0:07 So, I had a word I have a word burning on my heart. I had through this week planned to share something today actually continuing from the message I preached a couple weeks ago. Uh but over the course of the last few days the 0:22 Lord put a planted a a word in my heart that I believe is perhaps one of the most necessary messages that this church has heard in a long time, will hear. Um I was listening to this message. So, all we're going to do now for the message is 0:38 watch this message together. It's my brother Zach. He preached it a couple weeks ago at CFC and I was watching it listening to it and watching it this week. And uh it it affect deeply impacted me in a way uh personally first of all, 0:57 but as a husband and a father and as an elder in this church that has oversight here, as a disciple of Jesus and as one who um whose greatest ambition, I'll be honest with you, is to have my life be meaningful from eternity's 1:14 perspective. And the only way that is that that can be meaningful is if we are seeking for God's highest on this earth. The only way we can live a meaningful life on this earth church family is if we're seeking God's highest. 1:32 That means if there's even one area in which, for example, I was thinking after I listened to this message a few weeks ago we memorized this verse. I think it was a couple weeks ago. He died for all. For what purpose? This 1:46 is what we must be proclaiming as a church. Why did Jesus die? If you listen to the majority of what goes on in Christendom, Jesus died so you can have a wonderful life in heaven and live it up on this earth as well. And that is the greatest heresy that has 2:06 ever been proclaimed in the name of Jesus, I think. But the Bible is very clear. He died for all. For what reason? Let's say together, that we may not live for ourselves. And after I listened to this message, I I couldn't stop weeping. 2:24 And in my spirit I'm I'm not weeping now, but I'm weeping in my spirit as I think about how This is how the Lord spoke it to me. Uh we memorized that verse. And the Lord took me back over the couple of weeks it's been since I 2:42 memorized that verse. And I played it in my head and I felt like the Lord was asking me, "Do you see that area where you lived for yourself? You see that other area where you chose for yourself? You see that other time when in that 2:55 conversation you said something that was for yourself to honor your own reputation or to defend yourself? What is What use is it, Santosh, if you memorize it, but get to heaven and realize that you didn't really live it out? 3:13 In those little areas. This is what it means to seek God's highest. Is that God will get the maximum out of my life and the only way he can do that is there is if there is absolutely zero of myself. This is how we seek God's highest is I 3:31 say, "Lord, forgive me for where I've pleased myself and help me to never please myself." There's a verse in Romans 15, I think it's verse three, which is a There are spread out throughout the scriptures you'll see little 3:46 words or little phrases, little sentences that are wonderful synopses or biographies of Jesus. And there's one in Romans 15:3 which many people don't know. It says this, "Jesus Even Jesus never pleased himself." The most effective 4:05 successful life that has ever been lived is not by the man with the most amount of money or the person who did the most amount of good in healing or helping the poor or anything like that. The most effective successful life that 4:15 was ever lived in the history of mankind was the life of the man about whom it was said, "He never pleased himself." If we want to live effective lives, not from the world's standpoint, if we want to have effective marriages, not from 4:30 the world's standpoint, if we want to have effective homes, not from the world's standpoint, and if we want to be an effective church, again, not from the world's standpoint, it must be said about us as well. This is a church. They don't please 4:43 themselves. This is a marriage. The husband and the wife, they don't please themselves. They're not in it for them. They're not in this church of for what they'll get out of it or friends they'll make or this or even good preaching. 4:58 But they're living their lives for him who died for them. That they might never please themselves. I want this to be said about my life, about my marriage, my home, and this church that the Lord has placed us in. Santosh never pleases himself. And that 5:15 can be said about you, every one of us. This is the characteristic that visitors, people who interact with us and come into our gatherings, or interact with us in our homes and in our workplaces say, "That person doesn't 5:27 please himself." And I see it. And that is the witness. That is the light, the life of Christ which will shine forth. If we say we are the light of the world as we must be according to Matthew 5:14 and 16, then it must be said about us as well. 5:43 Even Santosh never pleases himself. Even River of Life Christian Fellowship, this local expression of the body of Christ who never pleased himself, does not please itself. If that is true in our secret thoughts and our secret 6:00 admissions, in what we post on Viber for example, is it out of pleasing myself? Is it out of somehow making me seem good? In what I share here, is it to promote myself or to defend myself in some way? Or am I here to fall into the ground and 6:18 die like a grain of wheat? Amen. So, we'll watch this video and then after that I will open it up. I think it's about 35-40 minutes or so. Um and let's treat it as if Zac was sitting here or he may be standing in the video, I think. And speaking this to 6:32 us as a church that he oversees and has uh some responsibility for. I believe this is message is for us. Amen. For those who are 6:58 newly here since the last say 5 or 10 years, you may not know how this church began way back in August, 1975, which is before many of you were born. 7:20 But in if you read church history from the beginning, there's always been something starts so wonderfully and then it gradually declines. 