:46 planted churches all over in so many places and so many others respect you you're a highly respected apostle in Christendom you are in tremendous danger of getting puffed up and thinking that you're somebody. And you need something you don't have 1:03:02 people at your level of maturity to rebuke you and correct you. Everyone is a younger person to you. You need something to keep you humble and therefore I have allowed this it will remain with you till you die. And it keep you humble. 1:03:23 And that's more important because only if you're humble I can give you grace. You may have this pus in your eyes, but you'll have an anointing on your life. Which do you want? Paul said, "I want the anointing." Then you need to keep this infirmity. 1:03:39 So, he didn't stop him from rejoicing always in the Lord even though he had the sickness. So, this is Paul's life. He would He always wanted to pray. He always wanted to rejoice in the Lord's presence. And then I want to just mention one or 1:03:56 two other things. It says in Colossians in chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4 verse 6. 1:04:15 You find that word always coming up again. Very related to our daily life. Let your speech always be with grace. And the people who listen to you the 1:04:35 most, who are they? Usually your family members. They're the ones who listen to your speech always. The others hear you once a week or twice a week. But who are the ones who listen to your speech always? Every day. 1:04:55 Those in your home. Those in your office, perhaps. Let your speech always be with grace. What a testimony if it can be like that. There's no such command in the Old Testament. There's nothing in the Old Testament 1:05:15 about how we should speak always with grace. That is why I say most good believers are living in the Old Testament. Their standard of life is Old Testament standard of life. And they're very happy with it. In the Old Testament there's in the list 1:05:36 of commandments, you shall not kill, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not worship idols. There is no commandment that's saying you shall not be angry. There's no commandment saying you shall 1:05:47 you shall not lust after women. Just don't commit adultery and don't kill anybody. I tell you most believers I met are living in the Old Testament. Their standard is not the New Testament commandments. It's the 10 Commandments. 1:06:01 And they think they're very good Christians. I haven't killed anybody. I don't commit adultery. I don't tell lies. I don't cheat. It's Old Testament, brother. And then you come to the New Testament, it is don't get angry, don't lust after women. 1:06:18 Let your speech always be with grace. Now, I'm not saying this to condemn anybody. But I faced up to all these things myself and I said it is not true in my life. That's the first thing I have to say. And I said it honestly to the Lord, 1:06:31 "Lord, it is not true in my life." And that's was the first step. And I said, "Lord, I want it to be true." I won't get there overnight, but little by little by little, I want to come to the place where I will never be in a bad 1:06:44 mood anytime any day. Because if I am, my speech will not be even grace. You got to go behind the reason for the speech not being grace. Something I'm meditating on something that's brought me into a bad mood. Beware of that. Beware of that. 1:07:03 Let your speech always be with grace. And he says he compares it to salt in the food. You know how salt in the food is? One spoon in your mouth, immediately you know there's no salt there. It's like that 1:07:23 when there's no grace in speech. You don't have to listen for 5 minutes. One sentence there's no salt there. He says not to judge other people. We're not called here to judge Ah, I know a lot of people who don't have grace in their speech. Forget it. 1:07:42 The Bible says God is the judge of all people. And one of the clear commands of that is don't go around judging other people. Judge yourself. See if there's salt in your food. You are so careful. You know the two pictures that the Lord 1:08:03 used to describe you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. What is common about salt and light? You meditate on scripture. When I read these things, I meditate. I say, Lord, you said salt and light. What's common about salt and light? 1:08:21 I'll tell you what I discovered. You know immediately whether it's there or not. In food as soon as you put one spoon in your mouth, you know immediately if there's salt or not. Immediately there's light or not. It doesn't take time. It doesn't even 1:08:40 take 5 seconds. You know whether there's light or not immediately. You put food in your mouth and know immediately. It's like that. Salt and light. Let there be salt in your speech. I'm not a questioner of whether you see 1:08:54 salt in other people's speech. Forget it. Is there salt in your speech? Is there grace in your speech? Everything I've said today is not for us to find out okay, this is how that person should be. That's how Pharisees are. 1:09:10 This is how you should be. And you think of it yeah, I can make a list of 10 names of people I know who don't have solid that speech. Forget it. Forget it. Or to say my husband and wife are you mean describing my husband and wife 1:09:24 exactly the way they are. You you got on the wrong track already. Do you know who's called the accuser of others in the Bible? The devil. Revelation 12:10. And he isn't he does not accuse the 1:09:42 unbelievers. They're already in his lap. It says he accuses the believers. What else does it say about him? How often does he accuse them? Do you know the words? 24 hours. 1:09:59 Revelation 12:10. He accuses believers 24 hours. And he's glad to have co-workers. And if you want to hold hands with me, the devil says, and the number of believers will say yes. 1:10:18 Satan, I'd like to hold hands with you. I know a few people I can point out a few faults in this person and that person. Go ahead. Go ahead, accuse them. Devil said, go ahead. I want a lot of co-workers. I don't have enough. I mean, 1:10:35 all the unbelievers are already helping me. I'd be delighted if I can have a few believers helping me, too. And finding fault with this person and finding fault, especially if you can get them to find fault with their husband 1:10:46 and wife. Wow. Then I'd have accomplished to destroy their home. Because when I destroy their home, I destroy their children. The standards in the New Testament are impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit. 1:11:04 So, the purpose of God giving us these commands is to make us cry out day and night saying, "Lord, give me a spirit-filled life." Give me a spirit-filled life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, 1:11:28 we pray that you will not allow us to be discouraged by what we heard, but encouraged that it is your will that you will give us this life. Your call to us is not to condemn us, but your call to us is saying, "Come up higher, my son. Come up higher, my 1:11:48 daughter. I want to give you a life such as you've such as you've never experienced so far, and I want you to believe today it is possible for you, even for you." Help us all, each one. We know you can help every one of us, 1:12:02 the weakest among us, you'll be ready to help first of all. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen.
