0:01 In the Christian world, they preach about believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. But if you read the Gospels, very rarely Jesus spoke about believe in me, the word he used most often was 0:19 follow me. Follow me, follow me, follow me. And if anyone will follow me, this is what he'll receive. and the conditions for following. So why is it that through the centuries the Christian world has switched from follow me to believe in 0:38 me? You never hear a gospel message saying follow Jesus. The gospel message is always believe in Jesus. And that's one reason for the shallow third rate good for nothing Christianity that we 0:55 see in more than 90% of churches even churches that preach the true gospel. Now I'm not saying that lightly. I have lived 65 years as a Christian. I've traveled many countries, seen churches of all denominations from Roman 1:14 Catholic to Salon Pentecostal and everything in between. And I've seen it. I've seen the hollowess, the emptiness. It's all because it's believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And follow me, follow the Lord has not been emphasized. 1:29 Because believe is just say what is it? I believe the earth goes around the sun. How does it affect me? doesn't affect me at one bit. I believe in the stars and the planets. So what? I believe God created the heaven and the earth. But following 1:47 is quite another thing. And I want to ask all of you sitting here, please listen carefully. In your life, are you following Jesus every day? As you don't have to answer that to me, but answer that to yourself. If I were to ask you, do you 2:03 believe in Jesus every day? Every one of you will raise your hand. Was there a day in your life in the last one year that you did not believe in Jesus Christ? No. You believe in Jesus Christ? Of course. But if I were to ask you just in 2:18 the last 5 months of this year, was there a day when you did not follow Jesus in the way you spoke and the way you behaved and the way you conducted yourself in your home, in your office? Then you begin to think. So that's why it is very 2:33 important for you to change this idea of believe. Believe as far as Christ is concerned means follow. It means a commitment. Why is the church called the bride of Jesus Christ throughout the New Testament or especially in 2:51 Revelation? It's exactly like those of you are married. You got a wife. You expect your wife to be faithful to you not just every day but every second of every day. You don't want her to be interested in some other man even for 3:10 one second. There are many other interests other than Christ that are attracting us. And to follow Jesus means to be his bride means I'm not interested in any other thing even for one second. How 3:29 would you feel if your wife said well once in a while one minute a day I sometimes think of another man only one minute a day it wouldn't disturb you I suppose is it what type of a marriage do you have if you allow your wife to think one 3:44 minute a day for about somebody else now I wonder I want to ask you do you have this type of relationship with Christ I'm very thankful that very early in my Christian life I understood that I'm supposed to be the bride of Christ. 3:59 That's not something I discovered after many many years. And I'm very thankful because that taught me simple devotion to Christ is very very important. And I'm very thankful that that started with me almost from the beginning and that's established my life 4:18 very strongly. So that's what I want to share with you. What does it mean to follow? It means to be a disciple. There are two places where Jesus said about going and preaching the gospel and I want to show them to you. One is in Mark 4:36 16 where Jesus said Mark 16 and verse 15 and 16 go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and is baptized will be saved. He who does not believe will be 4:53 condemned. There the emphasis is on believing. Now we must always compare scripture with scripture to get the full truth. Never forget that. Remember when the devil tempted Jesus 5:11 and Jesus quoted a scripture, man shall not live by bread alone. The devil quoted a scripture back to Jesus. jump off the roof because it is written his angels will guard you. And you remember what Jesus said, Satan, it is 5:27 also written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. That is scripture. It is written and it is also written. If you take only one part of scripture, it's like a bird with one wing. You'll go round and round and round and round. And 5:42 that's what happened to a lot of Christians. So this one scripture, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, believe and be baptized is one side. It is written. I want to show you the other side of 5:54 scripture. If you want to get the full truth, it is also written. To me, it's like the two sides of a body. What would you think of a man cut into half with just one half a body? That is one half of the body, but it's not complete. And 6:07 so scripture is not complete with one scripture. And Jesus made that very clear in the temptation in the wilderness. It is written. It is also written. Please remember this all your life. There are many things it is written. It is 6:21 scripture. But if you don't want to understand it fully, you must also see what is also written. So we read what is written in Mark 16. Believe and be baptized. It is also written in Matthew 28 verse 19. 