4:52 Let's sing first song of a song. Give thanks to the Lord. [Music] Give thanks to the Lord our God and 5:16 King. His love endures forever. For he is good. He is above all things. His love endures forever. Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise. 5:40 Sing praise with a mighty hand and ar stretched out. His love ends forever for a life that's been reborn. His love endures forever. 5:59 Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise forever. God is faithful. 6:18 Forever. God is strong. Forever. God is with us forever and ever. Forever. From the rising. From the rising to the 6:36 setting sun, his love endures forever. By the grace of God, we will carry on. His love endures forever. Sing praise. [Music] 6:53 Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise. Forever God is faithful. Forever God is faithful. Forever God is strong. 7:12 Forever God is with us. Forever and ever. Forever. [Music] His love endures forever. 7:28 His love endures forever. His love endures forever. His love endures forever. Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise. 7:51 Sing praise. Forever. God is faithful. Forever. God is strong forever. God is with us forever and ever. 8:11 Forever. Please be seated, dear brothers and sisters. [Music] 8:36 Let's all clap and sing. I come before you today. And there's just one thing that I want to say. Thank you, Lord. 8:54 Thank you Lord for all you've given to me for all the blessings that I cannot see. Thank you Lord. 9:13 Thank you Lord [Music] with a grateful heart with a song of praise. with an outstretched arm. I'll bless your name. Thank you, Lord. 9:31 I just want to thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. [Music] 9:56 for all you've done in my life. You took my darkness and gave me your light. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. You took my sin and my shame. 10:18 [Music] You took my sickness and healed all my pain. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. With a grateful heart, 10:37 with a song of praise, with an outstretched arm, I'll bless your name. Thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. 10:53 Thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Let's sing the chorus again. Just the voices. Thank you, Lord. 11:11 I just want to thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I just want to thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. [Music] 11:47 Lord, I come before your throne of grace. I find rest in your presence and fullness of joy. In worship and wonder I 12:04 behold your face singing. What a faithful God have I. What a faithful God have I. What a faithful God. 12:25 [Music] What a faithful God am I. Faithful in every way. [Music] 12:44 Lord of mercy, you have heard my cry. Through the song, you're the beacon. My song in the night, in the shelter of your wings, hear my heart 13:03 by singing. What a faithful God have I. What a faithful God have I. What a faithful God. 13:22 Oh, what a faithful God have I. Faithful in every way. Lord 13:43 so grant him peace from heaven. Let me comfort those who suffer with the comfort you have given. I will tell your 13:57 real love for as long as I live. What a faithful God have I. What a faithful God am I. 14:18 What a faithful God. [Music] What a faithful God am I. Faithful in every way. Let's all stand up and sing. Dear 14:40 brothers and sisters, [Music] There is no better place 15:04 than to be here and to look upon your face. [Music] In your church or all alone. No better place than to be before your 15:23 throne. God of comfort, Lord of mercy, love that knows nobody. [Music] 15:40 I adore you. Worship and bow down. Worship and bow down. Let's sing it again from the top. [Music] 15:55 There is no better place than to be here and to look upon your face. [Music] In your church, you're all alone. 16:15 No better place than to be before your throne. God of comfort, Lord of mercy, love that knows no 16:32 bounds. I adore you. Worship and bow down. Worship and bow down. [Music] As we remain standing, shall we bow our 17:32 heads in prayer? As we come into the presence of the 17:55 Lord, let's quieten our spirits. Cast away all agitating, anxious, fearful thoughts and come to him because he is our father who loves us. 18:18 loved us despite our past conditions. Even while we were at sinners, the Bible says Christ died for us. And that's how God demonstrated his love. Let us 18:37 be aware of that as we sang this morning. There's no better place than to be here in the house of the Lord and to look upon his face in his church or all alone when we are 19:01 all by ourselves. No better place than to be before his throne. God of comfort is called not God who always angry with us. 19:19 It's a God of love, God of mercy, God of comfort, love that knows no bounds. We adore him and worship him and bow down and worship and bow down 19:38 because he deserves all our praise. I would like to read just a few verses from the first chapter of Ephesians. It says, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ 19:56 who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him." 20:16 In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in 20:34 the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished or made abundant towards us. And 20:58 in all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times. 21:17 That is the summing up of all things in Christ. Things in the heavens, things upon the earth. In Christ also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined 21:35 according to his purpose, who works all things after the council of his will to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the 21:52 praise of his glory. Yeah, what a blessedness, blessings of redemption that the children of God have on this day, 22:11 the 50th anniversary of CFC. Shall we all lift up our hearts, our voices, our thoughts to him in thanksgiving, in praise, 22:30 in gratitude, in adoration for all that he has done all these years for his faithfulness. Yes, heavenly father, we worship you. We bowed down before your holy throne along with all the hosts of 22:47 heaven. We bless you. We worship you because you are the only true and living God who created everything for your own pleasure and even chose us before the foundations of the world and made us 23:05 your children that we should walk before you in all holiness and thankfulness and gratitude and obedience. Father, we thank you for giving us to one another and for giving us shepherds 23:22 in the church who teach us, guide us, lead us by their life and example, who are shepherds after your own heart. Thank you for blessing and multiplying this ministry. Lord, we bless you. We worship you. We 23:39 thank you once again. And we want to give a heartfelt thankfulness and gratitude to you for all that you have done in these last 50 years and all that you're going to do in the coming years until you come. Come, Lord Jesus. 23:59 Take your rightful place in our midst and on this earth. rule as king of kings and lord of lords and fulfill the promises that you have made in your word. We bless you and thank you and look forward to that great day of 24:19 redemption, the day of the Lord. We bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Please take your seats. We will 24:37 look at our memory verse. Last week it was a command from 1 Corinthians 9:27. Please repeat after me. 1 Corinthians 9:27. I discipline my body 24:54 and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified. It was a command and today we have a promise from Romans 16:20. This is a wonderful verse. Brothers and 25:14 sisters, I want you all to remember this. When Satan tempts you, when he reminds you of your past, as somebody said, you remind him of his future, which is there in this verse, that is in 25:30 Romans 16:20. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Make it personal. The God of peace 25:48 will soon crush Satan under my feet. Romans 16:20. Say a big amen. Yeah. Dear brothers and sisters, today 26:04 is a very special day for us because it coincides that 50 years ago on 26:23 17th August 1975, Brother Zach and Brother Ian and a few A handful of brothers and sisters gathered in his house for a time of prayer, not with an 26:42 intention to start a church, but for a time of prayer because they didn't know what to do because God had met with them personally and uh they were ministering in a Baptist church and they both were defeated in their personal life, in 27:01 their thought life and they were honest to God confessing Lord we are preaching but our inner life is not corresponding to our outward testimony please meet with us or else we are going to quit the ministry 27:20 and when they were in this desperation the Lord met with them earlier on in that year probably Jan or Feb or something of 1975 and anointed them and baptized them in 27:38 the Holy Spirit and power and after that their life changed. God gave him grace and power to like we read in the memory verse. The 27:57 God of peace soon started crushing Satan under their feet. Day by day, one by one, giants were brought down. And they saw a taste of the victory that 28:13 Jesus had won for them on the cross. And then they began to speak about the baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Baptist church which didn't believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit but they call themselves Baptists. 