0:02 Matthew 16 This is the first time that Jesus spoke about the church. As far as we know in the record in the gospels, there were only two times that Jesus ever used the word church. 0:22 And you know, church is uh an English word which has got different meanings today. Some people think of a building. Some people think of a denomination. Some people think of going to church. But in the New Testament, 0:40 it's the word ekklesia from the Greek, which means an assembly of people gathered together. There's nothing sacred about the original word. But it's a question of who's gathered us together. That's the point. If it's a man, it's not a church. If the 0:59 Holy Spirit has gathered us together into an assembly, then it's a church. So, you need to understand that word which has just been translated as church or assembly. The important thing is, since that's the word used in scripture, let's use that. 1:18 But let's get that clear in our mind. We're not talking about a building or a denomination, but the body of Jesus Christ. That's what the church is supposed to be. And uh maybe before I come to Matthew 16, I'd like to show you this verse in 1 1:34 Corinthians 12 that clarifies it. I don't know how many of you have noticed this verse in 1 Corinthians 12. It's an amazing verse. It's only found once in the whole Bible. 1 Corinthians 12 Even as uh verse 12, 1 Corinthians 1:53 12:12, even as the body is one human body and yet has many members. I'll read slowly so that you don't miss it. All the members of the body though they are many, he's still talking about that whole human body, 2:12 are one body, right? So also is not the church. So also is the Christ. I don't know what I'm doing there. Look. The church is so much an integral part 2:31 of Christ, the real church. When he talks about the church, it's the Christ, the anointed one. It's the only vision we were just in where you find the church being called the Christ. Everywhere else it refers to Jesus Christ our Lord. 2:49 But as the body is one with many members, the members are all one body, so also is the Christ. And he's part of that body because it says here about him, now listen to this, the 3:08 the head does not say, uh verse 21, that's the last part of verse 21, the head, that's Christ, does not say to the feet, the lowest member in the body, 3:25 "I have no need of you." Doesn't that humble us? That Jesus looks at the lowest, weakest, newest member of his body and doesn't say, 3:43 "I don't need you." That spirit is both the true church. And you can never be in the true church if you don't have that spirit. And I want to say 3:59 after 52 years of watching Christianity in many lands, Christian leaders, it's very difficult to find that spirit among Christian leaders. That they will value the lowest, weakest, newest 4:17 member of that fellowship and say, "Brother, I need you." And when that spirit is absent, they don't have the spirit of Christ. The problem is we have so many experts and scholars who think that they are the most 4:35 important people who are required in the body. But it says here in 1 Corinthians 12, that God, verse 24, the last part, has so composed the body giving more abundant honor to that 4:52 member which lacked gift, which lacked cleverness, smartness, wealth, the lowest, the feet, God gives more abundant honor. Why? So that the body is one, verse 25, without any division. 5:11 This is the true church of Christ. It's not one great gifted man standing up there and preaching to 10,000 people and everybody Everybody sitting there with their mouths open saying, "Boy, what a preacher. Wasn't it great to hear him?" 5:27 And go away and don't even know each other. And the preacher doesn't know anybody there. There's no time to talk to anybody there. And they go off and come back next Sunday to their cinema theater to watch the performance 5:40 and go away. That's not the church. Certainly not the church Jesus intended. Those are preaching centers. But the church is a body where even the head, Christ, does not say to the feet, "I don't need you anymore." And we can test that out. You may not be 6:00 the most gifted person in your church or fellowship or wherever home group or wherever you go. What is your attitude to the weakest and the lowest person that has no gift? I'm not talking about hypocrites. I'm 6:19 not talking about people who are coming to the church for personal gain or you know, Jesus exposed such Pharisees. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about sincere people who are really God-fearing but who don't have human qualities 6:35 that make them attractive. They don't have wealth. They don't have uh smartness perhaps, cleverness, but they're sincere, God-fearing people. I worked with literally thousands of such people in the villages in India for 30 6:50 years. They bless my heart. Most of my work is in the villages in India. That's where we founded 30 churches. So, I know what I'm talking about. And I praise God that these are members of my body. As I sit on the floor in their houses 7:07 with them and talk to them, and they bless my heart. I need it. I see that Jesus when he was in Gethsemane, he called Peter. This is the guy who was going to deny him 7:27 in a few hours. He says, "Hey, come pray with me for I'm going through a tremendous struggle." I tell you, when I read that, it really humbles me. Do you get humbled when you read see of these passages of scripture? Or do you just read it like a story and 7:44 move on? I want to encourage you as you read the gospels, try and see what Jesus was like. And say, "Lord, make me like that." The Holy Spirit has come to show us the glory of Jesus in scripture. 