7:39 That's how it was even with the churches that the apostles planted. If you read in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3, those were churches that the apostles planted. Ephesus was one of the best churches 7:57 which Paul himself planted. But by the time but after Paul died, 25 years later, or 20 Yeah, about 20 30 years later, 8:14 it's become so bad the Lord says, "I'm going away because you guys have left your first devotion to Christ." So, throughout history, there's been something started so well. And but the Lord says, "Those who overcome, 8:32 I'll be with them." So, in the church of Ephesus, there were a few who overcame. And they were usually, you know, not the old senior elders, but maybe the younger ones who 8:52 were devoted and came to the Lord. And they got fed up with the deadness of that church. And finally, when they sensed that Jesus has moved out of that church because the Lord said to Ephesus in Revelation 2, "If you don't repent, I'm 9:07 going to take away the lampstand." means I will move out. So, a time came in Ephesus when the Lord moved out. The church still continued singing and special meetings and conferences and all, but the Lord had moved out. And they couldn't sense it. 9:23 Because the spirit had gone, they But these people who were overcomers, who were the spirit of the bride, the bride recognized the bridegroom has gone. So, what does the bride do when the bridegroom has left the hall? They leave also. so I can imagine that a 9:39 few people left Ephesus and started meeting separately in some house. And I can imagine the big church despise that group there saying, "Those guys are rebels and won't submit to authority and they they wanted to be leaders here and they 9:56 couldn't, so they went off and started their own." All types of things and spread false stories about them, but they just ignored them and that little group met in that house. And over a period of time while this big church declined into corruption, 10:10 that church began to grow. The Lord was there. And then you give 60-70 years and that church becomes big and same history is repeated all over again. What happened to the first one happens to the second church in Ephesus and that 10:26 becomes big and then the Lord says, "Well, you're going the same way, so I'm going to leave." And they leave and then again a few group of overcomers leave and that becomes a third church in Ephesus and then this is how 10:41 most of these denominations have started. Some have started because somebody wants to you know, start his own group and become a leader. That's There are that type also. But true movements of God have arisen with little groups that are 10:56 fed up with people not obeying God's word and going through a ritual etc. So, you when you get time you can read about church history how Martin Luther did that. He was a tremendously brave man. I don't know how many people would have the guts 11:14 to stand against a worldwide Roman Catholic system and come out and say, "You guys are wrong." They and they had so much power. The kings of those days were appointed by the Pope and they were they had power and they you could easily kill Martin Luther if 11:29 you wanted. But it's only because one king protected him he survived. But that is God's plan. God had a plan for that man to survive to proclaim salvation is by faith, not by giving money to the church. But then the movement he started also 11:43 declined. And some of the Lutherans used to fight against the Anabaptists who baptized people in water because Lutherans baptized children. And they fought against them and then the small groups of these Anabaptists came who stood for the truth. So, it's a 12:00 very interesting thing to study how throughout history there's always been little groups There are a couple of books that describe this. One is called The Pilgrim Church by Broadbent and other is The Torch of the Testimony by John Kennedy 12:19 which describe how these little groups came out throughout history. There's always been a testimony for Christ on this earth. But it's never been in the big groups. Not even today. It's in the small groups that have come out and stood for the 12:34 Lord and they stand for the Lord 60, 70 years and they decline. It's always the case. And it's very difficult. I remember once when I take a study of this and somebody asked me, uh Brother Zach, what's going to happen to us after 60, 12:50 70 years? I said, I'll tell you. I said, every group in history has always said, this happened to others, but it will not happen to us. I don't say that. 13:08 I say it'll happen to us. But before that happens, God has to raise up some zealous, whole-hearted young people who the present generation of elders may have died and gone on, but a group of young people who are 13:26 zealous and wholehearted through whom there will be a witness for the Lord. There will always be a witness for Christ. Because the second church in Ephesus came out of the first one. They didn't come out from somewhere else. From that 13:40 first one. And the third church in Ephesus came out of the second one. It's always, you know, there's a death and a resurrection. And another death and a resurrection. That's how always the church has been preserved. So, that's how it was in 13:55 my case, you know, I was converted when I was 19 and a half. And I had a great ambition when I joined the Navy. And that was to go to right up to the top. And I worked hard and worked hard. I was not converted. But I said, "I'm 14:09 determined to go to the top." And when I was 19 and a half, something happened. Christ came into my life. And it was not just a small a small thing for me. It was a complete radical change in my life that my whole ambition 14:23 turned round 180°. And I had no more interest in going to the top of the Navy. I remained there because I had to earn my living. But I said, "From now on, I'm going to be a Christian in the Navy. I'm going to be a witness 14:38 for Christ here. And if I'm going to be a bold witness for Christ, I'll never go to the top, that I know. But I want to live for the Lord." And that's what changed the direction of my life at that time. And I had to take some steps like 14:53 water baptism because I came out of an Orthodox church that didn't believe in it. And um people would tell me, "Why do you want to leave the Orthodox church? Those other people in the other groups are already converted. Stay here 15:07 and convert these people." And I thought that was the right thing. So, 1 and 1/2 years, I didn't get baptized. But every time I knelt down to pray, the Lord would say to me, "You're not listening to me. Why should I listen to you?" 15:21 And got fed up. I said, "I'm going to get baptized. I don't I don't care which church throws me out. I'm going to obey the Lord and get baptized." And I realized that you can't be a blessing in a church by disobeying the 15:31 Lord. No. That's human philosophy. So, I obeyed and I said, "Okay." And that was a crisis in my life when I got baptized. Suddenly, something took off in my life. And I began as to be a serious Christian. 