28:33 They only want to baptize people in water, nothing more than that. and they don't believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in the baptism in the Holy Spirit etc. because they are what some people 28:50 call sessationists means they believe that in the first century after the apostles the gifts of the Holy Spirit's holy spirit seized and they are no longer operative now. So 29:08 when brother Zach and brother Ian started speaking about this new experience and the truth from God's word about the power of God which Jesus promised to his disciples, wait in 29:25 Jerusalem until you clothed with power from on high. and they didn't like it because that was contrary to their la their church teaching and they asked them to leave and they gladly left 29:43 without knowing what to do and on this day 50 years ago they met in brother Zach's house and uh they prayed and prayed continued to pray for few more weeks then few more people joined and They 30:01 started having a meeting in their house without knowing that they will start a church. But the seed that God had sown, it began to spring up and sprout. 30:18 And then you could see the result. God started adding to the church those who were being saved. and God multiplied and uh blessed the church for the first 30:37 6 years. He concentrated only on Bangalore CFC and then the Lord opened doors in different places in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and slowly in Andra and other places. 30:54 Slowly slowly God extended the boundary and uh the good news of the gospel spread unlike the good news that we have heard in the past. adulterated, diluted. 31:13 This pure word of God was being spread all over and people began to take notice of this and more and more people joined and wherever um I mean our brothers and sisters some 31:32 of them were working in government jobs wherever they were transferred for some reason or the other God established churches there even in some two places where There were no churches for 2,000 years since Christ and the ministry began spread in India 31:51 and then slowly it went abroad. Now we have in about 16 17 countries plus in India numerous churches more than 150 or so plus 300 nearly 250 to 300 elders whom you can 32:11 call pastors outside. They call them pastors but none of them receive a salary. Everyone works uh does their work with their hands, 32:27 earn their living and serve the Lord freely, joyfully and enthusiastically all these 50 years. And even brother Zach has not taken royalty on 35 plus 32:45 books that he has written. Not a single rupee has taken a royalty. Freely he has received. Freely he gives and that is how the lord has blessed him, anointed him and given him more and more light even in these 33:04 uh days when he's growing I should say anger not older. So the Lord has blessed this ministry and we are so thankful that God's faithfulness and his protection, 33:23 his kindness, his goodness is over his church, over his people. And today we are happy to have brother Zach join us online via Zoom. He could not be with us physically. I 33:43 asked him some time back but he said no we may not be able to come physically be because it's becoming a bit stressful for us to do international travels. So we understand that and uh we are so 34:02 thankful that brother Zach and sister Annie also is with us and uh after brother Zach speaks uh sister Annie will also greet the church on this uh golden jubilee 34:21 and may I hand it over to you dear brother Dak please take your time to share what's on your heart. Over to you, Brother Zach. Yeah, we can hear you, brother. 35:26 were thrown out of another church for preaching the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And uh we nothing against them. We bless them. We continue to love them and wish them the best. But God had something planned in putting us out. 35:45 And so that day he brother Ian and I met in our house and we our families we had no plan to start a church. We didn't feel we were qualified but we said Lord show us what we should 36:05 do. And uh I thought of what Jesus said, if two of you are agreed concerning anything, even if two people are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst. 36:21 So the strength that Ian and I had was that Jesus was in our midst from the very beginning. And one of the wonderful things I can say is that in all the years I mean Ian went to be 36:41 with the Lord last year but uh that was 49 years we were together in CFC one year before that we were also in the Baptist church. So for 50 years we fellowship together and worked together 36:59 and I testified this that in all those those 50 years we never broke fellowship even for one day. I say that before the Lord. Even where we disagreed, 37:19 we fellowship together without breaking fellowship at any time. So we're thankful for that. Thankful how the Lord has preserved us in these years. 37:37 So I will first of all read a verse in Leviticus chapter 25. You will turn with me and verse 10. Leviticus 25:10. In the Old Testament, the Lord wanted 37:54 the Israelites to celebrate the 50th year. And he said, "Make it a holy year." I'm leading in the reading in the Living Bible. Leviticus 25:10. Sanctify the 50th year. 38:12 Make it a holy year. Proclaim freedom all all over the land to everyone. It's a year of jubilee for you. Every person must go back to his family's property and reunite with his extended family. 38:29 The 50th year is your jubilee year. And verse 12, it'll be a holy year for you. Verse 13. In this year of Jubilee, everyone returns home to his own family property. What is our family property? 38:48 The new covenant gospel which is not proclaimed in most churches in the world. And that is the new covenant gospel to which that's our home to which the Lord says you must come back. And uh that's how it was. And we all 39:07 these 50 years we have enjoyed proclaiming that new test new covenant gospel and it's not just the 50th year as it says there all our 50 years have been holy years and we praise God for that and I thank 39:25 God that he's kept me also in health and strength because of the prayers of many of you and many people in other countries. I don't believe that Annie and I are 39:42 healthy or able to even speak because of any ability in us. But because many many people have prayed, you know, we are a body. The church is a body. Jesus Christ is the head. I'm only a member. Many of you are members. And every member 40:01 cooperates with the other to make each member strong. And I'm very conscious that many hundreds of people I'm not exaggerating many hundreds of people are praying for us. And so we are strong. I like I think of this verse in Joshua 40:20 chapter 14. In Joshua, if you'll turn with me to Joshua chapter 14, we read there that Caleb entered the land of Canaan along with Joshua. And uh 40:39 you know, he had wandered through the wilderness with the Israelites for 40 years. And uh I want to turn to Joshua chapter 14 and verse 10. Caleb says, "Now behold, the Lord has let me live." 40:59 I speak similar words just as he spoke these 45 years when my case 50 years from the time that the Lord spoke this word when Israel walked in the wilderness. Now, and this is true of me also today. The last part of verse 20. 41:16 Now, behold, I am 85 years old today. But I'm still as strong today as I was in the day when we began. And my strength with was then, so my strength 41:33 is now for war and for going out and coming in. That is absolutely true. So, I may not be physically as strong as I was 50 years ago, but I'm just as strong today, if not stronger, to go to war against the devil. 41:52 Because Jesus said, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell, the powers of darkness will never prevail against this church." And I've experienced the reality of that. Like Caleb said, Caleb said, "I've been ready for war and I'm just as strong 42:12 today to fight the devil as ever before." And we've seen victory over victory in many countries in these 50 years where Satan has been crushed and overthrown and people have been delivered from his grip. Many of you 42:29 sitting here and in many lands as brother Charles just said and this is not our work. This is God's work. It was God who kept Caleb strong at the age of 85. It was God's kept me and Annie strong at our age to keep on serving the Lord to proclaim this 42:48 wonderful gospel of the new covenant. See, the gospel of the new covenant is hardly proclaimed anywhere nowadays. It's um it's sort of forgotten almost, but we proclaim it. 43:06 I want you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians in chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. It says here in 2 Corinthians and 43:39 chapter 11 and verse 4, if someone comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached and you receive a different spirit which you have not received or a different gospel which you've not 43:58 accepted. You bear this beautifully. So that was what Paul is telling the Corinthians. But there is another Jesus being preached in many Christian churches today. A different spirit and a different gospel. The gospel that Jesus preached is 44:19 mentioned in the very first promise in the New Testament. Matthew chapter 1 and verse 21 where it says Jesus will save his people from their sins. Not just forgive their sins, but he will save his people from their sins. That's the verse we began with in 44:38 Matthew 1:21. That's the gospel we have preached in CFC for 50 years and in many other places that Jesus will not only forgive sin as he did in the Old Testament, but he will save his people from their sins and we have consistently proclaimed that 44:57 for 50 years and it has become a reality in the lives of many many hundreds and hundreds of people around the world that Jesus has forgiven them and saved them. Saved means lifted them out of the pit of sin. 45:15 That is the Jesus we proclaim. And it speaks here about a different spirit. We proclaim the Holy Spirit who can fill us. CFC started because we preached the baptism of the Holy Spirit. How did the first church start in Acts chapter 2? 