8:03 Our personal life must become like that. That's the way you must behave to your wife at home, towards your husband at home, towards your children at home. And that's the way you must be behave towards other believers, the way Jesus 8:20 Jesus wasn't fooled by Judas Iscariot. There was a difference between Judas Iscariot and Peter. And we need to distinguish between these two types of people who come to our church as well. I always say that you'll never have a 8:33 church without hypocrites. Even Jesus had one in his church, and you can't make it better than that. 8% of Jesus' church were hypocrites. That was one out of 12. So, if you got 8% hypocrites in your church, you're as good as Jesus in his 8:49 church. Your church is as good as the one he built. You'll never be able to build one without hypocrites, cuz the devil always sends somebody there. Don't get disturbed by that, but you need to distinguish between the Peter 9:00 and the Judas Iscariot. The one who denies in his weakness, and the one who is scheming, and the betrayer. So, um don't be fooled by that, but I see the need to recognize that God has given abundant honor 9:18 to one of the blacks so that he can build a body. But we value one another. And the Bible says that we love one another. It means we value one another. We esteem one another. The Bible says, "Esteem one another, not as more 9:33 spiritual than yourself, but as more important than yourself. Jesus always treated other people as important. He would stop what he was doing and go along with somebody who had a need. Everybody was important to him. 9:51 He wasn't so busy that he didn't have time for people. So, turn let's turn to Matthew 16. The church, this is the church. I was giving you a little description of what a new coming church is like and this is the type of church Jesus wants 10:10 to build. And if you're satisfied with something less than that in whatever fellowship you're going to, I want to say you're satisfied with something much less than what God wants. And as long as you're satisfied with something less than God wants, you'll 10:30 never get anything better. That's for sure. I wandered through many churches like that for the first 16 years after I was born. I wandered through religious Babylon 10:47 in every nook and corner of it. And I got sick and tired of it. And I said, "Lord, this is not what you spoke about." Cuz everywhere I see the devil prevailing. But the church that Jesus built, it says in Matthew 16:18, 11:07 "I will build my church on this rock. Pete, your name is Peter and the word Peter means a small stone. You're only a small stone, Peter, but upon this solid rock." What was that solid rock? It's not Peter like our Roman Catholic 11:25 friends say. No. It's what Peter confessed in verse 16. When he asked him, "Who do you say that I am?" He said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." Peter, you're right. On this rock, which you just confessed, I 11:38 will build my church. This rock of a Christ revealed by the Father. Not the Christ that of your imagination. As he said, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona." Let me paraphrase his words. 11:58 "You are not the cleverest Bible scholar in Israel. There are a lot of people cleverer than you. But they think I'm Beelzebub, the prince of devils. They study the scriptures from Genesis to Malachi. It speaks about me, but they 12:11 think I'm the prince of devils. But you, you haven't studied the scriptures like them. How did you recognize me as the Christ? Because my Father revealed to you." The word revelation is a great word in the New Testament. 12:27 Not understanding. You don't read of revelation in the Old Testament. Revelation comes in the New Testament. It's almost one of the first times that Jesus uses that word. It's in relation to the church. Revelation, something that God shows 12:43 you. And we saw that right in the beginning. To those who love God, the spirit will reveal things which human minds cannot grasp. Which is hidden from the clever and the intelligent. Because revealed to you. Don't forget 13:03 that word, revealed. On this revealed Christ, on this rock, I build my church. Many of us think we know Jesus. I don't think you really do. I thought I knew Jesus when I was born 13:21 again, but I didn't really. I've come to know him more and more and more and more. And I'll tell you, that's what's made my Christian life exciting. I've been a Christian for 52 years and I've served the Lord all those years. 13:36 46 of those years in full-time Christian ministry. But, it's just gets more and more exciting. I'm not bored with my Christianity. It's It's wonderful. I just love Jesus more and more and I don't love my ministry more than Christ. 13:53 I'm a worshiper first, not a not a preacher. My My greatest joy is worship. Jesus is more precious to me than any ministry he can ever give me. I sometimes lie down in my bed and say, "Lord, if you decide one day uh to paralyze my body, 14:11 take away my voice, that I can't sing, I can't write anymore, I can't travel anymore, it will not disturb me one bit because I'll still be a worshiper. I'm a worshiper primarily, not a preacher. And that's what makes our ministry 14:28 effective. Remember the words Jesus spoke to the devil. You shall worship the Lord your God and then serve him. Matthew 4:10. The trouble with a lot of people who are trying to serve God today is they are not worshipers. 14:48 And when you don't worship God, you don't get to see the glory of Jesus. And then you try to serve him, you serve a god in whatever you think is best, but not based on revelation. Seek for revelation. Only this revealed Christ 15:04 is the rock on which he says, "I will build my church." That's the other thing we need to see here. I can't build a church. That's his prerogative. He says, "I will build my church." If I We step aside and say, "Lord, build me a church 15:23 the way you want to build it. I'm available. You tell me to sit down and do nothing, I'll sit down. You tell me to do something, I'll do it." But you're the one who builds the church, and God's given us grace through these past 15:39 36 years in India and other countries to see little churches coming up, growing up to be bigger ones, but churches the Lord has planted. A lot of people give me the credit for it, but I know it's not true. They think it's like that, but it's not true. I 15:57 know deep down in my heart that every single one of those places is the Lord who did it. He is planting his church. And I've seen some places in India where people come to our conferences and say, "Hey, I'd like to have a church like 16:12 this." And they think that the secret is to sing the same songs, to follow the same pattern, and listen to the messages from the internet