15:50 And I can say that I really started studying the Bible only after I got baptized, seriously. And for I began to study the Bible intensely and then I found The next thing I found is a lack of power in my life. And I began to seek for the baptism of 16:05 the Holy Spirit. And I was in an assembly that didn't preach the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They said, "You got to go to the Pentecostal. They're the ones who preach it." I said, "Sure. I don't know who the Pentecostals are, but I'll go there." 16:17 So, somebody took me there to one of those meetings. And one of those pastors said, "Keep saying hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah endlessly and you'll speak in tongues." I said, "No, I'm not going to do that. That's not what they did on the day of 16:29 Pentecost." And I went to their meetings. It was all yelling and screaming and I didn't see godliness there. I saw the pastors loving money. And I came back to my room in the naval base and I said knelt down and said, "Lord, 16:45 I don't want that. It doesn't touch me as the real thing. There's something missing there. Give me the real thing even if I have to wait 10 years. I want the real thing. I don't want to just babble something and say I got 16:59 baptized in the Holy Spirit." And I prayed and I fasted and I prayed and I would study the scriptures and God met with me. I have to say I didn't speak in tongues then, but God met with me and gave me the anointing of the spirit to 17:14 preach God's word. Within 2 years after I was baptized in water and I believe I was anointed and I began to preach with great power when I was 23 years old because the anointing of the Holy Spirit it's amazing what the anointing of the 17:30 Holy Spirit can do. I I'm surprised how people think that they can preach God's word without being anointed with the Holy Spirit. You got to be crazy. It's like trying to drive a car without petrol. I mean, nobody's so crazy. But people 17:42 think they can Oh, yeah, I can preach even if I'm not baptized with the Holy Spirit just study the Bible and preach. Those are the people who bring death into churches and into Christianity. I know the difference it made in my 17:55 life. It became so easy in the olden days before it to preach a message was like pumping a hand pump. But once I was anointed it was like rivers flowing out. I want to tell you another thing. It's possible to get to be anointed and 18:11 to lose the anointing. I've seen that also. People who are anointed and rivers began to flow through them and then they became proud and they thought we are somebody I'm anointed and then you watch you listen to them after a 18:22 while and they are a bit dry. You don't want to listen to them anymore. Death has come in. The anointing is not something that you receive once and that's it. You don't fill your petrol tank once and that's it. You got to keep it full all the time if 18:38 you want your car or scooter to run. That's how it is. So I moved on from there and one day God called me for his service. I was only 24 years old and God told me quit your job and come out to serve me. 18:57 And nobody supported me in my local church. I mean, nobody encouraged me to do that. But I wondered whether God really called me and when I put in my resignation the Navy did not accept it. And everybody in my assembly, the 19:15 assembly I was going to said, "See, if it was from God, you'd have got released. You're not released. It's not God's will." And I tell you, you're really discouraged when you're 24 years old and everybody in your church tells you 19:28 you're wrong. That's how I felt. Well, I sought the Lord. I'm glad I didn't listen to them. And the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "What did Moses do when Pharaoh said, 'I will not let you go to serve him?'" 19:47 I got my answer. He kept on going till he got Pharaoh released him. So, I got my answer. I said, "I don't despise these brothers in my church. They are elders. I respect them. But they don't seem to be in touch with the Lord. 20:05 There are many good churches that are correct doctrinally. They preach about new birth and baptism of the Holy Spirit, but you sense that the elders don't know Jesus. They don't know the Lord. There's no sense of There's not a 20:19 fragrance of Christ in their life. So, I don't despise them. I was young and I had to submit to them, but I said, "I'm not going to listen to them. I've got my whole life ahead of me and I'm not going to ruin it by listening to these people." And I'm 20:34 glad I didn't listen. I'm glad I listened to the Lord. I applied and applied and after 2 years, the Navy let me go. And you know, I thought I really can imagine how dumb we are. I thought Christian work must be heaven. 20:54 Every Christian worker must be such a heavenly man. So, I came in the midst of Christian workers and I found it was so different. I joined an assembly and I found that they didn't believe in the anointing of 21:13 the spirit. The messages were boring. I found the full-time workers there going after the rich people to get money. And I was very disappointed. But I said, "Lord, I'm going to seek you." 21:30 I was young, 26 years old. And I worked with a very godly man called Brother Bakht Singh. But he was traveling all over. I'd meet him only once or twice a year. I appreciated his life and teaching, but I couldn't be with him all the time like 21:50 a Timothy or something. So, I had to sort of seek God on my own most of the time. And then the Lord led me to get married. And we were so poor that I couldn't afford house rent. 22:08 And um fine, I said, "Lord, I'm going to serve you." And the devil would keep on taunting me saying, "See what you could have been if you were in the navy. Here you are struggling. You can't even rent a house." I said, "Fine, Lord. I didn't choose 22:25 this." I said, "Lord, you called me. I did not choose this. You called me." And fortunately, my my dad was a poor pensioner. He's getting about 350 rupees a month from government service pension. And but he had a room to spare in his house, so 22:43 I could stay there. And that's how we lived, my wife and I, for 2 3 years. We struggled and survived like that. I could never buy any clothes, neither no neither of us. I'd have two or three shirts that I would keep for special meetings. 