45:33 They were waiting on the Lord, 120 of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And that is how the church was born. And it's exactly the same that happened to to me and brother Ian 50 years ago. God filled us, baptized us in the Holy 45:48 Spirit and fire, gave us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the church was born. Same thing that's happened 2,000 years ago has happened in our midst. And since then, it has grown and grown and grown. And just like the Apostle Paul 46:03 never received a salary from any church, he Ian and I never took any salary from anybody in our entire life till today. And God has provided for us just like God provided for the Apostle Paul. He's provided for us. We lived very simply. 46:20 We couldn't live in luxury. But we lived simply what God took care of us. But our main burden was not to see how well we can live. Our main burden was the church of Jesus Christ must be built as a body, as a family. And so we taught right from 46:36 the beginning that first of all we must be founded on a clear foundation of repentance. Repentance was not being preached in many places. Most preaching of the gospel even in public meetings is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 46:51 Believe on the Lord Jesus. And we said that's not enough. You have to repent and believe. If you don't repent and believe it's like you know in an electric switch if you open an electric switch what is there? There are two 47:04 wires that are kept apart. That is why the switch is off. When you put on the switch, the two wires touch and as soon as the two wires touch, the light comes on. So repentance and faith are like that. And unfortunately in many many 47:19 places, the gospel was preached as believe on the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved. The repentance part was left out. And so there's darkness in the lives of many people who just believe on the Lord Jesus. And so we brought that other 47:32 message which is missing repent and believe and the lights came on and that's what changed many people's lives and we have consistently preached that and I praise God for God has raised up many many brothers who can proclaim the 47:47 same message of repentance and faith in Tamil Nad Kerala Andra Telangana in Karnataka North India and in Dubai Bahrain, Doha, many countries in Singapore, Australia, England, 48:05 Switzerland, America, Canada is the word. The word has gone up everywhere in this 50 years. I praise the Lord. We didn't plan that. We didn't know that. We thought we were just two of us meeting together 50 years ago. And then 48:19 through our through the YouTube and the messages we send out from our website, it has gone to 186 countries because Jesus said, "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Acts 18, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the 48:36 earth." And for us it was you shall be my witnesses in Bangalore, in Tamil Nad, in Kerala, in India and then to the ends of the earth. And once YouTube came, we could reach the ends of the earth and reach almost every country there is in 48:50 the world. We that's God's work. We don't take any credit for it. We did not organize YouTube or even the Zoom or it's it's all God has planned everything for the spread of the gospel and we praise the Lord for that. We don't take 49:05 any glory. We put our faces in the dust and say Lord we are just sinners saved by grace and all the glory goes to God. God is the one who worked by his spirit. And uh so here it speaks of a different spirit and a different Jesus and a 49:23 different gospel. So we needed to come back to preach the real Jesus, the real Holy Spirit, the baptism, the Holy Spirit and the real gospel which is not just forgiveness but salvation from sin and not just that but leading to 49:37 building a body. The gospel is not just even salvation from sin. The people who are saved from sin must be built into a body. The Old Testament was not a body. It was a congregation. And most churches today are just a congregation where 49:52 people are not connected to each other. We seek we sought to when people come to our church, we seek to build a body and uh everyone who comes in may not be the body immediately because they don't understand the gospel. As the church 50:07 grows, new new people come and they are babes in Christ. They don't understand. But as they begin to understand, many of you who have come in newly may not understand this, but those have been in CFC for a number of years have realized 50:20 we work together with others. We forgive one another. We love one another. We bear with one another's weaknesses. We build Christian homes. That's another thing which has not been emphasized for so many years in Christendom. The 50:34 importance of the family. Many many preachers around the world, they don't have a good family life. They don't live in peace with their wives and that very often their children are going astray but they still continue to preach. But 50:50 God taught us the importance of building the family. So we taught that the church of Jesus Christ is built on a foundation of the love of God as our knowing God as our father knowing Jesus Christ as our savior. And it has got three stories, 51:08 three floors. And the first the ground floor is our personal walk with God. Always keeping a clear conscience. The individual personal walk with God with a clear conscience is the first story. The ground floor and on top of that we build 51:26 a second story which we call the first floor or the second story is our family life. That's another thing that was not being emphasized in most places that they just reached about. We got to reach out, reach out, reach out. But and 51:41 family lives were in a mess. Children were going astray from the Lord and husband and wife were not living together in love. We emphasized family life. All our conferences we would have meetings for the family and then on top 51:53 of that we build a church as a body of Christ. So the church is a three-story building and that's what we proclaimed and that was not being proclaimed in most places. So we praise the Lord that God gave us grace for that. We don't 52:05 take any credit for it. God gets the glory for it all. I want to show you another verse in 1 John and chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 17 1 John 4:17 it says the last part of it 52:32 it's an amazing verse and I think we have it on the wall there as Jesus is so also are we in this world. Have you thought of that? 1 John 4:17 the last part. As Jesus is, 52:50 so also are we in this world. That is the privilege of every child of God. And that's what we proclaim. And that is why the Holy Spirit fills us. You know, the Holy Spirit has come many people say to make people speak in tongues. Yeah, we 53:08 believe in that gift, but we don't use it in public. Like Paul said, we speak in a language known to people in public, but in private, God gives us a gift to worship him. But that's not the main purpose. The main purpose of the Holy 53:20 Spirit is coming is to make us live on earth as Jesus lived. So as Jesus is, so are we in this world. Now just think, just meditate on that. That is what we proclaimed that in 53:36 progress sin sin and Satan we can also overcome sin and Satan. And as Jesus did the will of God we can do the will of God. As he is so are we in the world. You know in the Old Testament there's 53:56 not much reference to Satan. But Jesus came and confronted Satan, defeated Satan, and now we stand against Satan. And the Bible says, "Resist the devil in James 4 verse 6, and he will flee from you." I don't know whether that is the 54:13 experience of all of you, but we've found that experience in the last 50 years. James 4:7, resist the devil. They could never say that in the Old Testament. And so many believers are also today afraid of the devil. But we 54:27 have proclaimed for 50 years James 4:7, you can resist the devil in Jesus' name and he will flee from you. We think of numerous instances where demon-possessed people came into our churches in different parts and we cast them out in 54:41 Jesus' name and they were delivered. Just like in Jesus time, we have seen numerous demons cast out because Satan has been defeated on the cross. Resist the devil and he will run away from you. I hope all of you understand this is 54:58 what we have proclaimed. This is the gospel we have proclaimed that on the cross Jesus not only died for our sins but he defeated Satan on the cross. That part has not been proclaimed enough. Most people just say he died on the 55:11 cross for our sins. Yeah, I thank God for that. And he took our old man and crucified with him. Praise God for that. But he also did something else. He defeated Satan on the cross. So that Satan has got no power over any of God's 55:25 children. I want all of you to know that. And as we celebrate this 50th year and move forward in the future, it must be a year of victory over Satan