6:41 Go. Now it says not just make people to believe but make disciples of every nation. There it was go into all the world and preach the gospel. It is written. It is also written go into all the world and make disciples. Is this a contradiction? 7:00 No. There's no contradiction in the whole Bible. It is the other half of truth. is the other wing of the bird. If you want to get the full truth, take both of it and make disciples of all nations and baptize them. Baptism is there. Baptism 7:18 is here also. But there it is believe and be baptized. Here it is make disciples and be bapt. You know the difference between explanation and contradiction. 7:36 believe make disciples it's not a contradiction it's an explanation if you believe you'll become a disciple if you believe without become a disciple it's only a head knowledge that every truth in the Bible the devil has got in his 7:49 head is there a single verse in the Bible that the devil doesn't know doesn't believe he knows everything it still sends him to hell for eternity and it can send a lot of other people to hell for eternity if they just believe what's 8:02 written so believe make disciple Les baptize them and then listen to this. Matthew 28:20 it is also written teach them to do every single thing I commanded you and 8:21 then I will be with you always. I've seen that word in many houses. Lo, I'm with you always even unto the end of the world. And I say that's a half a verse. How can you believe that'll be true in your home or in your life if you don't 8:39 fulfill the condition? There's a condition for I'll be with you always till the end of the world. Make disciples and teach them to do every single thing I commanded you and then I will be with you. So that's the question you need to 8:58 ask yourself. Don't just go and say, "Lord, you said you'll always be with me." Hang on. Hang on. To whom did he say it? to those who become disciples and who are seeking to do every single thing. All you know the meaning of the word all. All Matthew 9:16 28:20. Obey everything I commanded you and I promise you I'll be with you always till the end of the age. I'm very thankful that I tried to follow that. I mean every scripture we can only say we tried to follow it. And if you're trying your best to follow 9:36 it, that's all that God expects of you. I want to ask you, are you seeking to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple, and to obey everything he commanded you? That's why we built CFC 9:54 churches. I found 50 years ago when I was 35 years old. I'd seen Christendom for about 16 years before that and I was pretty fed up, defeated in my own life and I never saw a church that was preaching everything that I saw in 10:14 scripture and finally I was in one church that threw me out for preaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And so you know 50 years ago two of us families in Bangalore decided to meet in my house. He said at least two of us will 10:33 start trying to teach everything that Jesus did. First of all practice everything ourselves and teach it to others and see who all will come. And we had a big turnover. Some will come go come and go and there so many people came and go 10:50 went and uh at the end of five six years there were about 60 people and out of those 60 people I think there were only seven or eight finally left today all fell away that happens when you teach everything that Jesus commanded some along the way people will 11:05 fall away and that can happen even in this church you preach everything that Jesus commanded some will fall away and it it never disturbed me 50 years ago when people started falling away and throughout the years I've seen in all 11:19 the many many churches in different countries that the Lord has raised up. I've seen people falling away. It doesn't disturb me. I see that in Jesus case also people fell away. Sometimes he preached to a whole crowd and by the 11:34 time the message is all over a lot of people have left. Very few people are left. That can happen if you preach follow me. One of the great examples is John chapter 6. In John chapter 6, we see the chapter 11:52 begins with a miracle. Miracles are always exciting. He fed the 5,000. That's the first thing we see in John chapter 6. And in those first verses from verse 8 to 14, the 5,000, the multitude were 12:12 fed with loaves and fishes. as we read in verse 11. And then Jesus began to preach to the people and he said some very strong things like you have to eat of me. Verse 12:30 53, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you don't have any eternal life. If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you'll have eternal life because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Now, put yourself in that place 12:49 and you're listening and you haven't heard the explanations that we have heard about that verse in these years that you've been in the church. You're listening it for the first time to a man getting up saying, "You've got to eat my flesh and 13:01 drink my blood if you want to have eternal life." And these are Jews who were taught in the Old Testament, never touch blood, blood of an animal or no blood, but he must never drink blood. That's it's a crime. And here's this man 13:15 telling us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. What will you call him? A heretic. And then it says here many people when they heard this verse 60, he said this is a in today's language this is a crazy statement. Who can listen to 13:34 all this? And then we read, "Many of them left." Verse 66. Many of his disciples, not visitors, many of his disciples withdrew and they didn't want to walk 13:52 with him anymore. Who's going to eat his flesh and drink his blood? This is crazy. I don't want to follow this man. This I told you this chapter started with 5,000 being fed plus women and children probably 14:09 10,000. At the end of the chapter the 10,000 is whittleled down to 11. This is how Jesus preached. That's been my challenge. If I can take a crowd of 10,000 and whittle them down to 11 disciples, I followed Jesus. 