0:07 Let's turn again to Matthew's gospel in chapter 7. We were seeing that at the end of the sermon on the mount Jesus used three pictures. One is of two houses, we saw that already. And the other was of two trees, one was fruitful and one was 0:26 barren or bad tree. The other was of two ways. And the entire sermon on the mount at the end of it, you know, he said things like love your enemies, bless those who curse you. When you pray, don't let anybody know about it. 0:44 When you fast, don't let anyone know about it. When you give money, don't even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. And things like that. Don't be anxious for anything. Don't love money. Don't be worried. He cares for the 0:56 birds, he'll care for you. Don't judge anyone. Don't condemn anyone. We need discernment. I want to say a word to you about the difference between discerning and condemning. Because both you use the word judge. For example, when I listen to a 1:12 preacher, you need to compare every person, the spirit of a preacher with the spirit of Jesus Christ. If you don't do that, I want to tell you, however accurate that person's teaching is, you can go astray. Because what a person a preacher is 1:31 communicating to you, you don't realize it sometimes. Beyond the words, he's communicating his spirit to you. So, nowadays there are female preachers as well. And they're communicating a certain spirit to you. You got to be very careful of that 1:47 spirit. The Bible says, for example, in 1 Peter 3 that the thing that God values most in a woman is a meek and a quiet spirit. So, if it's not a gentle, quiet, submissive spirit that a woman is communicating to you, you're going to be disturbed. The same 2:05 way a preacher, even if it's a man, if he's communicating a spirit of arrogance and control and the love of money, you may listen to very accurate teaching, but there's a spirit that's in those words that you unconsciously absorb. 2:24 Particularly young people, they watch someone with that type of thing and say, "Boy, I wish I could preach like that." I've always told people, "Don't ever wish that you could preach like another preacher, cuz that you'll be seeking 2:38 honor." You feel that that that guy's getting some honor through his preaching and you want that honor. Try and receive and see how much of Christ there is in his life and say, "That I want in my life. Do I see humility there? I want that humility. 2:53 Do I see love and compassion there? I want that. I may never preach like him, doesn't matter. But I want that spirit. And so it's the spirit that's communicated in a ministry, you have to be very, very careful. And sometimes it's a covetous spirit, an 3:11 arrogant spirit. You know, when Paul was preaching in the early days, I want to show you something in Acts 24. Do you know that the early Christians were called people of the way. I don't know whether you know that. They were called people of the way 3:27 because they preached the narrow way. And Paul says here when he's standing as a convicted criminal, they accused him of preaching things which are against what Moses taught. I mean, I've heard that accusation all my life. 3:43 People are saying, "Brother Zac doesn't preach what the Bible teaches." I said, "Show me one verse which I'm teaching which is not in the Bible." I quote the Bible more than almost every other preacher in my sermons. Every book of mine has got more verses 3:54 in the Bible than any other book you'll ever find. I challenge you to find books which or sermons that people are constantly quoting the Bible. So, I said, "I'm not against the scriptures." But there are people who don't like to hear 4:07 the strong truth. And they have to find some other excuse and they'll say, "Oh, this is a cult and this is a cult leader." I said, "Cult leader? Do you know what cult leaders are after? I'll tell you what cult leaders are 4:18 after. There are three things basically every cult leader is after. First of all, he's after your money. Show me one cult in the world that's not interested in your money. Secondly, cult leaders want to control your life. 4:31 They want to tell you whom to marry, where you should live, what job you should take, what you should not You should not marry anybody from another church, you must only marry from this group. That's a cult leader. They want 4:39 to control your life. Money, control of your life, and the third thing, they are very free with women. When you see these three dangers in anyone, you better steer clear of them. That's a cult. Somebody wants your money, wants to control your life and 4:52 doesn't give you freedom to take the job you want. They'll tell you even where to live. And whom to marry and they they fool around with the women in the church. So, all these false accusations, this is a cult and all is to scare you from 5:06 knowing the truth. Do you know that the early Christians Paul was accused of being a cult leader. This thing they called the people of the way, that's a cult. So, Paul stands before the judge, the governor Felix in Acts 24. 5:24 Turn with me to Acts 24. Paul is standing before Felix and this is what he says. It's very interesting because these words I quoted myself sometimes. Verse 14. He says, "Oh, governor." He's talking to the governor and giving his testimony. 