of preachers and messages, and they don't know that it doesn't work. You can't do it. 16:26 You can't go to an anatomy laboratory and stitch a hand and a leg and a heart and all together and make a human body. You can't do it. Only God can do that. The Lord says, "I will build my church." You can build something that looks the 16:41 same with the same pattern, but there won't be life in it. And the Lord builds the church. One mark, to me this is the mark of the church that Jesus builds. The gates of hell will not overpower it. The powers of spiritual darkness will 16:57 not be able to crush it. And so when I look around and I see everywhere in India, America, anywhere Christian leaders falling into the most abominable sins, I say, "Is this the church Jesus is building?" I mean, these are sins which 17:16 in my country I could show you 1,000 Hindus who don't fall into those sins. Atheists I know don't fall into the type of sins so-called Christian leaders fall into. We have Christian leaders all over the world, divorced, remarried, 17:32 and they're Christian leaders. This is not the new covenant church. This is an old covenant church. In the old covenant, you could do a lot of things and still be a leader. You could commit adultery like David 17:50 and be a leader. You could fool around with women like Samson, be a leader, judge of Israel. You could fight with your wife like Moses and still be a leader, a prophet. Because your leadership had nothing to do with your home life. 18:10 Your children could be utterly wayward like Samuel's. Samuel had two sons and they were as wayward as Eli, whom he had criticized for Eli's sons going astray. You read about that in 1 Samuel. But Samuel was a leader till the end of 18:25 his life, a great man. Prophet. But it was an old covenant system. Not in the new covenant. New covenant it says, "If a man can't bring up his children properly, how can he bring up the people of the church?" 18:44 And if you can't bring up two or three children at home, how are you going to bring up two or three hundred people in the ways of God? It's impossible. Or he says, um you know, if a man Uh let's take another example in the Old 19:01 Testament. There were all these people who fell into the old covenant sins like Jeremiah would be depressed, etc. They did great things. I don't question it. But they could do all that and uh do a great work for God because they 19:14 were just mouthpieces of proclaiming what God said. They couldn't say in the Old Testament, "Come and see what the Lord has done." They could only say, "Come and hear." And if all you can say about your home and your church is, "Come and hear. This 19:30 is the word of the Lord. We've got a great preacher. You've got to come and listen to him. Boy, how he can move people with his oratory and his knowledge of scripture and his profound and you know and you know illustrations 19:46 and the way he presents truth, etc. Come and hear. That's Old Testament. In the New Testament, the word is not come and hear. It's come and see. You read in John chapter 1 when 20:04 two disciples of John the Baptist followed Jesus, John 1:37. Jesus turned and said, "What are you seeking?" And they asked him, "Rabbi, where do you live?" Same question a lot of seeking people are asking today. Lord Jesus, where are you living 20:23 today? And Jesus said, "Come and see." That is New Covenant. That's the New Covenant home, the New Covenant church, where you don't say, "Come and hear this wonderful message God's given me. I spent the whole of yesterday preparing 20:42 it and I would like to give it to you." "I heard directly from God." Moses could say that. But nobody in the Old Testament could say, "Come and see." "Come and see what God's done in my home. Come and see what God's done in my life. 21:00 Come and see what God's done in the Our fellowship is not big, but come and see what God's done there." Do you have passion for that? Do you have a longing that you'll be able to say, "Come and see." If you have a longing, it may take time 21:17 to get there. But you should say, "Lord, I'm sick and tired of this Christian life where all I can say is come and hear." I mean, I I thought about that in witnessing to non-Christians in India. So, when you go to a person and say, 21:33 "Listen, I want to tell you about this wonderful message of the gospel. You know, you know you're sinners." I'm talking to a non-Christian, some non-Christian religion. Christ has his open to the truth about God. And I tell him, "Christ will forgive 21:49 your sins." And he says, "Is that really true?" So, yes, I He can forgive all your sins. But he says, "I have another problem. I keep fighting with my wife. I get really mad at her. This Can this Jesus of yours deliver me 22:03 from that also?" He said, "Well, he can't do all that because he hasn't done that in my life. But he can forgive your sins." He said, "No, thank you. I'm looking for somebody else." Can you blame him for rejecting that Jesus you're presenting? 22:18 This is the tragedy of today's gospel preaching. It doesn't work in my life. Another guy says, "Listen, I'm I I now and then once in a once in a month I watch internet pornography. Can your Jesus deliver me from that?" Well, he 22:33 can't deliver you from that because I do that also once in a while. Uh but he can forgive your sins. So, what kind of gospel is that? Would you give a gift to somebody of a let's say DVD player 22:52 that's not working in your own home? I'd like to give you a gift. Why do you present a gospel that hasn't worked in your home to somebody else. You wouldn't give a TV there that doesn't work. But you give the gospel to others that 23:08 doesn't work in your home. Keep your mouth shut. Humble yourself and go before God and say, "Lord, I've taken this whole Christianity lightly. That's the reason. It doesn't take long to get over the life of overcoming sin. 23:25 Where the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. Jesus said, "I will build such a church where the powers of darkness will not prevail." You got to believe that, brother and sister. You got to believe it. It's the devil's 23:37 saturated Christendom with such unbelief. All they have faith for is how to get a better house and how to get a better job, how to get a better car. I couldn't care less for these things. We need to hear the message of John the 23:49 Baptist. Who said, "Repent. Turn around, you Israelites, who spent 1,500 years seeking for an earthly kingdom, cuz that's all that God could offer you under the law. Now, the kingdom of heaven is near." 24:08 You need to understand it in the context in which John the Baptist was preaching. 