14:29 That's what I decided when we started our church 50 years ago in Bangalore. These great multitude of people who come to listen because they like a good message and going to whittle them down to a small number who really 14:40 want to follow you, not just to want to listen to a good sermon. A lot of people would come to my church to listen to a good sermon. I think a lot of people may come here to listen to a good sermon. A lot of people go to YouTube to listen to 14:51 a good sermon. I'm not interested in such people. I want to know those who want to follow. 10,000 people may be interested in listening to a good sermon. 11 will follow. Those are the 11 I'm looking for cuz those are the ones Jesus is looking 15:08 for. And in every church in the last 50 years, I've seen we have planted a lot of churches in different different countries. Always it starts with a big number and it whittleles down to a small thing. I say praise the Lord. Now we can 15:22 make disciples. It never never disturbs me when 10,000 becomes 11. I say we're going in Jesus' footsteps. And that's happened in other churches. It's happened here. And may maybe there are still some more to leave. Okay? We're not going to 15:42 compromise the message. We're not here to gather. We're to have to whittle down till we are left with people who are serious about their Christian life, serious about the way they speak, that they will never gossip, they'll never 15:58 backbite, they'll take up the cross every day, they'll take their married life seriously. They'll seek to bring up their children properly in the fear of God. They'll stop backbiting and speaking evil of others. And then the number will come 16:11 down to 11 or a small number. And it says he had to we had to go into all the world and make disciples. So I remember in the early days we spent nearly a whole year in the first year of our gathering together preaching 16:28 two things. One is the conditions of disciplehip and the other is the sermon on the mount. We spent one year, we spent many many many weeks on what it means to be a disciple and then many many months going 16:46 through Matthew 5:6 and 7. That's how we started CFC Bangalore 50 years ago. And God has raised up godly elders throughout the years. And I I went back there recently, a few months ago, and I see those four elders just as good as 17:05 the original elders, godly people who fellowship with one another, no strive for conflict, completely one with each other and leading the church forward. It started with two families. We have 600 people there, but we don't rejoice in 17:20 numbers. But there are many there who want to follow the Lord. The important thing is to make disciples. And that's what I preached everywhere. And that's what we preach in this church too. So first of all we preach the condition of disciplehip. And 17:34 I want to point out that to you again in Luke 14. We must never get tired of this passage because it's because this passage is not taught that Christianity is so shallow. People 17:52 believe. Okay. Now I'll explain to you disciplehip. Luke chapter 14 and verse 25 to 33. Again, it starts with great crowds following and he turns and tells them 18:11 listen to this. Today, if a preacher sees a great crowd, what is the first thing he'll do? He'll get his followers say pass the offering background quickly before they go away. Afterwards, we'll tell them the hard things. We did the We 18:27 did it the other way. We said, "We never pass an offering background." Do you know, my brothers and sisters, that we have more than 100 churches today in 17 countries. And in all those churches, not once in 50 years have we 18:42 passed an offering back around. Never. We have 300 elders. Not one of them receives a salary, including me. I've never received a salary in 50 years. And we have 300 like that. Where do you where do you find God raised up 19:02 people? Because we preach disciplehip. We're not boasting. We're talking about what Jesus did. I I don't hesitate to tell people what Jesus did. Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works, 19:20 what God has done in us, and glorify your father." Great crowds came and he told them some of the hardest words that he ever said. Listen to this. Is this the way any preacher preaches when he sees a great crowd? If any of you come to me, Jesus says, 19:40 and you don't hate your father, go slowly, hate, I'm not misreading, read your Bible, hate your father, hate your mother, hate your wife, hate your children, hate your brothers, hate your sisters, hate your own life. Then you 20:00 can be my disciple. A lot of those people would have left immediately saying, "This guy's crazy. Why didn't Jesus use simpler words? He knew that most of these people are not serious. Every church I've been 20:19 to, even in our own churches when we start, I know that all these people come to listen to a good sermon. They're not serious about disciplehip. So, you have to preach some strong words to drive them away. And those who are called by God 20:33 will not be driven away. They'll never get offended with anything that a man of God says. If they recognize that man is a a prophet of God whom God has called up, they will never get offended. Ones who get offended are those who are looking for an easy way of 20:52 life. What does it mean to hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife children? I struggled with this for years myself to understand what does it mean Lord? I don't want to compromise it. I don't want to lower it. And yet I know there are you know I 21:05 have to take scripture with scripture. It is written. It is also written. Honor your father and mother. It's also written. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. And here I'm told to hate my wife. Scripture with scripture I will 21:17 understand. It is written. It is also written. So I took it to what is written and it is also written. And I this is how I understood it that my love for Christ must be like the light of the sun. The brightest thing that we can see on this earth is 21:32 the light of the sun. An example. Should there be any love for my wife and children and father and mother? Yes. That's also got to be a light. A very bright light. Like the light of the 21:49 stars. You know the stars are so bright. Some of the stars are extremely bright. But when we look at a star at night, there is a light there. Definitely some stars are very bright. But the moment the sun comes 22:08 up, what happened to it's not that the stars have disappeared. They're there, but you can't see them. They're all there. That's how I understood this verse. Yes. Love your father, love your wife, love your brother, love your 22:25 sister. But when the light light of the love for Christ comes, it just sort of fades away. It's almost like nothing because love for Jesus takes over. What did Jesus say? What is the first commandment? You shall love the Lord 22:43 your God with 50% of your heart and leave the other 50% for your wife and your brother, family, children. Is that what he said? No. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Okay. All your heart. Then what place is there in your heart for other 23:00 people? Take God's word seriously. Didn't Jesus did not make a mistake? Then how in the world am I supposed to love my wife and my children and my honor my father and mother? It must be from a heart that is 23:18 filled with love for Christ. filled with love for God. From that love, I love other people. That is how scripture I don't know some of you Christians, you've heard all these things. I don't know whether you've taken it seriously. I 23:31 took it seriously. That's why my Christian life changed radically from the beginning. I didn't just set it aside and say, "Oh, what does it mean hate?" I wanted to understand what does it mean to hate? I compared it to the 23:42 light of the stars and the sun. The light of the sun is like the love for Christ which makes the others almost disappear. and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. So from that love, I must love 23:55 Christ. That's why when I was considering marrying Annie and the proposal came, I told her right at the beginning, you will always be number two in my life. You'll never be number one. And number one will never be another 24:08 girl. No, it'll be Jesus. And I always want to be number two in my life. We are married 57 years now and I say the same thing. you will always be number two in my life and I want to be number two in my life. That's the secret of a happy 24:23 marriage. You determine that Christ is always first. And I say that to every brother in the church. You're not going to be so close to me that I will please you and dishonor Christ. I say that to my children. If you dishonor the Lord, I 24:39 will be against you. Christ will be between me and you. You will be second. You will never be first. my life. No son of mine will ever be first in my life. Christ will be first. And if he dishonors Christ, I will tell him that. If he honors Christ, 24:57 I'll appreciate that. Christ will be first. Father, mother, my dear brothers and sisters, if you want to be a disciple, please listen to what I'm saying. I'll tell you honestly, you will never in your life be a disciple if you 25:12 don't take this seriously. whoever it is. And I'll tell you this, you'll love your wife much better if you love Jesus with all your heart. Much better. You'll never get offended with her. You'll never get angry with her. You'll never 25:28 get upset with her. You know why you get upset with your wife and get angry? It's because you don't love Jesus with all your heart. Put Christ first. And you will never in your life get angry and shout at your wife. Not 25:41 even once. It's the message of the gospel. Then you'll be able to love her as Christ loved the church. That's the first condition. And even love for brothers. Why is it so many brothers sometimes have conflicts? I'll tell you why. 25:59 Because they don't love Christ with all their heart. They love somebody because oh that guy's like me. They be sort of similar in many ways and so become friendly. I'm not bothered with somebody similar. I want to be fellowship with 26:13 people who are completely opposite