23:01 So, people would always see me with the same two three shirts. I said, "Fine." Because I never wanted to go to a meeting with any torn shirt lest people treat me like a object of charity. And And always the Lord told me, "Even when 23:14 you have nothing, give people the impression that you have plenty. Then they won't treat you like an object of charity." Cuz I find a lot of Christian workers, they're objects of charity. I've seen that in many places. The rich 23:29 people say, "Oh, this poor brother, full-time worker. Okay, let's give him some money." It's like giving money to the beggar. And the Lord showed me something. He said, "That's how so much of Christian workers in India today 23:41 the dignity of a servant of God who's far greater than all the rich people in that church who's in touch with almighty God, who's a son of a heavenly father. That dignity, I have to tell you honestly, I saw in only one man in India. That was 23:57 Brother Bakht Singh. He had that dignity. And I said, "Lord, that's what I respect." So, I said, "Then that's the way I want to go." I'm not going to be an object of charity. I'm not going to let people think even if I'm nothing, I won't let people 24:14 know it. And God preserved us. Those were wonderful days. Those were days in which we learned to prove God, both my wife and I. And we had a little baby and we didn't know whether we'd have enough milk powder to buy for that child. 24:28 But God, we survived. We never starved. But I'll tell you, through all those difficult years of struggle and poverty, uh we learned to know God in a wonderful way. And the pressures that came upon Annie and me pushed us closer to each other. 24:45 It was good. Pressure is good if you don't let it come between us between you and your wife and separate you from Let it come from the outside. Um we had misunderstandings from her parents and everything else. Everything 25:01 worked out for good. But then, you know, I was getting gradually fed up with what I saw in churches and Christian work. I saw churches caring for those who were rich. Every church I went to, to tell you honestly, the board members and the elders would 25:20 always be the richest people in that church. Every church I went to, Protestant, brethren, Pentecostal, Catholic, anything, the elders will always be the richest people in that church. I said, "This is funny." Because the elders in Jesus' time were 25:40 all fishermen and some of the poorest people. So, I said, "This can't be right. There must be something wrong." These people value money and position and honor. And I decided that time, I said, "Lord, 25:58 if ever I'm going to build a church, the rich people will not be the elders. That's for sure." We look for the godly, the humble, those who fear God. And even if they are the poorest, they will be the elders. And that's the joy that the God has 26:19 given me to see, particularly in many of the village churches that we that the Lord has planted through the years in Tamil Nadu. People who are so poor, like struggling to survive, are elders in the 26:38 church, and the rich people sit there. I'm so delighted in our conferences when we have people who can't speak English properly. In our conference, I mean, even this last year and previous years, who can't speak English, 26:53 but who will get up and speak in a in their local language. Cuz they're not so educated. And we have PhDs sitting and listening to them. I said, "That's the church." But I didn't see it in the early days. And I longed to see the true body of 27:12 Christ. I had the burden in my heart for 10 years before I saw it. From 1965 to 1975, it's like carrying a baby in the womb. I said, "Lord, I want to see it. I don't know whether I'll ever live to see it, but I want to see it. I don't want to be 27:29 satisfied with anything less than the best." You know, I'll tell you something in the Christian life, to all these newcomers I say, "If you are satisfied with anything less than God's best, that's all you'll have. You'll never get anything more. 27:46 But if you see something in God's word and you don't see it around you in Christianity, and you say, "I'm not going to be satisfied with that. I want to see what's in God's word." You'll get it. So, that's how it was with me. I wasn't 27:59 satisfied and everybody thought I was being extreme and idealistic and uh you'll never see that on this earth, Brother Zach. I said, "Okay, you can say all that, but I see it in God's word. I see it in the early church." 28:11 And I saw, as I studied God's word, there was a word that came to my heart in those days which is very, very powerful from Colossians in chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. It says in verse 17 and 18 about Jesus 28:32 Christ. He is before all things. In him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning. He is the first person who rose from the dead. 28:51 And the purpose is purpose of all this is so that he can have the first place in everything. That he might have the preeminence. The first place in everything. Jesus Christ will have the first place in everything. And I saw something there. 29:08 God almighty, his heart's desire is to see Jesus Christ having the first place in everything. And I felt God say to me, "If you make that your passion in life, that Jesus Christ will have the first place in everything in your life, in 29:28 your home, in your ministry, I'll back you. Till the end of your life, I'll back you." I said, "Lord, I'll do that. I don't care what the cost. I don't care what I lose. I don't care who throws me out or who rejects me. 29:44 Christ will have first place in my life." But when I looked around at Christianity, I'll tell you what I saw. Most churches, I saw money had the place. Money had replaced Christ. 