1,500 years Israel had been promised in the Old Testament, "I will bless you. I will prosper you. I'm the Lord your healer. I'll give you health. I'll give 24:24 you wealth beyond all the other nations." Uh and Lord, any promise of heaven? No, nothing heavenly. Only earthly blessings. And if you disobey me, earthly curses. No threat of going to hell. You don't read about the Lord telling people in 24:43 the Old Testament, "I'll send you to hell." It's Jesus who spoke about that. If you lust after women, you lose your temper, you go to hell. But in the Old Testament, it was you'll be cursed. You'll get sicknesses. You'll be blind. 24:56 Your children will become slaves. You'll be poor. But if you obey me, you'll be rich and you'll be healthy on the Lord your healer. That's a That's a gospel, but it's an Old Testament gospel. That's what I'm trying to say. 25:08 And what a work the devil has done leading Christians all the way around from the day of Pentecost when they started preaching this new covenant gospel today back in the 21st century to preach that Old Testament gospel again, 25:19 health and wealth. That's in Deuteronomy 28. That was 3,500 years ago. And now John the Baptist says, "Turn around from that kingdom of earth because the kingdom of heaven is near." And I believe that that is like John the 25:38 Baptist was the forerunner for Christ to come to Israel. He prepared the way. That was his message, prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. I believe this is the way we need to be prepared for the Lord to come into our lives. 25:56 What does repentance mean? Turn away from being preoccupied with earthly things and set your mind on heavenly things. Have you ever heard gospel being preached like that? No. The gospel is being preached, your sins will be forgiven. 26:10 Where have you ever heard a gospel message which says, "You want to turn away from being preoccupied with earthly things and set your mind on heavenly things. Turn around." And that's right because that type of gospel is not 26:21 preached. We have all these premature babies born in Christendom today who are pulled out of the womb when they're only 5 months there and have to be in incubators for the rest of their lives, spiritually speaking, barely surviving. 26:38 How long have you been a believer? About 25 years. You're still defeated by sin. That's right. I'm in an incubator. I've got to breathe all the time because some crazy evangelist was interested in numbers, pulled them out of the womb 26:48 before they were ready to be born. They hadn't repented. They hadn't turned around. They were living for themselves. And this is how I see a lot of preaching the gospel today which produces churches against which the gates of hell are 27:04 prevailing all the time. See, man is basically self-centered. If there's one characteristic of man it's he's self-centered. He thinks only of himself. I, me, and myself is the center of my life. Everything revolves around me. 27:19 Nobody should hurt me. If I do this, how will it benefit me? If I go here, how will it benefit me? How will it benefit my family? Everything the race of Adam is centered around myself. Will this bless me? Okay, I'll take it. 27:37 Is this inconvenient? I'm not interested in it. And along comes a preacher and says, "Jesus will bless you." Ah, that's wonderful. Now I can get Jesus also in my orbit. You know, revolving around me. You know, the genie in the 27:53 Aladdin story. Yes, master. What do you want? I want a big house. And this genie called Jesus goes around. This is a false gospel. It's a devil's gospel. Because self is still the center. Now I got Jesus in my orbit 28:12 serving me, uh, providing me whatever I need. And uh I'm in a partnership with the church of people also who are there to help me and care for me. This is not the gospel. And that's why we find so many Christians if they're absolutely honest, 28:28 they're absolutely honest, they have to say, "My Christian life is unsatisfying." That's right. Because you got the wrong medicine. The doctor didn't tell you the truth about your condition. He gave you a band-aid when you needed chemotherapy. 28:48 Band-aids won't cure cancer. It's a deep-rooted disease. Turn around from seeking your own. You say, "Well, who's going to take care of me?" That's what Jesus answered. You put God first in your life, 29:05 all your earthly needs will be provided. Matthew 6:33. It's a great word of David in Psalm 37. You know, we we are naturally concerned about our earthly needs, about our 29:24 children, about our grandchildren. We want to provide for them, care for them. We need to provide food, clothing, education. You know, God's not interested in all this. Why does he tell us to seek the things of heaven first, turn around from 29:37 preoccupation with earthly things to heavenly things? David David wrote most of his Psalms, by the way, in case you didn't know. David wrote most of his Psalms before he was 30 years old. Joseph had visions of God when he was 29:54 17. How many old heads in the people? You don't have to be 30 or 60 or 70 before you get to know God. You know, they when you see the heading of some of these Psalms, why he was running away from Saul, why he was hiding in a cave, all that was before he 30:07 was 30 years old. Because he became king at 30. And here's one Psalm that he wrote when he was nearly 70. Just before he died. Psalm 37. Psalm 37, he says in verse 25, "I have been young once upon a time. 30:26 Now I'm an old man. But in my life, I've never Inspired by the Holy Spirit, I've never seen a righteous man forsaken by God. And I have never seen a righteous man's descendants 30:43 begging for bread. You concerned how your earthly needs will be taken care of? How your children will be taken care of? Because you spend