of me, dissimilar to me. Most of our work in India is in the poorest villages. Annie and I have gone to the poorest villages in India where people don't know one word of English. There 26:27 there's no pharmacy, no doctor, nothing. And there we've seen people who can't even speak properly, not educated, extremely poor, who live from hand to mouth. And I've had wonderful fellowship with them because Christ is between 26:48 us. We've never gave importance to education or intellect in our church. People have come to our church in Bangalore, wealthy people thinking that they would get a place of importance. Always I've told them to go and sit at 27:05 the back. I remember one guy came from Dubai. You know that's a place where Christians make a lot of Indians make a lot of money and he retired and came and came to our church. I made him sit in the back row. Every Sunday I said you sit there 27:21 till he got offended and left the church. And I said, "Praise the Lord. Such people are not fit to be here who are want honor in the church. There's no place for honor here. Be a servant. You just came yesterday to the church and 27:34 you you we you think we care for your money. I don't care two hoots for your money. Go and throw your money somewhere else. Jesus said come to me without your money. That's what we have preached in our church. That's why we have preserved the 27:46 standard through the years. And that's why so many churches don't preserve the standard. They give honor to people. They don't love Jesus with all their heart. And in this church, we want to love Jesus with all our heart first. I 27:58 want to encourage every one of you. I'll tell you this. You'll enter into a real Christian life when you love Jesus with all your heart. Every one of you young people everyone I say the same thing to you that's number one in don't let any human being take 28:15 the place of Christ in your life every single day wake up in the morning and the first person you talk to must not be your wife or your husband it must be Jesus Christ I'm not preaching what I've not practiced I wake up in the morning and 28:35 the first thing I first person I speak to is my savior who's more important to me than my wife. Then I talk to my wife and it'll be like that. It has been like that for years and it'll be like that till Jesus comes. And that is why I know I'm ready 28:52 to meet him because I can say to him, Lord, to the best of my ability, I try to love you with all my heart and I never allowed any person to come between me and you. The second condition of disciplehip. Verse 27. Take up your cross every 29:10 day and follow me. That is a subject which many Christians have not understood. You know what it means? It means to die. Take up the cross is to be crucified with him. Take up your cross and follow me is what Jesus said when he was on earth 29:30 because he was not yet crucified. So until he was crucified, he could only say, "Take up your cross and follow me." Today he would say, "Be crucified with me." Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ." Paul did not say, "I'm for 29:47 taking up the cross and following Christ." No. That's when Christ was on earth. Paul said, "I'm the it's that day path is over. I'm already crucified. Now I walk the crucified path every single day. Every day I live as one who is dead to 30:06 self and alive to Christ. That is the condition of disciplehip. In other words, not my interests, not what I think, not how I should respond. 30:25 I've often told people if there's a dead man here, how will he respond to criticism, abuse? You say you're a good for nothing fellow, useless fellow. What's his response? It doesn't make any difference 30:46 to him. On the other hand, you say, "Oh, you're a great guy. You're so smart. You're so clever." No response. When you can come to the place where somebody calls you an idiot or a good for-no person and your reaction to him is exactly the same as 31:03 somebody who comes and says to you, "Oh brother, you're a great man. You're such a wonderful man. You're such a kind man." And your reaction is exactly not the word exactly, exactly the same as to the other fellow who called you an idiot and a good for 31:18 nothing fellow. Then you have been crucified with Christ. And until you come there, say to yourself, I have not been crucified with Christ yet. I'm not preaching what I've not practiced. I've heard numerous people have called me the 31:37 devil and numerous people have called me a great prophet. It is exactly the same to me because I've been crucified with Christ. I'm not joking. I can love the person who calls me a devil. I've had numerous particularly in the days when I 31:57 used to stand in the streets of in India and preach the gospel. People would call me the devil. And I say fine, I love you, brother. And after that when we preached about Jesus was tempted like us and overcame sin, they called me the devil 32:09 again. Christians began to call me the devil. I said, "God, I love you." And some of them got converted. So when you're really dead with Christ, your reaction to criticism and praise is exactly the 32:28 same. Like a dead man, you don't get hurt by what somebody said. Do you get hurt by what somebody said? I'll tell you, brother, sister, die. Die. Fall into the ground and die. You know why there's so little fruit in the 32:47 lives of many Christians? I remember when I was a young man and I was in Bangalore 35 years