30:04 Money was the important thing. How much is the offering? We got to get people to give. Send letters to America and Europe to get them to support money, money, money. I saw Christian workers, and I met a lot of them as I traveled around India. 30:22 And I'm not exaggerating when I say that more than 95% of the Christian workers I met were doing Christian work for a living, to get a job. Hardly any of them were educated enough 30:41 to get a job in this in the world. If they were educated, they got for a job in the world. If they were uneducated or they came last in the class, the parents would send them to Bible school. Go and be a pastor. And so Christian work got a bad name. 31:00 In Kerala, they think oh pastors means these low-class people who didn't have anything else to do, they become pastors. And that's true. Many of those churches is all these low-class uneducated people who become pastors. 31:12 All the rich people dominate them because they're the ones who pay the money to for the salary. And I saw the corruption in Christianity. Christ was not center. Christ was not having first place in everything. It was money, money, money, 31:25 and even the big big churches always wanted money and how to get more money. We want bigger buildings and bigger this and outreach. And if you send somebody out into the mission field, you got to collect money for them. I never see this 31:38 in the Gospels. I never see one single place where Jesus or the apostles going around saying we got to get money, we got to reach the world, we got to get money. What Jesus said is you got to be filled with the Holy Spirit, then you'll reach 31:50 the world. And I said, "I'm going to stick to the scripture. Money is not going to have the first place in my life or in any ministry of mine. I'll never ask for money. I will never send a letter in my life to anybody telling me 32:07 need. When I have nothing, I will pretend that I have everything." And God tested me. I'll tell you he tested me. I have never starved. My wife and I have never starved in all these years. We've never sent a report or a letter or 32:21 we never became slaves to any rich man. Nobody could control my life with money. No. And I saw that it was very difficult, as I said, Brother Bakht Singh He the only man I ever met who was free from that. And there may be 32:39 one or two others here and there. I don't know. I never met them. All the ones I met were seeking honor, seeking position. They wanted to join some big denominations so that they'll get a name there and climb the ladder. 32:50 I had no interest in climbing any ladder at all. I just wanted to have Christ have first place in my life. And the other thing I saw was another thing which replaced Christ in many churches was music. There's much more today. 33:08 Music, music. Attract the young people. The way to attract young people is by music. And I saw music had absolutely no place in the New Testament. In the Psalms, yes, that is old covenant. Where in the New Testament do you find 33:21 get good musicians so that you can build the church? Never. Christ has given the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, not musicians. Why isn't that mentioned there? It's not one of the gifts of the spirit. 33:38 But where do you see a Christianity that says music is not important? So I said, "Lord, it seems to me this Christianity's gone completely astray." And you know when you think like that, what other senior people say, "Brother Zac, you think you're the only 33:53 one who knows the truth? We've all been Christians for so long." That's what Annas and Caiaphas would have told Peter Paul, Peter, and James, and all. You think you're the you young fellows, 30-year-old fishermen, you think you 34:04 know more than us. We've been the high priest here for so long. Thank God they didn't listen to Annas and Caiaphas. And I saw another thing in Christendom which had replaced Christ. A lot of churches were interested in pleasing the politicians. 34:23 They would have politicians sitting on the platform for their public meetings. That's like uh Jesus asking Herod and Pilate to come and sit on his platform when he spoke and before Jesus speaks he says, "Now Herod will come and say a few words 34:38 or Pilate will come and say a few words." Can you imagine that? Or now Judas Iscariot will come and tell you about the needs of the work. But this is what I saw in Christendom. I never see it in the Gospels. And I said, "Is this Christianity the 34:57 same as the Christianity in the New Testament?" Not at all. This is black, this is white. That was the difference. So people say, "No, it's not possible. You can't have anything perfect on this earth, Brother Zac. You can't ask You 35:09 okay. I can't have anything perfect. At least let me press on towards it." That's how I got fed up with everything that I saw. I didn't claim to be better than anybody else. I was defeated by sin on top of 35:27 all this. It's not that I was better than them. I saw things in scripture which I myself was not able to experience. But I said, "These guys are older than me. They've been serving the Lord 20 30 years. They're not experiencing it either. How 35:39 can I waste my time following them? They'll lead me astray." So I went to the scriptures. If I met a godly man, I would try to get close to him. You know, I read many godly books. But finally I saw that all this 35:58 thing that has replaced Christ, money, music, psychology. That's another thing that has replaced Christ. Many churches, eloquence. There's a lot of difference between eloquence and anointing. I don't think many of you also can make 36:17 the distinction. You got to be humble to distinguish between eloquence and anointing. You think if a man can speak very well, he's anointed. Well, then the politicians are the best most anointed people then. They hold people's audience 36:32 grip audience for 2 hours. Anointing is different. Anointing changes your life. Draws you closer to Christ. Eloquence just impresses you. Say, "Wow." You listen to an eloquent man and say, "Wow, what a wonderful preacher." 