and over all the forces of darkness that seek to attack you and your home. Don't give in 55:40 in your home to the devil. Don't give any room in your give no room to the bi devil. The Bible says we are to be overcomers in every situation. See Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 it says here in verse 37 56:10 in the King James version it says in all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. We are more than conquerors. And he says absolutely nothing can overcome us. Uh verse 38, not death, not life, not angels, nor 56:29 evil powers, not things present or to come or powers or height or depth, no not any created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are more than conquerors. And my dear brothers 56:43 and sisters, I plead with you to as you go forward into the future to make this the aim in your life that you will be more than a conqueror in every situation. That in Satan will never get a foothold in your life or in your 57:00 family or in your children. That we shall protect our children and protect our churches from Satan getting in. And for that the responsibility is the elders. The reason Satan could not get into CFC, 57:19 get a foothold in CFC, I mean there may be individuals he got got foothold of because they were not faithful. But as a church in all these 50 years, I can testify Satan could never get a foothold in CFC in 50 years. And part of the 57:34 reason is the unity of the elders. As I told you, Ian and I worked together for 50 years. And there was not a single day in those 50 years when he and I broke fellowship with each other. Not even one day. We may have had 57:53 disagreements, but we remained in fellowship and we said that is how we are to live and that is how we are to live in our families. Husband and wife and elders working together. And there's an authority that such people have. Let me show you that. 58:09 This is what we taught. What Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18 verse 20. You know this verse very well. If two 58:25 people or three but two is the minimum. If two people gathered together, that means gathered together means the Holy Spirit. It's not just any two people coming together. It doesn't say please read carefully. It doesn't say if two 58:39 people gathered together in my name. No, it says if two people are gathered, that means the Holy Spirit brings two people together. The Holy Spirit brought yin and me together. And wherever the Holy Spirit brings a husband and wife 58:52 together. I've seen that in my home. The Holy Spirit brought my wife Annie and me together. When the Holy Spirit brings two people together in Jesus' name, Jesus is in the midst. And Jesus was between me and Ian all the 59:06 time for 50 years and between me and my wife the last 57 years. Always in the midst. And that's what made our home life strong. And that's what made the the eldership strong in CFC. And I see the same things happening with your 59:21 elders today. I praise the Lord that Christ is in the midst and they are united. And wherever that takes place, even in your home, two, if two can be gathered together by the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name, he is in the midst. And I 59:37 plead with you in all your homes in the coming years, make sure that Christ is always between you and your wife and you and your husband. In other words, um the way you talk to each other, ask yourself, how would you talk to each 59:52 other in your home? If Jesus Christ was physically standing there, supposing Jesus Christ was physically in your home, dear brother, sister, how would you talk to your husband or your wife? Speak like that all the time. The Holy 1:00:06 Spirit is not come just to make people speak in tongues. He's come to bring the presence of Jesus Christ into our life, into our homes, into our church. Those are the three floors. The Holy Spirit has come to bring Christ into our 1:00:21 life, into our home, and into the church. So in your home, our longing is that in the coming years, more and more the life of Christ will be manifest in your home, husband and wife, and as children grow up, they will also begin to experience 1:00:36 that love life of Christ. Don't get discouraged by past failures. Maybe many of you made mistakes in the bring where you brought up your children. Forget it. God will forgive you and you repent and say, "Lord, we're sorry for what we've 1:00:49 done. Do something for us and God can bring your children back to him." I want you to trust the Lord for that. So, we have to be more than conquerors. Then the other thing that we have taught consistently and we continue to teach is 1:01:06 that if we receive there's a difference between mercy and grace. That's what we taught. Mercy. You know many people haven't taught that. I never understood that myself till the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see mercy is an Old Testament 1:01:22 word. Grace is a New Testament word, new covenant. And mercy refers to the forgiveness of our sins. Grace is to help us overcome sin, overcome Satan, and build the body of Christ. They couldn't do that in the Old Testament 1:01:38 because they did not get grace. But in the New Covenant, it says we have grace. Grace helps us to overcome sin. See Romans chapter 6 and verse 14. This is the well-known verse that we have proclaimed for 50 years in CFC. 1:01:57 Romans 6:14. It's almost been a theme verse in all these 50 years. Sin shall not rule over you. Sin shall not be master over you because you're not under that Old Testament law now. You're under grace. 1:02:16 It's just like all of you are under a roof now. If it rains outside, not one drop of rain will fall on you because you're under a roof. Grace is like a roof over our heads. And sin cannot come upon us and pollute us. Sin cannot 1:02:33 conquer us. You shall, you're not under grace, so sin cannot rule over you. Sin is the master of most people's lives. But when we come under grace, we can overcome. You cannot overcome on your own. And I say that today even after 50 1:02:52 years that I cannot overcome u sin by my own ability. Even today I need to be under grace all the time and then sin will not rule over me. Now mercy is another thing. Mercy is forgiveness. We need both. Turn with me 1:03:11 to Hebrews chapter 4. See that's another thing we have done in our preaching in CFC churches different from other churches. Other churches usually the preacher just starts with one verse and he almost never opens the Bible after that. He open he reads one 1:03:27 verse and then he gives a big lecture for 25 minutes on that verse. Whereas when the way we have taught God's word is we keep on turning to the Bible because we don't want your faith to rest on the wisdom of one man. We want your 1:03:41 faith to rest on the truth of God's word. Faith comes by hearing, not the word of a man. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. And that's why we keep on turning to the scriptures. And that's why we say bring your Bible to the 1:03:54 meeting and get familiar with the scriptures. And I remember in the early days when I studied the Bible, I would underline certain verses or color them with a red pencil so that I could remember them whenever I look through 1:04:05 the Bible quickly at other times. Hebrews chapter 4. This is one of the great truths that God showed us and that is that Jesus Christ was tempted exactly like us and did not sin. That he became a man just like us. That is one of the foundational truths 1:04:24 that we taught from the beginning in all these years in every place that has gone and that's what has revolutionized our lives. He was we have a high priest who can sympathize with us because the last part of verse 15 Hebrews 4:15 he was tempted 1:04:42 in all matters in every single point exactly as we are and we did not and he did not sin. How are we tempted? How are you tempted? Jesus Christ your Lord our Lord was tempted exactly like that. That's why he says follow me. How can he 1:05:00 say follow me if he was not tempted like me? He was tempted like me. He became a man with the weaknesses I have. But he overcame every sin without sin through the power of the Holy Spirit. And he says, "Follow me." My dear brothers and 1:05:15 sisters, God does not want any of you to be defeated by sin. Let me tell you in Jesus name. I don't care if you've been defeated by sin till today in your personal life, family life. It is not God's will that you should be defeated 1:05:30 by sin anymore. Trust him. You're not to be defeated by anxiety, for example. You're not to be defeated by grumbling. You're not to be defeated by pride. You're not to be defeated by sexual lust. You're not to be defeated by 1:05:44 anger. No, we have to overcome these. Maybe you've fallen in these areas. If so, confess it. But don't just confess it. Say, "Lord, give me victory. I want to overcome my anger. I want to overcome my lust. I want to overcome every sin 1:05:58 that everything that's contrary to the spirit of Christ." Anything that Jesus would not permit in his life, I will not permit in my life. Take that attitude from today because it says here he is tempted exactly like us and he did not 1:06:13 sin. Therefore what? Therefore what? What is the conclusion here? It is therefore verse 16. We can go to the throne of grace and receive the same grace that he got. It says here when we go to the throne of grace we first receive mercy. Jesus 1:06:30 never needed mercy because he never sinned but we need mercy because we