your life seeking God's kingdom first. David says in the Old Testament, "I've never seen a righteous man's 31:00 children hunting for a job." That's the meaning of begging for bread. I've never seen his grandchildren hunting for a job. You want to bless your children? You want to bless your grandchildren? I'll tell you how. It's not by storing up a lot of money 31:19 for them. Be a righteous man. And that promise will be fulfilled in your life, too. I've seen it for 50 years in many, many cases. So, the devil 31:37 fools us by saying, "No, no. You you get so occupied with the things of God that you won't be able to take care of your earthly needs." It's a lie. A lot of Christians I find in the practical things of life, they behave just like atheists, as if 31:55 there is no God there. "If I don't take care of myself, nobody will." I For myself, the challenge has been this, that if people could look into every aspect of my life, I mean, if I allowed them complete 32:14 openness to come and investigate every area of my life, if they could look into my thoughts, and if they could look at my financial dealings, and look at all my account books, and all my private life, and what type of DVDs I've got at home, and 32:31 uh what I spend my time thinking about, or reading, or watching on the internet, or anywhere after I give them complete access to everything. At the end of my life, they should be able to say, "There's no explanation for this man's 32:48 life except this. There's a God in heaven who took care of him." That should be your testimony. Not that you were a clever, scheming, planning person who just like every worldly person took care of yourself first and everything 33:08 and your children and all that and then of course everything went off well. It is except that you had a little religious whitewash over you and you went to church while that guy went to a mosque or a temple. Is that all the difference? 33:20 Or is it heaven gripped your life, characterized every aspect of your life and influenced every decision you made? At the same time you didn't look down with in arrogance Christians who were still worldly. You walked in humility 33:41 acknowledging that it was God who gave you the grace to be heavenly-minded. You're proud of your so-called heavenly-mindedness. That's not heavenly-minded because there's no proud person in heaven at all. That's why they cast their crowns 34:00 before the Lord's feet because they're not worthy. So, the powers of darkness, they rule the world. We need to understand that the church has been placed like Jesus said like a light in the world. The whole world lies in darkness. We 34:19 need to understand this. Satan is called the prince of darkness. Wherever there is darkness, you can be pretty sure Satan is there. God is light. In fact, John when he talks about fellowship with God, he says there's one message I want you 34:36 to understand first of all. In this matter of fellowship with God, let's start with basics. He says in 1 John 1, "I'm writing these things to you." 1 John 1:3, "that we can have fellowship with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 34:52 1:3. And if you want to have that, the number one message you need to understand at the very beginning, the foundation, the ABC is that God is light. 1 John 1:5, "and there is no darkness in him at all." Darkness is of Satan. 35:12 God is light. And if there's any area in your life that is dark, that's the area Satan's got control of. You see, hell for example is a place where there's no mercy. Nobody's merciful in hell. Satan's not 35:32 merciful. He's totally unmerciful. And if you've got a little bit a little bit of an unmerciful attitude towards somebody who wronged you or hurt you or insulted you and you got offended with that person, you got a little bit 35:50 of hell right in your heart. However much you may say you're a believer spiritually, speaking in tongues, say what you like, but you've got a little bit of hell in your heart. Because that's a characteristic of Satan. You can talk about New Testament church 36:05 and everything else, but if you've got this little bit of hell in your heart, and you're trying to over- overcome the powers of darkness, it's impossible. That's why Jesus said we must forgive as he forgave us. Ephesians 5 says, "Be imitators of God. 36:19 Forgive as Christ forgave you." Because I don't want a little bit of hell in my heart. But did say, "Brother Zach, you don't realize a terrible thing that fellow did against me or my wife did against me. She left me and went off with another 36:32 man. I don't hear. Not as bad as what you did against God. I think we haven't seen the gravity of our own sins. That's why we're so unmerciful. We think we've I only hurt God a little bit here and there, but what this person 36:49 did absolutely awful. It's not true. What you did against God was absolutely awful. And what this person did was just a drop in the bucket, a drop in the ocean. So, no darkness. We need to see that Satan 37:07 is the prince of darkness and his whole aim is to place some darkness into a person's life or into a person's home or into the church. Some little darkness here and darkness is not just sin. 37:26 There's a spirit of the world. Jesus came to deliver us from it. Galatians chapter 1 says, This is important in the building of the New Testament church. What is the New Testament church? 