5:42 "I admit to you that according to the way the way That's what they were called, the people of the way. According to the way which these people call a cult." The Jews called the early Christians a cult. This is not true. 6:02 What This is not what Moses taught. This is not true Judaism. This is a cult. Do you know that Christianity was called a cult in the first days because they preached the truth of God. And Paul was called a cult leader. "According to the way which they call a 6:17 cult." He says, "I'll tell you what I do. I serve the God of the fathers believing everything that is written in the Bible, which they call the law and the prophets." I say the same thing. People can call us a cult, we're not 6:31 bothered. We believe everything written in the Bible. And we have a hope in God. That's what he says in verse 15. That there will certainly be two resurrections. One, a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection of the wicked. I 6:50 believe that. And you say, "Paul, so what?" Because of this, because there're going to be two resurrections and I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, do you know what I do? I don't say, "Oh, well, I accepted the 7:04 Lord 25 years ago. I'll definitely be in the resurrection of the righteous." That is not what Paul believed. Listen to what he says. "Because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, I do my best, verse 16, to always 7:19 maintain a blameless conscience before God and before men." And I say that's what I preach, too. I constantly preach everything, believe everything written in the Bible, verse 14, and we must keep a blameless conscience 7:35 before God and men if you want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. That's what they call a cult. They say, "Oh, you're preaching salvation by works." My dear brothers and sisters, don't get deceived by all this false teaching. 7:49 This is what Paul believed. I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, therefore I do my best. He's not saying I'm perfect. I keep my conscience clear that whenever I've hurt somebody, I go and set it right. With God and with men, verse 16. 8:06 If I had a bad thought, I immediately confessed it to God so that my conscience is clear. If I got upset with somebody and I got angry, I would ask his forgiveness. Keep my conscience clear. I keep my conscience clear 24 8:17 hours. What does the word always mean? 24/7. I keep my conscience clear 24/7 because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. If you ask me that question today, "Brother Zac, how do you know that you'll be in the 8:33 resurrection of the righteous?" I'll give you the answer. Because I keep my conscience clear 24/7. I'm not saying I never slip up or fall. I I do say I keep my conscience clear 24/7. Can you say that? Why can't you say that? 8:48 The only thing that will prevent you from keeping your conscience clear is your pride. You're too proud to go and apologize to that person whom you hurt. You're too proud to acknowledge that is a filthy thought you had in your mind. 9:01 It was a sin. Confess it to God. Humble yourself. You'll be in the resurrection of the righteous. Believe that the blood of Jesus cleanses you from sin, but don't treat the blood of Christ like tap water. Oh, it doesn't matter if my hand is 9:16 dirty, I can always go and get it washed. No. Respect it. Hate sin. Christ died in order that we might not sin. I told you how the only time Jesus called him God was when he was on the cross. Why did he call him God? Because that those three hours, he was 9:33 not standing before his father. He was standing before the judge of the universe. And he was calling him God and God put his curse upon him because of sin. Not his sin, he never sinned. My sin. Do you know that Jesus Christ became a 9:52 curse? He actually became a curse for me. Turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. Very important to know what scripture says. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. 10:16 Have you seen this verse? Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? He became a curse for us. It's not just that somebody cursed him. No. A lot of people cursed him. That's different. 10:34 He became a curse because it says in the law, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." When he hung up there, he would became a curse so that verse 14, the blessing might come upon me. He became a curse that a blessing might 10:52 come upon me. Think of that, my brother sisters. If that doesn't make you grateful to the Lord and say, "Lord, I'll do anything in my life for you." Then you haven't understood what Jesus suffered on the cross. He became a curse because of my sin. No 11:06 other reason. He was forsaken by the God of the universe because of my sin. And that's why I want to keep my conscience clear all the time. I meditate frequently on the cross of Calvary and that's why more and more God has revealed to me what happened on that 11:22 cross. I encourage you to meditate on that. And that's why I want to walk this narrow way which is with so many dangers this side. I don't want to turn this side. I don't want to that side. I would don't want to be worldly on one side and I don't want 11:36 to be a legalist on the other side. There are two, you know, dangers. One is becoming a worldly type of person and the others who react against that and make so many laws which God himself has not made and you become a legalist 11:48 and you judge everybody else. I don't want to fall in this cliff or that cliff. Can you just put up that uh uh picture of the narrow way? See, this is what it what it's like to walk the narrow way. 12:05 There are cliffs on either side. You back away from one cliff, you'll fall over the other side. The way to life is narrow. It's not a broad way where you can carelessly walk along, not bothered about this, that, or the other. You have 12:20 to be extremely careful about each step to keep your conscience clear all the time and it's a long way till you reach the destination, but it's a very narrow way. I want to show you another picture of it. See the next one. 12:38 You see, this is it. There are demons there trying to attack you. You got your sword, but it's a narrow way in which and the Lord is there to help you. You can't You don't want to fall over the cliff this side or the fall over the 12:51 cliff that side. We see numerous Christians. Some have fallen into worldliness, some have fallen into legalism and the devil doesn't care which side you fall over. How shall we stay on the narrow