have sinned so much in our life. So when we come to the throne of grace we say first of all Lord I've sinned so much please forgive me give me mercy and all our 1:06:45 past is blotted out. He says the blood of Christ has cleansed you from your sin and don't remember your sin anymore. That's what the Lord says I will not remember your sin anymore. And then the next step is he says, "I'll give you 1:06:58 grace." When we come to God's throne, we don't only get mercy. Many people have taught we get mercy. God forgives us. Praise the Lord for that. But we also get grace. When do we get it? In the time of need. What is the time of need? 1:07:13 In the context of verse 15, temptation. Our biggest time of need is not when you're in financial need, not when you're in physical need, but when you're tempted. That is the greatest need we have. And in that time of need, God will 1:07:28 give us grace to overcome sin. This is a wonderful message. And dear brothers and sisters, I pray that all of you will experience it so that you can pass it on to your children that they can receive mercy and grace and we can live a life freed from 1:07:47 fear, free from comfort. We may be persecuted in the days to come. Things are getting going to get more and more difficult before Jesus comes. The Bible Jesus said that you'll be hated by people. You'll be persecuted in the 1:08:00 first three centuries of Christianity. They suffered so much. They they were persecuted like anything for their faith in Jesus Christ. But they didn't give up. And so can we also can follow them in that example. We praise 1:08:15 the Lord for that. So we want to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and overcoming sin. I want to share with you something of how did we start when we started 50 years ago. Let me emphasize the first messages we preached right at the beginning in 1:08:33 August 1975 when we started meeting and little by little a few people started coming to our church in my home. We first began to teach what it means to be a disciple. That was the number one thing because that was another thing we 1:08:50 found which is not being taught. Many people were teaching what it says in Mark chapter 16, repent and be baptized. Believe and be baptized. Mark 16:E1 16 that most of the gospel preached in many 1:09:08 places is believe Mark 16 and be baptized and you'll be saved. Believe and be baptized and you'll be saved. But he said go into all the world verse 15 and preach the gospel. But if you compare that we must always compare scripture with scripture 1:09:26 not go by only one scripture. Mark chapter 16 and verse 15 and 16 must be combined with the other truth. You remember when the devil came to Jesus and quoted one scripture when he was tempted in the wilderness jump off the 1:09:41 roof of the temple because it says God's word says the angels will protect you. Jesus quoted another scripture saying it is also written you shall not tempt the Lord your God. So he taught us there to always compare scripture with scripture. 1:09:54 And so Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Those who believe and are baptized will be saved. Yes. But it is also written in Matthew 28 and verse 19. We must add this to Mark 16 verse1 15. It is also written when 1:10:11 you go into all the world you must make disciples. Believe baptize and make them disciples and baptize them. And then once you have made them disciples verse 20 teach them to do everything that I have commanded you. and then I'll be with you always to the 1:10:30 end of the age. So we proclaimed this thing which was being left out. What was that? Make them disciples. Matthew 28:e 19. And teach them to do everything I commanded you. So therefore, I'm just telling you how we started in the church 1:10:49 in those early days. We first began to preach disciplehip. And we said that the conditions of disciplehip are many of you have heard this me repeat this many times and I don't mind mentioning it again because there are new people here. Luke 14 verse 1:11:05 25 to35 are the three conditions of to be a disciple. Never forget this passage Luke 14:25-35. This is what we have proclaimed in the last 50 years all over the world in every CFC church. To be a disciple, you 1:11:23 must number one, verse 26, let me paraphrase what Jesus said, love Jesus more than your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even your own life. When he said you must hate your father and mother, it's a 1:11:38 strong word that means in comparison with your love for Jesus, your love for your parents and all must be so little. It's almost like hatred. It's like the light of the stars disappears when the sun comes in. In the morning you see, in the night you 1:11:53 can see the stars, but in the morning the sun rises and all the stars disappear. So you love your father, you love your mother, you love your wife, you love your children and all that. But in the light of the love of Jesus, all 1:12:04 that love for them disappears. You love them now through Jesus Christ. You continue to love them, but you put Christ first now. Now you love your father and mother through Christ. Now you love your wife and children through 1:12:17 Christ. In other words, you don't do things to please your father. You don't do things to please your wife. You do things to please Jesus Christ. And through Christ, you love your father and mother, mother and your wife and 1:12:29 children. And that is the best way to love them. Otherwise, your father and mother can lead you astray. So many people there, they listen to their father and mother and don't obey God's word. They don't obey Jesus. So many 1:12:40 people listen to their wives and are led astray from Christ. But if you love your father and mother and wife and children less than you love Jesus, you can be a disciple. If you, any of you sitting here, if you love your 1:12:56 father or mother more than you love Jesus Christ, I want to tell you, you're not a disciple. If you love your wife more or your husband more than you love Jesus Christ, you're not a disciple. By all means, love them. And I'll tell you 1:13:07 another thing. When you love Jesus with all your heart, you'll be able to love your father and mother better. and you'll be able to love your wife and children better. So put Christ first. That's the number one condition. Second 1:13:19 condition is every day. Verse 27, take up the cross, die to yourself. In Luke 9:23, he said you must take up the cross every day. What does it mean to take up the cross? That means when I'm tempted, let's say for example the 1:13:32 practical case, somebody irritates me. What should I do? I must die to myself in the adamic nature I have as a reaction to uh say something back to him because he irritated me. But then I have to remember that I have died with Jesus 1:13:51 Christ and now so I react like a dead man. How does a react? How does a dead man react when somebody irritates him? Supposing there's a dead body lying here on the floor right here in front of you and you irritate him. You shout at him. 1:14:06 You tell him you're a useless fellow. What is a dead man going to do? Nothing. You tease and tell him anything you say, he will not react. You kick him. He will not react. That's what it means to take up the cross and die to yourself. 1:14:22 Otherwise, you cannot follow Jesus. It's a second condition of disciplehip. We've taught that. And thirdly, you must give up all your possessions. Verse 33. That means don't hang on to earthly things. Use them. Use them, but 1:14:36 don't love them. You got good clothes, use them, but don't love them. So many women particularly get so taken up with their clothes and how beautiful it is and how they they value their clothes more than they love Jesus Christ. No, 1:14:50 use by all means use good clothes, but don't love them more than you love Christ. Maybe you've got a good house. Don't love your house more than you love Jesus. Have your house, but don't possess it as if it is the most 1:15:01 important thing for you. In other words, God gives us so many good gifts. You have money, have it, but don't possess it as if that is the most important thing in life. It's not. The most important thing is Jesus Christ. So, 1:15:13 there's a difference between possessing something and having it. Possessing means you're clinging to it in your hand. Having it means you keep it in an open palm. Lord, it's in my name. The car is in my name. The house is in my name. But I'm not going to 1:15:27 cling to it. It's it's yours. This is disciplehip. So what did what did Jesus say? Make disciples and then teach them to do everything that I commanded you. That's the thought that's completely left out in Christianity. 