37:45 It's a light in the midst of the darkness of the world where the spirit of the world does not overpower it. When we say Satan overpowers the church, what does it mean? The prince of darkness, who controls the world, has 38:00 brought the spirit of the world right inside the church. And you need to discern that. Galatians 1 and verse 4 says, Jesus gave himself for our sins. We understand that. But read the rest of it. That he might deliver us from this present evil 38:17 world system. So, it tells you this world By the world it doesn't mean the physical earth. The earth God when it says that I mean the word world is used in different ways in the New Testament. God so loved the 38:37 world, those are the people of the world. But the world is also used in another way in the New Testament, never used like that in the Old Testament, where it speaks of the world system where Satan is called the prince of this 38:50 world. Of a system that controls most things in the world. And one of the greatest powers in that system is money. The devil controls a lot of things with 39:12 money. Music, education, so many things, just politics, business. Satan's got his hand in the television, Hollywood, so many things. He's got a control over all these things. That's why I say you've got to be very careful 39:30 as you live in this world that this darkness doesn't get inside us. That's why I say you've got to be careful about the type of TV programs you watch, the type of movies you see, and that you allow your little children to see. We don't have that even that 39:44 much to say to them. And you guys expose them to all this. You've got to be careful. Because there are things you can put into their mind which they may find it very difficult to get rid of later on. It's like feeding them 39:57 a little bit of poison every day. You know, when your child gets sick and you take him to the doctor and the doctor says, "Why is he well?" I mean, I I give him a little teaspoon of poison every day. Not much, doctor, but just 40:12 a teeny bit once in a while You gave him poison? in his children. Yeah, only teach them all the rest of the book is good. You have them crazy. That's exactly what the Holy Spirit would say. 40:31 A lot of parents are feeding their children with what they allow them to watch and do and read and do. I I tell you I mean I I was in a believer's home once. You're in the United States, very good believer. I see the book Harry Potter books in 40:46 their house. How can you let your children read this rubbish? Preparing them for witchcraft and preparing them is exactly what the devil's training people to be part of this kingdom. It's entertaining. Yeah. The devil's clever, he's smarter than 41:05 all of us. Don't think you're going to fool the devil. He's cleverest the cleverest of all created beings. He knows exactly how to make us do things that will ultimately prepare us and our children to be his servants. Just be careful. 41:22 Don't wake up too late and say, "Hey, I should have done all this." We need to remember that when our children are small. And many of us knew these truths before we were married. But we were in churches and systems that 41:41 never taught us to take these things seriously. Okay, we can repent of it now. One of the wonderful things is that God I love that verse in Acts 17:30. It's a great verse. The times of ignorance God overlooks. 41:59 You love him. Why were you ignorant of all these things for so many years? Never mind about it. Acts 17:30. Times of ignorance God overlooks. ones. okay, my son, my daughter, forget it. But the rest of the verses, but now 42:19 he commands everybody to turn around. Now he commands everybody to turn around from being preoccupied with things of the world and to set your mind on the things above. That Christ is the right hand of God. And we need to begin because the church 42:36 is a heavenly thing. And it can be built only by heavenly minded people. You can't be an earthly minded person and build a heavenly church. You will build an earthly church. And if you find conflict and strife and the devil walking right in and running 42:53 roughshod over your whole church, well, it's because you're an earthly minded person. But if the Lord can find two people willing to To live a Christian life, you need to be all by yourself, that's enough. To cast out a demon, you can do it 43:10 alone. I've never needed another person to be with me when I cast out a demon from somebody. Cuz God has given us the authority in the name of Jesus, the demon will go. But when it comes to building the church, where Satan comes 43:25 to attack and infiltrate in so many ways, we need at least two. Because Jesus said, "Where two Matthew 18:20 minimum two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst." That's the body. There's only one of there's no body. 43:42 Minimum two. Where God can find two people who are heavenly minded, there you have the nucleus of a church. They can be completely dissimilar, doesn't matter. In fact, they often are dissimilar. They love Jesus. In that way they're 44:00 united, but in many other ways in human personalities and even perhaps income level and all that may be very different. But they're passionate in their love for Christ, determined that the devil will have no room in their life. 44:14 God brings them together. That's the beginning of a body. Isn't that how a human body is formed in a mother's womb? You know how it is, two small independent units. This and the other completely respond in a marriage. 44:33 And lo and behold, there's a beginning of a body. But they have to be united. And if they break up, that's a miscarriage. And that's what the devil is after, to bring disunion. And when those When that cell becomes two cells and 44:52 four cells and eight cells and 16 cells, always it's in unity. The moment it breaks up, that's a miscarriage. Unity, unity. Life in the midst of death. Light in the midst of darkness. 45:12 It doesn't have to be big. What's the size of a beginning of a human body? You have to look through a microscope or some powerful instrument to see it. The body of Christ is not built with big show. It found It starts very small, like a 45:30 human body. And also it doesn't originate in big cathedral domes. Did you ever see Where did the By the way, where did the first body of Christ come? In a cowshed. The most unlikely place for the body of Christ to be born. 45:49 Why did God allow a cowshed to be the place where Christ is born? To show that the body of Christ doesn't come with pomp and show. You see, that's where the wise men made a mistake. They were very wise. 46:06 They came all the way from the east. Watching the star, which is a picture of the word of God. Follow the leading. They followed the star that would take us to the king. And that led them up to Joseph. And you know they could only 46:26 uh travel at night cuz the star is not visible in the daytime. Travel at night and rest during the day. They came to Jerusalem. They said, "Oh, we don't need the star now. Where will the king be born? Naturally, in a palace. 