36:50 You listen to an anointed man and you say, "Boy, what a wonderful savior. I want to get close to Jesus." That's the difference. So, I saw all these things had replaced eloquence and Bible schools and um knowledge and all, you know, 37:07 Bible knowledge. All these things had replaced Christ. It was being fed up with all this that finally led to CFC being born. I'm just telling you the origins of it. You got to be fed up. Not only fed up with what you see 37:25 around, but fed up with yourself. I've often said to people, "If you're only fed up with your local church, don't come here." When you're fed up with yourself and your defeated life, then come. So, I was not only fed up with what I 37:38 saw around me. I was fed up with myself more than anybody else. I said, "Lord, I'm defeated. I'm defeated in my thought life. Externally, my testimony is good. I'm not running after women or cheating anybody in money and all that, but my 37:52 thought thought life, my inner life was not pure." I said, "Lord, is this the way I've got to live?" And you know, a time came in my life when I said, "Lord, I'll stop preaching. Because I'm I What can I preach if I can't lead people to godliness? 38:10 I see things wrong in others, but I see more wrong in myself. So, I'll find a secular job. I'd quit the Navy already a few years ago, but I'll go and find another secular job and go and sit in the back of a church. I'll 38:20 still follow Jesus, but I will not Because what I'm preaching is not true. And that's when Ian and I were in this Baptist church really fed up. I don't know how he was, but I was pretty fed up in my own life. And we used to pray together. 38:39 Two needy souls desperately seeking God. Not knowing what God had in store for us. Except God arranged circumstances in such a way even that when we had come to the zero 38:57 level in our life God sent someone to meet with us. And turned the direction of our life. Turned the direction of my life anyway. And I was baptized in the Holy Spirit afresh. 39:14 And began to speak in tongues. Had never spoken in tongues before. But before that, I want to tell you this as well. I had already built up a reputation even though I was an absolute hypocrite inside. I was not living what I but I was very 39:31 gifted. So I was traveling the world. Australia, Europe preaching in America, Japan I'd written six books. I had a weekly radio program that was 39:50 going all over Southeast Asia, and I was a backslider. You know it's possible to be that? I went to Australia for a deeper life convention in this defeated state. But I could preach. I could really preach well. And I preached so powerfully there 40:10 that the Christian newspaper there said we've never heard anyone preach so well in Australia. I kept that paper. I still have it with me to remind me how you can be a top-class hypocrite and fool everybody with your preaching. 40:28 But I was fed up and I said, "Lord, I don't want that. I want reality." And I said, "Lord, if you will only give me a reality in my life, I'm willing to chuck everything." So, just like when I was in the navy, I chucked my career, 40:44 here I was in Christendom in the eyes of others like an ascending star, becoming a famous international preacher. God said, "Chuck it." And that's the second thing I gave up. Fame in the world first and then fame in the Christian world. 41:03 And we started meeting in our house because the other church threw us out for preaching the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And all of a sudden, these invitations I was getting from here and there disappeared. Cuz the news went round, "Zac Poonen is 41:21 speaking in tongues. He's become a heretic." See, now it is more accepted. 40 years ago, it was not so accepted in India. And then the news went round that Zac Poonen is also teaching that Jesus came like us and was tempted. Oh, another 41:37 heresy. And then the news went round, "Not only that, he's also started a small group of his own. Finished. That's the end of him." Good. When you're rejected by everybody, you've only got God left, right? And my wife and I said, "Lord, we've 41:57 only got you now. Everybody else has thrown us out." And the Lord asked me a question. "If everybody chucks you, throws you out, will you still stand for the truths that I have revealed to you. And I said, "Yes." I began to experience then the reality 42:17 of sin shall not rule over you. I used to get angry. It's gone from my life completely. It's true. I can say before God I never get angry with my wife or 42:36 I don't know how many years ago was the last time I ever raised my voice at home. It's all forgotten years, ages. I used to be so discouraged in those days. I can tell you before God the last 40 years I've never been discouraged. 42:51 I'm tempted to, but I just keep on speaking in tongues till the discouragement goes. I never speak in tongues in public. I don't want to impress people. I'm Pentecostal by the way. I'm charismatic. Why why you want to impress you? I'm not 43:04 interested. It's a private love language between me and my bridegroom. Why should I say it to you? What do you speak love words to your wife? Do you want other people to listen to it? No. That's why I don't speak in tongues 43:18 in private in public. I do it all the time in private. It's changed my prayer life. I can lie down in bed in the morning when I get up and just keep praying to the Lord in tongues. To me that is what Paul said. Paul said 43:33 in the church I'd rather speak five words in an own language than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. But in private he says, "I speak in tongues more than all of you." See, when you follow scripture, you have the balanced understanding and 43:47 experience of all these things. And in the beginning it looked as if everybody would reject us. We were rejected. We were called heretics. The people put out tracts saying that the head of the serpent is in 16 Degasta Square, which is my house. 44:00 And uh we used to have a magazine called Hidden Treasures those days and I remember once when I went to Kerala they distributed a tract called hidden poison. I remember when I went to Tamil Nadu one place 44:18 all the Pentecostal pastors there joined together and published a tract saying the false prophet has come to town. And they distributed it outside our meeting place so that people wouldn't come. So I sent a word to them if you give me a few 44:31 copies I said I'll give it to everybody inside the meeting hall also so that anybody who's scared go home now. Uh I'm not afraid. If God is with me, let the whole world be against me. I will overcome. That is the faith the Lord gave me then 44:50 and it is there with me today. I don't want the support or the approval of a single human being. I did not need it 42 years ago and I don't need it now. That's why I'm not impressed by numbers. 