1:15:44 And we don't want to lower the standard after 50 years. Like Caleb said, I'm 85 years old today, but I will I'm just as strong as I was when we came when we left Egypt. And so I say the same thing. I preach the same gospel today at the 1:16:00 age of 85 that I preached 50 years ago that you have to follow Jesus' footsteps exactly as described in the sermon on the mount for example all that I taught you if you go 1:16:18 to our website we have a book on our website which you can read freely on the web called all that Jesus taught that is a series of stud studies studies that I took on all that Jesus taught and the sermon on the mount is included there. So we taught in 1:16:35 the early days when we met 50 years ago we first taught the conditions of disciplehip and then we taught it took a detailed study of Matthew 56 and 7. And I don't have time to go through all of that today. But we emphasized that in 1:16:51 Matthew 5:6 and 7, the word hell. Many people think of if you don't believe in Jesus, you go to hell. Yeah, that's true. But in Matthew chapter 5, he mentions hell three times and particular in relation to two sins. 1:17:09 And so we emphasize those two sins. And if you've heard me, you have heard me emphasize those two sins for 50 years. What are those two sins? I'll show you from Matthew 5. One is anger and the other is lusting after women, 1:17:29 which includes pornography and watching all those filthy things on the internet. In Matthew 5 21 and 22 the Lord said old covenant they said don't commit murder in the new covenant I say don't get angry murder in the old covenant is equal to 1:17:48 anger in the new covenant because anger in the heart boils out and becomes murder and so Jesus said you heard Matthew 5:21 that you should not murder but in the new covenant I say to you If you get angry, verse 22, last 1:18:06 part, you can finally go to hell. Hell is mentioned there. Many people think, oh, you don't believe in Jesus, you'll go to hell. But read here, if you keep on getting angry, you can go to hell. Then the next thing we emphasized is verse 27. Matthew 1:18:21 5:27, you heard that you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, if you lust after a woman in just in your thoughts, in your mind, you haven't touched that woman. But you look at a woman and in the now on the internet, so 1:18:35 many people look for pornography and all that rubbish, satanic things that come on the internet and on people have on their phones and they call themselves Christians. They should hang their head in shame and they look at it and I say, 1:18:47 "If you do that, you lust after a woman, you can go to hell." Verse 29, you can go to hell. It says in verse 30. So the only place hell is mentioned in the sermon on the mount is in relation to these two sins. Lusting out of women 1:19:01 and anger. And that's why I have emphasized that so much through these years. I've fought it myself through the years and emphasized it. We have to fight it. My dear brothers and sisters, I urge you take these two sins seriously. 1:19:16 Why do we teach it? Because Jesus said, "Teach people all that I have taught." And there's hardly any church that preaches all these things exactly like Jesus taught us. And that is why we say we are different. We're not claiming 1:19:29 that we are better. That is for God to decide which church is good and which church is better. We are not competing with any church in the world. Our job is to proclaim everything that Jesus taught. And if some people get offended with 1:19:44 that and leave our church, well bless God bless them. I hope they will follow the truth somewhere else. But we are determined to hold up God's standards and without lowering them in any way in any way. We want to proclaim all of 1:19:58 God's standards at any cost. So Matthew 5:7 was very very important for us. And I want to show you another verse that we proclaimed at that time that's in Malachi chapter 1. In Malachi chapter 1, this is a verse I 1:20:18 remember right in the beginning when we started 50 years ago. This is the verse the Lord gave us. This is showing how in the towards the end of the Malachi was the last prophet in the Old Testament. And by the time the standards 1:20:32 of God in Israel had declined so much, it was so bad that the Lord said, "You know what is happening?" They were supposed to bring sacrifices to the Lord. You know in the Old Testament, Israel was commanded when they commit a 1:20:46 sin, they must bring a bullock or a goat as a sacrifice to the Lord. So, you know what they did? They would go to the all of them had flocks and they go and pick up a goat that is blind, which is a bit of a nuisance for them, and they bring 1:21:00 that or they bring a sheep that is lame, which is a bit of a nuisance for them. So, they'd give to God. They have to give a goat or a bulock or something but they'll find one animal that is blind or lame or sick. See verse Malachi 1:8. 1:21:17 He says things have come to such a bad state in Israel that you present the blind for sacrifice. Isn't that evil? And you present the lame and the sick. You were they were supposed to give the best to God. That means go through the 1:21:30 flock and get the best sheep. Sacrifice it to God. go through your flock and get the best bull and give it to God. You know, that was the difference between the offerings of Abel and Cain. I don't have time to show it to you, but when 1:21:42 you get time, read it in Genesis 4. Abel, Cain brought an offering. Abel brought the best offering that he had from his flock. And that's a big difference right at the beginning of the Bible. Two types of offerings. Cain brought any odd offering that he 1:22:00 could pick up. Abel looked around and found the best and gave it. And that has made the difference throughout the ages between two types of offerings that people give to God even today. You ask yourself, my brother, sister, I want to 1:22:12 plain straight talk and talk straight to you. What do you offer to God? I'm talking about your time. I'm not asking for money. We don't preach about money in this church. Your time. Do you give the best of your time to God 1:22:31 or do you give your best of your time to watch movies or play games or do some other thing, gossip and the best of your time? Do you give it to God? If you don't, you're like Cain. Cain gave an offering that God did not 1:22:49 accept. Abel gave the best the best of your time to give to God. You say, "Lord, I want to give the best of my life to you, the best of my time." It's a wonderful way to live. I tell you, God will reward you abundantly. So, 1:23:06 it says here, don't offer the lame and the sick. And the Lord also said, I wish verse 10, Malachi 1:10, I wish the priests there who are the leaders would shut the gates when people bring such offerings. That means when they see somebody 1:23:22 bringing a lame or a blind offering, close the gate and say we don't want that inside this temple. Close the gates of the temple. And because the priests did not do that, the priests were being bribed by these people. The people 1:23:35 bribed the priests just like a lot of pastors are bribed today. And the Lord says, "I'm not pleased with you." Verse 10. I will not accept your offering. Okay. Now listen to this. Malachi 11:11 was the word the Lord gave 1:23:50 to CFC when we started 50 years ago. Malachi 18-10 described the condition in a lot of Christendom even in India. But the Lord said now things are going to be different from the rising of the sun to its 1:24:09 setting. That means from east to west all over the world a new time is coming referring to the new covenant age. In every place all over the world my name is going my uh every place 1:24:28 incense is going to be offered my name and an offering that is pure and then my name will be great among the nations. So the Lord said in CFC as from the beginning don't ever give the sick and the lame and something cheap. Don't give 1:24:48 something cheap to God. Give the best to God, the best of your time, which is as soon as that's why I tell people as soon as you wake up in the morning. Spend five minutes on your bed and say, "Lord, heavenly father, dad, I want to 1:25:05 give this day to you. I want to live for you. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit." That's the way you should begin every day of your life as you begin your day with God. And so that is what we emphasized. And the Lord says, "My name will be great among the 1:25:20 nations." And so I praise the Lord for for all these truths that became real to us. God has said that all those he if you honor God, God will honor you. And that's another great truth that we kept on emphasizing in 1 Samuel. I'm 1:25:36 trying to show you some of the important verses that we emphasize from the beginning and we want to continue to emphasize if you want the light to continue shining. 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30. I used to tell people to remember it 1:25:50 like this. 1 230 1 2 3 0 1 Samuel 2 verse 30. What is that in the middle of that verse? It says the Lord says those who hon the Lord declares those who honor me I will honor. That's been a very favorite verse of mine because we face many difficult 1:26:09 situations in the world and uh we need God's help in all types of situations and so I said Lord I want to honor you and I believe that if I honor you you will honor me according to 1 Samuel 2:30. And this is how I used to say it. 1:26:28 I say heavenly father there is nothing impossible for you. You can do all types of any problem I face in my life. You can solve it in a moment. Is there anything impossible? I want to ask you brothers and sisters. Is there any 1:26:42 problem in your life that God cannot solve? Maybe you can't solve it. Maybe your friends can't solve it. Maybe nobody can solve it, but God can solve it. There's no problem God cannot solve. And God says, "If you honor me, I will 1:26:55 honor you." And so to strengthen my own faith, this is how I would speak to my father. I say heavenly father you said 1 Samuel 2:30 and you can do this also exactly what I say I'm telling you now say to your heavenly father heavenly 1:27:11 father you said if you honor me I will honor you that's what you said in your word and so Lord to the best of my knowledge I'm trying to honor you and