46:43 Forget the star now. Let's go to the palace and find out this king of Jews." And he goes to the palace and Herod isn't a Jew. Because the king is not born there. Earthly kings are born in palaces. The king of heaven is not there. 47:00 And so they got a little delayed. And finally they follow the star again. The star leads them to where Jesus is. But he's no longer in the cowshed. He's in the house. But if they had followed the star without using their own brains somewhere along 47:16 the way, they would have seen, like the shepherds did, Jesus in the cowshed. But it was those simple shepherds who saw him there. The body of Christ. And it's only then that the body of Christ begins to take shape. It's not a 47:31 great pomp and show. Simple, poor, illiterate shepherds find it there. And wise men, if they follow the star and not their own brains, they'll also find him. They think he's in the central government inside the temple. They 47:48 depend on their brains. You see that right at the beginning of the first body of Christ. The shepherds just did what the angels told them when they were sick. Then the angel said Uh he said, "How many do you know? There's 48:01 probably lots of babies in Bethlehem, but how many do you know There's only one in the cowshed. Go look for that." He said, "Okay, we'll look for cowsheds in Bethlehem." And he found the one baby in the cowshed. You want to find the church of Jesus 48:14 Christ today? It won't be in the big malls. It won't be in the big mega churches. It'll be in some unlikely place with God-fearing people who want to build the body of Christ again today. And our aim is not to be a huge 48:32 fantastic thing that impresses the world, but like a light in the darkness that shines. What is God interested in? The church is to register the victory of Christ in the territory of the devil. That's our body. 48:51 The whole world is the territory of the devil, and God is looking for small groups of people, individuals perhaps, families, come together, and there's a little light there against which Satan cannot prevail. He's going to try, try, try, he can't touch 49:08 it. Impossible. Cannot prevail against this. There's a group of people who have learned to love Jesus with all their heart, to be worshipers, and to love one another. They don't allow darkness, the darkness of the world, to come into their 49:26 personal lives. And they can say, "Come and see what the Lord has done." That's the church. God's always been wanting such a witness. The first book in the Bible is not Genesis. First book God wrote was the book of Job. 49:44 Because Moses wrote Genesis. And a lot of things in Job which predate Moses. and lived perhaps in Abraham's time or before Abraham. It's the only book out of the 66 books in the Bible which has no connection with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 50:01 Every other book in the Bible has some connection with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, except Job. There are no Levitical priests there, and Job himself is a priest there. So, you know it's before Moses. So, Job was written before Genesis. 50:15 I believe Job himself wrote it because there was so so many so much conversation there to be possible. Nobody else could write all that detailed conversation unless he was there himself. And the thing What do I see in the very 50:28 first book that God decides to write for the human race? God decides to write a book for the human race, and what's the first thing he talks about? It's in the Job chapter 1. A man. Not a million men, not even 10 men. 50:46 But in the Old Testament, one man. About whom he can boast to Satan. You think God's looking for You think God's looking for a mega church today? He's looking for a small fellowship that he can boast to Satan about. Satan says, 51:05 "God, look at all these men. Crooks and so many people talk about you." "Yes," God says, "all you're saying is right. And look at that, these hypocrites." God says, "Right. But, have you seen Job?" What can you say about him? 51:21 That's what he could That's the thing that brought There was one man on earth whom he could talk about. Before Job, there was another man like Noah whom he could say, "There was one man." It says, "Noah found favor in the eyes 51:34 of the Lord." One man. And it's because of Noah that we're all here. I hope you know that. Because of one man's faithfulness. We're all descendants of Noah as much as we're descendants of Adam. Thank God that he's one of the guys I 51:49 really wanted to go and shake hands with him when I get to heaven. So when I get there I say, "Noah, because of you I'm here, man." I wouldn't be here if you were not faithful in your life. You know how much God depended on one 52:02 man's faithfulness? And what was common about Noah and Job, they both brought up their children right. Noah had three sons. They were co-workers with him in building the ark. Job, he would pray for his children. Even though they were married, he would 52:20 call them and say, "I want to pray for you guys because I fear that you may have sinned in your heart." Sinned in your heart? Job, are you You're coming to the wrong continent. Where are you living? You're concerned about sinning in the 52:32 heart of your children? The first book God wrote is about a man who feared God, reverenced God, turned away from evil. You read all that in chapter one. Who brought up his children right. And you read the rest of the chapters 52:50 there who wouldn't even look at women because he had a wife. And who would not worship money. You read all that in Job 29 and onwards. This is the man whom God boasts about. And that's what he's always looked for. 53:10 A man. One man. Through whom he can do the ministry. Through whom he can do more. Gather other men with a similar vision. And it always begins with one man. Think for example, if you remove Paul out of Christianity. 