old when we started the church. The word that came to me was fall into the ground and 33:04 die and there'll be much fruit from your work. I raised my hand to the Lord and said Lord I'll do that. I give you my word to the best of my knowledge and best of my ability. I will fall into the ground here in Bangalore and 33:21 die. I will never ask for anything for myself. I'll never get offended with what you do or you don't do. Whether you I'll never have a complaint about how you treat me. Dead men don't complain. Do you have a complaint against God? Brother, 33:36 die. Do you have a complaint against God? Sister, die. Dead men don't have complaints. I meditate a lot on what it means to die, to be dead, and it's changed my life. It'll change yours also if you take it seriously. Most Christians are 33:52 just playing games in Christianity. They come to church to listen to a nice message, to get a little stirred up, to meet a few friends, and gossip a little and go home. I'm not interested in that type of Christianity. That's good for 34:04 nothing. Third rate useless Christianity. And I hope none of us will be like that. And I hope people who are like that, the sooner you leave this church, the better. Have you ever heard a pastor saying, "Leave this church, 34:16 please." Well, you hear it here. If you're not interested in being a disciple of Jesus, my brother, sister, don't confuse everybody else and don't spoil everybody else. Don't bring corruption into the system. You will not 34:30 corrupt the system. You'll only corrupt people who can be corrupted. Those who are serious here will not be corrupted. no matter how much you try to corrupt them. But it'll be easier for you to find another church where you feel 34:43 comfortable and happy because this is not the place for those who don't want to be disciples. I'll tell you honestly from the beginning I said Lord I'm not interested in building a large church. L A R G. No, I'm interested in building a P U 35:02 church a pure church. Great multitude whittle down to 11. That's what I want. Great multitude come to hear the gospel. Tell them you got to hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children. That is what it means to follow Jesus. Take up your cross every 35:20 day and follow me. Die to yourself and follow Jesus. We are to be crucified with Christ. And then there is a third condition only three. One is your attitude to your relatives and loved ones. And the second is your attitude 35:38 yourself, your proud self-life which must be crucified. And the third is your attitude of money. John sorry Luke 14 and verse 33. No one can be my 35:56 disciple. No one can be my disciple if he does not give up all his own possessions. I cannot be his disciple if I don't give up all my own possessions. Read that 36:16 carefully. Poss possession is what I hold tight. This is mine. He didn't say you can't have anything. If he says I can't have anything, then I can't even have a shirt or a pant or anything. He said you can have many things but don't 36:35 possess. In other words, all the things you're holding on tight. What are you holding on to tight? Your job. You see that's very important for you. Therefore, you're so insecure. Open your 36:51 palm. Say, Lord, you give me a job. I have it, but I'm not going to hold on tight to it. I'll lose it any day. You hold it for me and you'll always provide my need. I say this, you know, when the 37:14 Lord called me in May 1964, which is 62 years ago, to leave my job in the Navy and to come out and serve him. The Navy let me go after two years. So, it's nearly 60 years now since I've been serving the Lord 37:33 full-time. And I took my entire I'd served in the Navy for eight years by then and you know as a naval officer you get a very high salary and I all that money which I saved when I the day I left I took it and gave it all away for God's work and 37:53 I left my job with zero in my bank account and I said Lord I'm going to trust you. I'll never join a society. I'll never join a church. I'll never get a salary. I'll never do anything. I want to live like Jesus and Paul lived. Paul 38:07 said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." And that is a primarily a call for those who are in full-time Christian work. Now, I was called to full-time Christian work. And I don't say that to other people, but for myself, it would be like 38:22 that. You know, out of all the people Jesus met, only one person he said, "Sell all that you have." He never told Martha and Mary, "Sell all that you have." And uh he never told even Zakius he only gave half of what he had. And 38:35 Jesus said that's fine. But to one person Jesus said sell all that you have. And I was one of those. Jesus said all that you have. The difference was that guy didn't agree. I said yes I'll give it all up. And the Lord said you got to trust me. 38:53 I remember a man of God said to me when I was a young Christian more than 60 years ago and I followed his advice all these years. He said one never in your life make your earthly financial needs known to anybody. Live with what little you have. 39:15 Never borrow. never ask for anything from anyone because you got a father in heaven who cares for you. I said yes. Secondly, don't buy anything unnecessary and 39:33 expensive. Live with very simply with whatever is necessary for your life. essentials. I've tried to follow that throughout my life. If I have some good clothes, they were