heavenly father if you don't honor me according to your promise in 1 Samuel 1:27:28 2:30 when I'm trying to honor you and you Don't honor me. That will be the first time in 6,000 years of man's history that you did not keep your promise. Did you hear me? This is how I told the Lord. Heavenly 1:27:45 Father, I'm trying to honor you to the best of my ability. And your word says that if I honor you, you will honor me. And if you don't honor me in this situation, which I'm facing right now, maybe a difficult situation, maybe a 1:28:00 trial, maybe opposition from someone, and I'm trying to honor you and you don't honor me, then it'll be the first time in 6,000 years of man's history that you broke your promise. And my faith is immediately strengthened 1:28:13 because I know God will never break his promise. So I say it like that just to strengthen my own faith. Say, Lord, I know you cannot break your promise. You will honor me if I honor you. So I want to urge all of you, my dear brothers and 1:28:27 sisters. Honor God in every situation. Don't seek what is the way of other people. Don't compromise. You honor God. Even if it means loss of money or anything. Honor God. And I tell you in Jesus name, God will honor you. I've 1:28:45 experienced that for 50 years and more in my life. That is how CFC has been built all these years. And I pray that it'll go from strength to strength. There's a great promise in the book of Hagi. 1:29:04 Let's turn to the book of Haggi. Haggi, the Lord encouraged his people. Haggi was a prophet who was uh encouraging people to build a church. 1:29:23 And he said, Hagi says in Hagi chapter 2 and verse 5, my spirit is abiding in your midst. So don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Verse seven, I will fill this house with 1:29:40 glory. And uh verse n the glory of this house will be greater than the former. And the way I want to take it is the glory in the coming years of CFC will be greater than in all the past 50 years. Malik Hagai chapter 2 verse 8. The 1:29:59 latter glory of this church will be greater than in the previous 50 years. And I will give peace here says the lord. What a wonderful promise that is. Let's claim it. Claim it that whatever we have seen in our life in CFC in these 1:30:15 last 50 years is going to be even greater in the days to come. Not for our glory. Not at all. So that Jesus Christ can be glorified. You know when I preach I recognize that Jesus Christ is in our 1:30:33 midst. Jesus said two or three are gathered together. I'm in the midst. And so everything that I have said now I have said in the presence of the Lord. And do you know that the Lord Jesus is right in our midst right now. 1:30:49 And my prayer is that not that you people will just hear me but through my message you will get in touch with Jesus who is in our midst right now. That in your spirit you'll contact Jesus before you go away from this meeting. Dear 1:31:07 brother, sister, that is my earnest longing. If that doesn't happen, you just hear Zakuna's message and go away. It won't help you. My message is to lead you to connect with Christ. And if you connect with Christ, then 1:31:26 my work is done. And that's my desire that you will be connected to Christ. And that when you my great longing is that when people come to a CFC meeting they go away and say the Lord was there I met with the 1:31:42 Lord the Lord spoke to me convicted me every meeting of CFC that is my longing that God's word will come forth and even when we sing you know when you know I remember the days when I used to sing and I wasn't aware that Jesus is there 1:32:01 and some sometimes we sing just be taken up with the tune. But when we sing, we must speak to the Lord. Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. We have to say it to the Lord. All to Jesus I surrender. Said songs like that. We 1:32:18 have to recognize Jesus is here and we must be talking to him. And I want to encourage you when you sing songs, think of Jesus and say he's there in our midst and I'm speaking to him. Take my life Lord. Let it be consecrated Lord to thee 1:32:34 all to you. I surrender Lord Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to make the presence of Jesus real to you when you sing the songs and when you hear God's word so that you can go away from every Sunday meeting that you come to saying I met 1:32:51 with Jesus today and he spoke to me. And I pray that'll be true in your life. And I pray that the glory of the latter house will be greater than all that we have seen so far. God bless you all. I want to close with one last verse. 1:33:10 I've given you a number of verses but this is the last one I'll share with you. It's very precious. Matthew 11 verse 28-30. Matthew 11 verse 28-30 where Jesus says come to me he's speaking to believers 1:33:29 all of you who are weary and heavy laden I want to ask you dear brothers and sisters are you weary with life's burdens heavy laden with something Jesus says come to me 1:33:47 don't carry it all yourself I'll carry a burden for you come to me, I will give you rest. There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God. Come near to the heart of God and you'll find rest in your heart. And he says, "Take my yoke upon 1:34:04 you." That means take the cross in your life. Die to yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to put yourself to death and learn from me because he put himself to death. He put his inner life to death. And he says there's something 1:34:19 very important that you must learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart. Two great lessons we have to learn in our personal life. Every Christian from Jesus. Gentleness and humility. 1:34:38 Our our adamic nature is harsh and proud. Husbands and wives are harsh and proud in their relationship with each other. Jesus says, "Die to that and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble 1:34:57 and all the then you'll find rest in your soul." Do you know why there's so much unrest in your heart? Unrest is because you're not gentle and humble because you're harsh and proud. Lord, crucify that. Pray that prayer. Lord, I 1:35:11 want to crucify all this harshness and this pride in me. Help me to learn from you. I'm not You're the person from whom I can learn gentleness and humility. The two things Jesus told us to learn from him. Learn from me. I'm gentle and 1:35:29 humble. And your restless soul will come to rest. And you'll find that his burden is not a heavy burden. Verse 30 it says his burden is always light. All the burdens that the devil puts upon you are heavy. Jesus burden is light. He's a loving 1:35:48 savior. God is a loving father. We must know him as a loving father. He cares for you. Do you feel weak? Do you feel discouraged that your Lord your standard is so high? I am not reaching it. Don't worry. God is there to help you by his 1:36:03 holy spirit. Reach that standard. Don't get discouraged. You say Lord I'm defeated. Right? The Lord said, "Don't worry. I can help you by my spirit. Come to me. Just come to me in simple prayer and ask for my help. I'll give it to 1:36:15 you." There's a verse in the Bible who says, "You don't get because you don't ask. You don't get God's power because you don't ask. You don't get God's help because you don't ask. From today onwards, ask. Lord, give me help to 1:36:29 overcome this bad habit of mine. Give me help to learn humility and gentleness from you in my home, in my place of work and everywhere. And you will find rest for your souls. God wants our lives to be lives of rest and this is how it can be. Now I shared 1:36:47 a lot of things with you and I believe the Holy Spirit will bring back to your mind. You don't have to remember it all. If you want you can listen to this message again on YouTube. But the Holy Spirit will bring back to your mind in 1:37:00 the coming days in a time of need what you heard today. What appropriate according to your need. I pray that God will bless you and I pray that the coming years of CFC will be far more glorious for the glory of God than the past years. And your 1:37:19 personal life will be far more glorious and more Christlike than all your past life. Your home life will be more Christlike. You'll be a more Christlike husband. You will be a more Christlike wife. You'll be a more Christlike father. You'll be a more 1:37:37 Christlike mother in the coming years. Let's make that our goal and say, "Lord, I'm asking you to fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can be more Christlike in my home." Begin there. God bless you all. Let's just bow our heads for a moment. 1:37:58 Heavenly Father, there's much that we have heard and you will remind us by your spirit of all of these things in the coming days. I believe that. So we don't have to try and remember it 1:38:18 all. We pray that you will help us, Lord, not to get discouraged, not to get discouraged by the challenge we heard today, but to believe that you're going to help us each one to rise up. Your word is come up higher. I will 1:38:34 help you. You will help us, Lord. You have said, "Come to me. I will give you rest. Come to me. I will help you. You'll give us grace." Thank you, Father. Help everyone sitting here. Let no one get discouraged. that no one go 1:38:48 away home today discouraged, but everyone go home encouraged that it's going to go better in their life and in their home and with their children and in their place of work. Help everyone whatever trial they're going through. 