45:09 I'm not impressed by a building. It means nothing to me. To tell you honestly in those days when we met in our house when we opened the offering box there'd be two rupees inside it. Those were such blessed days because we had the presence of the Lord. 45:28 We used to pray and fast. Every holiday we would pray and fast. We don't do that now. We've become more posh. Did I hear you right Charles that you rode on a cycle from Koramangala? How many of you have come here on a cycle from Koramangala today? 45:47 You see the difference? Koramangala, do you know where that is? What's it? 25 km? More than that? Uh cycling. See, those are the type of people whom God brought. They were hungry. 46:07 They didn't say we'll go if it's convenient. If somebody gives us a a free bus ride, we'll go. This building doesn't impress me. Some people come because oh, this is a nice place, air-conditioned. It doesn't mean a thing to me. 46:26 We had more anointing of the spirit in those days. We had fasted and prayed. We got to know the Lord those days and I want to say to you newcomers, seek that. Seek that. Don't be bogged down by the shallowness that you see in some people who came to 46:42 CFC years ago, who have backslidden, who have become rich, but have lost the power and that fervent love for Jesus. Don't look at them. Look at Jesus. God bless you. I want to sing a song which is a very favorite song of mine. 47:02 Some of you brothers can come and help me, you song leaders. It's called By and By when I look on His face, beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face, I'll wish I had given Him more. When I look at Jesus' face one day when He comes again 47:19 and I look at my life and see what I gave Him, I'll wish in that day I'll wish I had given Him more. Think of it now because now is the time. Come, please. Let's sing. By and by 47:41 when I look on His face, beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face, by and by when I look 48:00 on His face, I'll wish I had given Him more. More, so much more. More of my life 48:26 than I ever gave before. By and by, when I look on His face, I'll wish 48:45 I had given Him more. By and by, when He holds out His hands, welcoming hands, 49:04 nail-pierced hands, by and by, when He holds out His hands, I'll wish I had given 49:23 Him more. More, so much more. More of my life than I ever gave 49:42 before. By and by, when I look on his face. I'll wish I had given 50:01 him more. In the light of that heavenly place light from his face beautiful 50:21 face in the light of that heavenly place I'll wish I had given him more. 50:39 Now let's sing it with meaning. More, so much more. More, so much more. More of my life than I had By and by 51:06 I look on his face. I'll wish I had given him more. Thank you, brothers. Yeah, let's bow our heads. 51:26 It's really going to be true. I sing that to myself often. I'll wish I'd taken my life more seriously. 51:42 I'd wish I'd taken sin more seriously. Many years of my life I regret. But no longer. I'm going to take his word seriously. I will not look around at the bad examples of Christians I see around me 52:00 anymore. I'll keep my eyes fixed on Jesus. Where there's no disappointment. And I don't want, at least from a certain point in my life, I don't want it to be said, I wish I'd given him more. 52:19 In the past, yes, but from a certain point in our life we should be able to say, Lord, I don't wish that anymore because I did give you everything. I didn't hold one single thing back from you. Heavenly Father, help us all 52:37 to take our Christian life more seriously. Life is so short, you're coming back soon. We're going to see you face-to-face. We want to be ready. In Jesus' name. Amen. I believe one of the greatest 52:56 enemies to the kingdom of heaven is comfort. A life of ease and life of comfort is perhaps the greatest enemy. I find it in my own life. It may not even be sin. Maybe the Lord has brought us, different ones of us, to a place of victory in 53:14 areas like lust and anger that we preach about and hear about often. Perhaps even money. But I find that comfort, the love of comfort, ease, pleasure, is my greatest enemy today. I would rather sleep in on a Saturday morning than come to the prayer meeting. 53:32 I'd rather, after a long day of work, just go home and drink a long lemonade than come to the Bible study. It's the love of comfort that I think will cause us at the end of our lives to say, "I wish I had given a more. I wish I had realized 53:49 how those moments when I would rather have pleased myself through what I said or what I did, through the choices I made. I don't want to live that way anymore. I love how he ended it by saying there can come a point in our times in our lives, 54:05 there can come a time in our life where we can say, "Lord, from this day on I really gave you everything." I didn't seek to just take it lackadaisically. Church, I believe our greatest danger is a lackadaisical attitude towards the 54:20 kings things of God. Where our conversation and our times together and our meetings together just sort of just a casual attitude towards the things of heaven. I'll tell you this, I'm I'm not condemned after hearing it. I'm 54:38 convicted, I'm challenged. Like I told you, I fell on my face in my office as I was listening to it and I said, "Lord, you can do something in my life and you can do something in my marriage and our home and in this church." 54:51 Because within a few decades of Paul the mighty apostle himself working in the church in Ephesus, they had backslidden into the condition they were. I I'd like to open it up for time of prayer also and and sharing after this 55:06 so that you can share how the Lord's working in your heart. But I wanted to um This word has come to me after over the last few days since I've thought about this. Holding fast, holding. Holding fast. This is a word that 55:23 Jesus spoke to two of the churches in the book of Revelation. You'll see hold fast. Let me show you that first in Revelation chapter three. I think it was to the good church, the church in Philadelphia. Revelation 3. He says in verse 55:41 I 10 and 11, yeah. Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, the hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those dwell on the earth. He was speaking to a good church, remember 55:54 this. And he says in verse 11, "I am coming soon. I'm coming quickly. Hold fast what you have so that no one will take your crown." Are we doing that, church? Are you holding fast to what you have? The Lord 56:12 has given us some amazing things. Spiritual wealth. But if I'm not holding it fast, I think, well, I heard it. I was there at the conference. I'm a part of this church. But if I'm not holding it fast, somebody will steal that crown. 56:27 The devil will steal that crown. He told a very good church of over whom he had no rebuke, really. He said, "Hold fast what you have. I know things are well in your life, but hold it fast." Hold it fast so that nobody can grab it 56:41 from you. The alternative we read about in 2 Timothy chapter 3. And we're warned in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that towards the end of time, as the time of Christ's return draws near, there will be people who are holding 56:59 fast to what they have received so that nobody, that crown of life, that inner life that is a crown, that no that making sure that nobody steals that. No spiritual force of darkness can steal that. And sitting in the same church or 57:14 perhaps in the same home, attending the same meetings, will be others who are holding on to something else. The form of godliness. In 2 Timothy 3 he says, verse 1, "Realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come." Times are going to get 57:32 difficult in this church. I mean in this country. Maybe in this church, too, but in this country, times are going to get difficult. And he's not talking about people coming in that door and chopping our heads off because we're Christians or anything 57:45 like that. He's talking about people who verse five will hold fast to a form of godliness. Holding fast to a form of godliness means you've got the right teaching. I've got a good reputation in the 58:02 church. I give my money or I'm there. I look at all those other people, backslidden people in that other church or I left legalism years ago. I'm holding fast to this form of godliness because I left something. And look at how he describes this. In 58:21 the midst of this holding fast, there's those who are holding fast to the crown of life and others who are holding fast to the form of godliness. What does their life look like? Lovers of self, verse two, the very first thing. 58:37 This is the question the Lord's asked me. Are you in this church because you love yourself? Did you come here because you love yourself? There's something that this church can feed you in yourself. Lovers of money. Boastful. 58:54 Arrogant. Revilers. Disobedient. To parents or to spiritual authority that God has placed in their lives. Ungrateful. Unholy. Unloving. Irreconcilable. 59:13 Means I'd rather not really reconcile a relationship that's broken. Malicious gossips. Without self-control. Brutal. Haters of good. Treacherous. reckless, conceited, 59:32 lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God. That last one hurts. If I seek to please myself or others, I cannot please God. The contrast is there. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. 59:51 If I seek the pleasure that comes from earthly activities, worldly activities, the honor of people, how popular I am among people, how I dress, what things I'm up on and knowledgeable of and I'm one of the cool people. This is lovers of pleasure. 1:00:08 And they they are the opposite of lovers of God. What should we do? Well, he says, goes on to say, "Holding the whole time holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these." You know, they uh 1:00:29 You could I can think if I love, I will give. If I love the Lord, I'll give my life to him. If I love this church, I'll pour out my life. If I love his church and I love the kingdom of God, I will pour out my life for it and I'll give of my time, my 1:00:45 money, and whatever. But that's that's true to some extent, but the converse is also true. If I don't give, my love will never grow. Yes, it starts with the love. But if I'm not giving of what the Lord has given me and I'm 1:01:00 investing it back into God's kingdom, and I'm not even talking about money. We already heard about that. Money is the greatest deterrent. But giving of myself, if my attitude is not one of laying down my life in my marriage, in 1:01:12 my home, and in the church where God has planted me, if I am not giving, then it's no wonder that love cannot grow. Because when I give, I have invested there. I have taken it here and put it there. That which is mine I have 1:01:25 invested it over there where God has called me to invest it. And now my treasure is there. My heart is there in the work that God is doing on this earth. And all of a sudden I find a love growing for that because I have taken 1:01:39 Imagine if you were to actually take part of your being. Maybe the closest example I can think of is if I donated one of my lungs to somebody because I love them so much. That's a risky thing but I gave it. Now anytime I see that person there's 1:01:54 going to be a love that's there because they have something that I invested in them. Now imagine if you gave both your lungs. Or everything that you had was really there on the altar for Jesus to take and to do with. And if 1:02:10 you loved the church and you were a member of this church that way who loved and gave himself up for. This is how Jesus loved. And when he loved that way and when we love that way we find that there's a love when we give that way we 1:02:25 find there's a love for it. And I'm excited to be around you my dear brothers and sisters because I'm giving off myself to you. But if you sit back on the fringes with your just kind of come and go casually and on the on the outskirts with an 1:02:41 outskirts mentality the love of Christ will be lacking. The love for this church will be lacking in our lives.