usually given to 39:52 me by somebody else. I would never waste my life even on good clothes. Ordinary clothes were enough for me. And thirdly, he said, when people accuse you, keep your mouth shut. I'm very thankful those three bits of advice I got 60 years ago and I followed 40:12 it all these 60 years. When I'm accused falsely I keep my mouth shut. I never asked anybody for a single scent in my life and never try I tried my best to live extremely simply and God gave me a life a wife who wants to live 40:28 more simply than me. So I'm very thankful for that. Don't say brother my wife is extravagant and wastes a lot of money. I'll tell you perhaps God saw that you were not wholehearted yourself and 40:45 that's why he gave your wife like that. So you better at least now you can change and say Lord change me and my wife and make us more simple in our habits so that we don't get into debt. 41:03 Debt to me death is like committing murder. I've never been in debt for 60 years. Not even for one rupee, 1 cent to anybody in the world. When my wife and I had little, we lived with 41:23 little. I could not afford to ride a car. So, I rode a scooter for 42 years in India. I don't regret it. But I decided I will not get into debt. Romans 13 and verse 41:40 8. It's an absolute statement. It's not a suggestion. By the way, there are no suggestions in this book. I hope you know that. No, there are only commands, no suggestions. Oh nothing. O R Romans 138. 41:59 Oh nothing. Do you know the meaning of nothing? Nothing is not $5 or $100 or $1,000. In case you did not know, nothing means zero cents. owe nothing to 42:17 anyone in the world. I can stand before the Lord and raise my hand and say, "Lord, by your grace, I have followed that for 85 years of my life. I've never owed anything to anyone." When my wife and I had very little in the 42:35 house, we lived with little. We cut down. We told our children, "We can't buy you new clothes. Sorry, you use your older brother's clothes. Sorry, we can't get you that thing you want." You go to a store and they want to buy something and say, 42:51 "Sorry, we can't afford it." They'll cry a little. Okay, they're little children. They'll cry. Okay, they'll get over it. But I will not to please my children. I would not disobey God. Never. And all my four children know 43:08 that. owe nothing to anyone. We lived simply because we could not afford anything more. Now I'm not saying you have to live at my standard. God has allowed you to earn much more. You can live at a higher standard by all means use your money in 43:27 a good way. But all I say is don't owe anybody. I'm not saying that cut down your expenditure. No, no, no, no. I'm saying don't owe anybody anything. That's all. Please don't misunderstand me. I've never in my life asked even in 43:39 Bangalore I never asked anybody to live at my level. I said if you're earning more you can live at a higher level. I don't earn that much. I can't live at that level. Just like among all of you all of you don't earn the same 43:51 amount. So all of you cannot afford the things that somebody else in this church can afford. Somebody else can afford it. Somebody else can afford a better house but you can't afford that type of house because you don't earn so much. 44:02 So there's no this is not we are not a communist society where we try to make equalize everybody. No, God's made these five fingers all different size. Communism says cut it all and make it all the same size. No, that's not what 44:15 we teach. They're all different sizes. And God has given us different levels of income, but we must not love money. We must not possess it. We must not owe anybody anything. Not even one cent for not even for one day. And I 44:32 would not be able to preach that if I hadn't practiced it for 85 years. If God has blessed me, it's because I tried to obey scripture. If God's given me a gift to speak God's word, it's because I've tried to obey scripture. And if God's planted 44:48 churches, he can do that through you. I wish God would use many of you to plant churches and make disciples. But you got to be a disciple first. How many of you will take it seriously? Some of you have become so old it's 45:02 probably too late. At least the younger generation here. Teach your children at least to be disciples. Dear brothers and sisters, if you failed as a father and mother, at least teach your children to be disciples so that you can produce 45:13 somebody else who will follow in Jesus' footsteps. Even if you failed miserably in your younger days, take this seriously. We want a church of disciples. And then this church will be strong. Owe nothing to 45:29 anyone. Don't take advantage of anybody financially. I've sometimes been invited to stay in rich people's homes when I've traveled to foreign countries and I have left a gift behind. And some of them are surprised. 