1:39:00 Lord, heal those who are sick that your name be glorified in every home represented here today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. Okay, my better half Annie will now speak to you. Dear brothers and sisters, is such a joy 1:39:47 to see you all. I cannot describe say in words. What a joy it is to be with you all in spirit and see your lovely faces. I wish I could be sitting there. I praise and thank God for all his 1:40:07 goodness to us. Looking back on the past 50 years, when we first started in in 1975, our children were small and it looked like we were for me 1:40:25 especially, it looked like I was going through a fog. as if I knew by faith God is leading us and he's taking us to something glorious but everything was so uh uh misty and 1:40:43 not clear at all but looking back I can uh only share one verse which is my testimony that is in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 1:41:00 And verse 9, 1 Corinthians 2:9, I has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him. In the same verse in 1:41:18 Isaiah 64, it says, "The things which God has prepared for them that wait for him." And I can say at that time I didn't know what wonderful things God had in store for us. Looking back I can say Lord I 1:41:38 did not even imagine my I could not even think what wonderful things you had ahead of us. Not only in our church but in our family. And God has been so good and gracious. Words are not enough. I has not seen. 1:41:57 But also I can say I still know that more wonderful things are ahead of us. And when we see Jesus and when we are with him in the kingdom of heaven, it'll be more than we've ever ever 1:42:15 imagined. I know by faith and I'm so thrilled to look forward to that day. Till then God has given us a work to do. So I praise and thank God for all that he's done. When we came a few months 1:42:31 back to Bangalore and we celebrated ahead of time the uh 50th anniversary, you remember there was a very powerful skit which our brothers put out on building the walls of Jerusalem and Nemiah and others were building the walls of 1:42:50 Jerusalem. I can say that building the church, it was a it was a prophetic thing which God gave to our brothers who were building the church and that has been a blessing not only in the church but those walls were built so 1:43:09 strong in our family and in the church to keep worldliness out. My children have benefited from that work which their brothers have started. Keep out worldliness. Keep out compromise. Trying to please their 1:43:27 friends in school to be bold. Doesn't matter what people say about them or think about them or say about the church. That separation from worldliness. through the early teachings of CFC our children benefited from that and now I 1:43:46 can see how it has blessed them we don't have to advise them for small small things that foundation was laid in CFC and then they could discern this is the way we should go this is the the other way is wrong that way is abroad that's 1:44:04 not for us so I praise and thank God for the work which our dear brothers elders was done in CFC in those early years and still continuing to do to keep the purity in the church and keep worldliness house out and that it has 1:44:22 been such a blessing to me my family and to so many families so many families have been blessed so I praise and thank God dear brothers and sisters may God bless you keep you all safe and keep us all encouraged 1:44:41 encourage one another as we see the Lord's time a day approaching so we can meet the Lord with joy and gladness with shouts of joy when the Lord takes us home. Thank you. God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you so much, brother 1:45:12 Zach and Sister Rani. Yeah. Thank you. Over to you. Thank you for the opportunity you gave us to share the word. Yeah. Um should Yeah. Uh 1:45:30 we brother Zach um we there was an announcement that uh you we we wanted I mean you had to make about about the book. Can you can you do that now? about the the new book. 1:46:01 Zach, are you able to hear Yeah, 1:46:24 brother Zach, are you able to hear? We wanted you to speak about the book. Yes. Yeah, I can I can hear you now. I can hear you now. Thank you. Yeah, Zach, could you just uh talk about the new book, please? Yeah. 1:47:25 Brother, brother Zach, uh I'm not sure if you are able to hear us. We are not hearing you speak. Yeah, I can hear you. Well, yes. Yeah, brother Zach. So we wanted to ask 1:47:41 you to speak about this new book. Uh if you could just introduce it. This uh godly family life book. It's displayed on the screen right now. The cover is displayed on the screen. Yeah, sure. So 1:47:59 I mentioned in study that the home is the second story. The first story is our personal life and the second story is our family life and then only the church and throughout 1:48:18 the world family life is not emphasized in most churches. In the old testament family life is not at all emphasized. So I say those are all old covenant churches. Wherever a family life is not emphasized is an old testament church. 1:48:34 And there is no church. It is just an old testament gathering. If the pastor's family life, the leader's family life is not a godly one, it is he's going to build only an Old Testament congregation to build a New Testament church, you 1:48:49 must have a personal walk with God and a godly family life. Very very important. And every brother and sister in CFC should seek to live a godly family life. That is why there are already one or two other books we have written. Annie has 1:49:05 written some books also. And we have another book called a heavenly home. But here are some practical things also I mentioned in this is actually these are messages that were given in different places that in series of messages that 1:49:20 have been just compiled together. The spoken message has been put down into writing and the aim is that all our homes will be godly because we need to raise up another generation of godly people to carry on the message 1:49:39 to people. I'll just read one verse in second Timothy. Paul had a great burden in second Timothy. He writes to Timothy his close coworker. Second Timothy chapter 2 and uh 2 Timothy 1:50:00 and chapter 2 he says in the second verse 2 Timothy 2:2 whatever you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses Timothy is the second generation he says you have heard from me Paul first 1:50:18 generation Timothy second generation You must entrust this to third generation to faithful people that is your children and they will teach others which is the fourth generation. So in this one verse you see Paul is concerned about even the fourth 1:50:37 generation. You Timothy second generation have heard from me. You must pass on this to other faithful men in the third generation and you must teach them to pass it on to others in the fourth generation. So this is how the 1:50:51 work of God goes on from generation to generation. We must communicate to our children everything that has gripped us and changed our lives so that our children will not only be gripped by it in their lives but they will teach it to 1:51:05 others. God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you so much, brother Zach and 1:51:22 sister Annie, for speaking to us as a spiritual father and mother and reminding us of precious truths that we've heard before, but even as I was listening, my heart was being warmed once again and thinking about all that 1:51:34 we've received over the years. Thank you so much. Let's give brother Zach a standing up. [Applause] Thank you very much. Thank you. God bless you, brother Zach. We look forward to hearing 1:51:57 you next Sunday also uh at at the start of our fellowship Sunday. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. God willing. Thank very much. Thank you. Thank you. Uh brothers, can you come So, we want to sing this song that 1:52:42 Brother Zach wrote. I think it's the best song for times like this that captures the good news that we've heard in this church. [Music] Let's join together and sing. Brothers and sisters, 1:53:02 [Music] when bowed with burdens and with care, your soul is in despair. You don't have to fear. 1:53:19 God is very near. He loves you as he loved his son and he will help you too. Just trust his word of promise and he will see you through. 1:53:38 [Music] This is the good news what God can do. What he did for Jesus, he will do for you. 1:53:56 With mighty power, he'll strengthen you. There is no end to what God can do. No sin and evil will fill this world and 1:54:17 you are overcome. Yet God's word is true. Sin God can't pray over you. And when temptations fall strong, God's grace will be your save. 1:54:37 Oh, you can walk like Jesus in victory every day. This is the good news. What God can do. 1:54:54 What he did for Jesus, he will do for you. With my power, he'll strengthen you. [Music] 1:55:10 There is no end to what God can do. Let's sing the last verse. Oh, what a glorious comfort this gift if you have come to know 1:55:28 Jesus as your Lord. an elder brother too. For all God has is none of your own and he won't let you go. 1:55:44 And now that God is for you, who can be your f just the voices sing? This is the good news. What God can do. 1:56:01 What he did for Jesus, he'll do for you. With mighty power, he'll strengthen you. 1:56:18 There is no end to what God can do. Amen. We'll have the announcements. announcements for today uh Sunday the 1:56:57 17th August following the main meeting we will have a