53:29 Can you imagine what would be the conditions of A lot of books of the Bible would disappear. Almost half of the New Testament would go. One man. Think of what God could one, one human being. What God did for Paul, he can do for 53:46 you. You must believe that. But he put the certain conditions. He turned from preoccupation with things of earth. He had tremendous future ahead of him as a Pharisee. And he says, "All those things which I considered valuable, I've thrown in the 54:04 trash can for that one Christ." He was not occupied with the ministry. He was occupied with Jesus. Those are the type of people God's looking for today. One man, Noah. One man, Job. And then a new testament little group of 54:18 two or three gathered with Christ in the middle. And it started in a home. And gradually becomes a a church where they preserve that light in it, the leadership remains united in their vision to build a heavenly church and not an earthly one. 54:37 And if the leadership is determined that the things of heaven are always going to be more important to me than the things of earth. God's work is going to be more important to me than my work. And godliness is going to be more 54:51 important to me than money. I'm going to use money, but I'm going to make it my servant. Um You read there's gold in heaven which is on the streets. That's the difference. They walk on it. 55:10 They've learned to put gold under their feet. And I always say heaven is for those who have learned to put gold under their feet now. If you want to build a church that's heavenly, make sure gold is under your feet. Use 55:25 it. Sure. Make it your servant. You can have plenty of it, but make them all your servants. I see the difference between a rich man and a poor man. It's like a A who's got 25 servants, but they're got old servants. Another person got one servant, but he's 55:40 a servant. That's okay. But if that servant becomes a master, takes over, that means money becomes the priority of life, the thing in our life. You want to build a heavenly church, that's for sure. You can build a little Bible study 55:56 group. There's lots of Bible study groups nowadays. They discuss John's gospel and Romans and Corinthians and and a lot of books available to study these things and all, but it will be totally your life. It won't be the church. It will be a 56:13 Bible study group in life, a group of nice Pharisees who smile at each other and come together and talk about deep spiritual truths and wonderful things that they have discovered in different parts of scripture and analysis of 56:26 all the things. Talk about things about the book of Peter, which Peter himself never even thought about all of his episodes. But they're not church work. What do you want to build? Jesus said, "I'm going to build my church." 56:42 And I see that when God told Noah, "The only thing that's going to remain when this world is destroyed is the ark." He says, "Not that side of the building. I'm going to build the ark." It doesn't mean he quit his job because he had to 57:00 earn money to build the ark and he still took care of his family. He worked, supported himself, but he built the ark. Early in the morning, this this children would see dad get up, pray and go off to work. "Where are you 57:13 going, dad?" "I'm going to build the ark." And his children realized, "This is real. This is not just something he preaches on the streets. It's really grips him all the time. He goes to bed thinking about what should I do tomorrow for the ark. We 57:28 need some more timber. We need some nails." That's what he's thinking about. He his about. Where did he get the timber and the nails for the ark? No longer did his children follow him. Your brothers and sisters, that's what 57:42 God is looking for. Jesus said the last days will be like the days of Noah. Which means a time of tremendous sexual evil like in Noah's time, tremendous violence, terrorism, wars. But also a few people like Noah who are 58:01 determined to build the church because they know that's the only thing that will remain when the rest of the world is destroyed. I mean, we don't just come to a conference to listen to all this, but to go home and do it. 58:13 That's the thing. That's what God likes. I remember reading a book by Ian Bounds. He said, "Men are looking for better methods. God's looking for better men." Because the men are God's method. It's not a better method. God's looking 58:31 for men who are equipped by the means of believing scripture and Satan cannot prevail against such a fellowship. The powers of the world will not be able to come and prevail over it because here are people who are determined, 58:48 like it says, and say this and close it. Colossians chapter 3. Who are determined Colossians 3:2 to set their mind on the things above and not on the things that are on earth. Who 59:08 don't live by earthly values. Does God take care of their earthly needs? Sure. He may find he takes care of them better than a lot of other people who pursue after these things. Those who pursue after wealth 59:28 pierce themselves through with many sorrows. But Proverbs says the blessing of the Lord makes rich and there's no sorrow in it. Proverbs 10. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and there's no sorrow in it. That's the difference. 59:43 Whereas 1 Timothy 6 says those who pursue after wealth get wealth, but they get sorrow with it. But when the Lord blesses us, He blesses us with enough for our needs, but there's no sorrow in it. Which way Which way do you prefer? 59:56 Isn't it better to get all that we need God's way? Well, set your mind on the things above. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is not now at hand, it has already come. It came on the day of Pentecost. We can have that heavenly a a little representation of 1:00:12 heaven here on this earth. That's what the church is. And I believe God can help us. That's the main reason why He sent the Holy Spirit. Like they're singing that song, "Heavenly King, come with glory through my soul." That's what 1:00:27 the Holy Spirit's done, to bring spirit of heaven into our hearts. That's why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to build the church. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, make these things real in our lives so that we are 1:00:46 gripped by it and never forget that the seed you have sown will really take care of it and water it so that it brings forth fruit to Thee. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