45:52 This poor poor man from India leaving a gift for us here. Well, they were kind to us. They allowed us to stay two, three days in their house and left a little gift for them. I wanted to be a testimony. I didn't want to be one who 46:04 sponges of other people. You know what a sponge is? You put it in and it absorbs everything, all that liquid. There are people like that who are sponges whenever they get want to get something out of other people like a sponge. I 46:17 said, I never want Jesus was not a sponge. He never took advantage of anybody. You'd always give rather than receive. It is more blessed to give than to receive. I really believe that and I've 46:34 experienced it in my life. Dear brothers, don't be in debt. I remember once in Bangalore when I felt that some people there sitting there, you know, then the church becomes bigger. Some people sort of take take it lightly and 46:48 I found that some people were getting into debt. So one day I got up on Sunday morning. I was a very strict father towards the church I meant and I said there were maybe what 500 people there. I said if anybody in this 47:06 church has borrowed more than 1,000 rupees from anyone and not made any effort to pay even a little bit of that after 1 month, please come and see me after this meeting. Some people cleared that debt 47:26 that day itself. Some people they went out and used their phone and clicked and transferred the money online to somebody. They could have done it earlier. Why didn't they do it? I said, "Oh, I can get a little more interest in the bank if I keep it in my 47:45 name. Can you imagine that? Taking God's word lightly. Owe nothing to anyone." I want to ask all of you straight. Can you honestly say that you owe nothing to anyone? If not, go home and lift up your hand to the Lord and say, "Lord, I am a 48:03 disobedient child of yours. I have disobeyed Romans 13:8 for years. Have mercy on me and please help me to start obeying you at least from today." It's serious, my brother. And I'll tell you another thing which I have proved in my life. 48:22 Seek the kingdom of God first and his righteousness and everything that you need on earth will be added to you. Are some of you finding difficult to get a job? I'll tell you why. You're not seeing God's kingdom first. I'll tell 48:38 you that straight to your face. Don't get hurt with me. I'm telling you the truth. How is it possible that a man can seek God's kingdom first and his righteousness to be absolutely righteous and Matthew 6:33 is not fulfilled in his 48:51 life and God does not add everything else to him. That is impossible. You have to call God a liar and God is not a liar. You go before God and say Lord all things are not being added to me because somewhere in my life I'm not seeking 49:05 your kingdom first. Other things are more important to me. Well then God have mercy on you. The promise is if you seek God's kingdom and his righteousness. Matthew 6:33. First, everything that you need on earth will be added to you. Even 49:21 health. What is it that has preserved Annie and me for 57 years of marriage that we have never once had to go to a hospital with sickness? I'm not boasting. I'm just saying God is so good. He gives us health. I'll tell you 49:36 why. I'll say this in closing. I read in 1 Corinthians 6. This is for you also. It's in your Bible. I'll never tell you anything which is not in your Bible. 1 Corinthians 6, the last part of verse 49:56 13. 1 Corinthians 6:13. The body is not for immorality. That's the first thing. be perfectly pure sexually in your thoughts. You should go and hang your head in shame if you watch pornography. Even if you're a young 50:19 man, destroying yourself, polluting your mind, swallowing poison, poison, poison, watching this filth called [Music] pornography. The body is not for immorality. The body is not for watching pornography. It is for the 50:37 Lord. Every part of my body, my eyes, my tongue. And if my body is for the Lord, the Lord will be for my body. That's what it says here. That's the word I claimed many years ago. I said, Lord, I will not use this body for 50:54 immorality. It is for you. And I you got to do your you got to put fulfill your part of the promise that you you are for my body not just for my soul you're for my body. Now I'm not saying we can never get sick. Even Jesus was sick. We read 51:09 in Isaiah 53 sometimes God allows us to be sick to teach us to be compassionate towards others. I'm not saying we'll never go to hospital. There's no crime in being admitted in a hospital. All I'm saying is make sure your body is for the Lord. 51:26 And then you can claim that promise. The Lord is from my body. And further down it says there the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You seen that? Further down in verse 19, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That means if you can take care 51:44 of this building which we say is go gathering for a church, you think God won't take care of his temple. He will. There are wonderful promises in scripture which we are missing by not fulfilling the conditions. Let's pray. Dear brothers and 52:04 sisters, you don't realize how much God loves you. I wish you'd know that. I wish you'd know that every command of God's is because he loves you so much that he wants you to have the very best in life. So yield your all to him and say, "Lord, 52:24 I'm sorry for the ways I've failed in the past. I'm sorry for the way I've gossiped and spoken evil and done all types of wrong things in my past life. Please forgive me. Let me take my Christian life seriously from today. I want to really be your 52:38 disciple. I want to follow you. I want to claim your promises that if I obey you and follow you, you will honor me. Help us, Lord, each one. Help us each one that we can be a living testimony for you in this godless world. 52:55 Even in a Christian so-called Christian world which does not honor Christ. Help us to honor you in this church. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