way? By looking unto Jesus 13:04 only. Lord, you are my forerunner. I look at you all the time and he walked that narrow way all his life. He denied himself and I'll tell you something, if you stop denying yourself, you fall. This side or that side. You say, "Lord, 13:20 I'm determined to take up the cross and follow me." He said, "If you want to follow me, take up the cross every day." If you take up the cross every day, you will never slip up, go this side or that side. But if you try to please yourself, 13:34 there's a danger. I want to show you the next picture of how the Lord helps us. See, the devil's always trying to throw water to quench the fire of God in our hearts. Thank God, the Holy Spirit's always pouring oil into that fire. That's why 13:50 it's very important to keep our hearts open to the Holy Spirit. Lord, pour the oil of your spirit, the power of your life into me cuz the devil's always throwing cold water into my fire and cool cooling me off. There are plenty of people around 14:04 me in the world who are trying to throw water and cool me off. Be careful. Be careful of of people who engage you in gossip. That's a bucket of water. You go from house to house and they tell you this story, that tell. Why do you 14:20 want to listen to all this rubbish about other people? It's water being thrown in your fire. It will get quenched in no time. Or this worldly habit or that worldly habit. There's so many ways in which people Be careful about things like 14:33 Facebook. There are many people I know who don't have time for God's book and they're on Facebook. How in the world can they become spiritual? There's water being thrown upon them all the time. So many other things. Always on 14:49 WhatsApp, WhatsApp, WhatsApp. What about hearing what's up there instead of on your phone? Listen to what's up there. There's a voice from heaven that's coming. More important than this. You know, you texting you and I as I 15:08 said the other day, you got most of you got your Bible on the phone. Why not listen to the text which God is writing there in your phone? Why only read the text which somebody else has written? Listen to the word of God. Then this 15:24 fire will not quench your fire. I've seen numerous Christians. The fire is quenched in their life. Because you can't stop the devil from throwing water on your fire. He's always trying it through other people and everything else. That's why we have to 15:36 avoid certain people in the world. Do you know that? Anybody who I feel my Oh my, getting contact with him, he's always depressing me and he's always quenching my fire. Why in the world do you listen to them then? Let me show you a word and show you two 15:50 verses. Acts of the Apostles. Sorry, Romans chapter 16. Turn with me to Romans 16. This is the Bible. This is what the Holy Spirit says to protect you. We read that Jesus can keep you from falling. But Jesus can keep you from falling only 16:06 if you listen to this word. Romans 16 verse 17. It's easy to remember, the last chapter of Romans, 16:17. I urge you, my brothers and sisters, keep your eye open 16:23 for those who cause divisions. That means even in those early days, there were Christians who caused divisions in the church. Don't shut your eyes to that. Keep your eyes open. And who cause hindrances contrary to the teaching which you have 16:41 heard, who don't want to hear about the new covenant, who don't want to hear about victory over sin. What should you do? Do Turn away from them. Is there a word which says in scripture which is turn away from people who are 16:57 causing divisions? That's the Holy Spirit. That's the fire he's trying to put into your life cuz those guys are trying to put cold water on you. Turn away from them, but you don't turn away from them and the fire goes out of 17:10 your life and you become worldly, who have you got to blame? Yourself. You got to be very careful with whom you associate. Turn with me to another verse. Second Timothy. Second Timothy. I'm trying to show you scripture. Please know these verses 17:28 well. Second Timothy chapter 2. Second Timothy chapter 2. Verse 22. Flee from youthful lusts. Good 17:47 exhortation. And pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Not alone. You can't do it alone. Along with certain type of people. With those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 18:05 Look around for people who are calling on the Lord from a pure heart, who got no grudge against anybody, who got no complaint, and who really want Jesus. Who don't even want you to be a member of their church. Who want you to follow Jesus. 18:23 Look for such people. As I've said before, 43 years we planted churches, I have never once in my life asked any person to join our church anywhere in the world. I point you to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Follow him. 18:40 And if you decide to join our church, that's your choice, but I will not tell you. You must make that choice yourself. Many, many places everywhere in the world, you ask anybody, "Brother Zac ask you to join his church?" Not one person in the world 18:54 will tell you I did that. I never even tried to coax a person. I urge them to look at Jesus. I say, "Turn away from sin and follow Jesus Christ and join whichever church you feel you want to be, but I want you to follow Jesus. 19:06 Follow those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart. People are writing me from all parts of the world, "Which church should I join?" I say, "Look for those who don't cause divisions and those who are calling upon the Lord with a pure 19:17 heart, who want Jesus." And try and find a church which have got many communities in them because heaven is going to be like that where there's every tribe, tongue, and nation people and nation. You want to be prepared for heaven, get 19:31 learn to get along with people who are different from you on earth itself. Otherwise, you'll get what they call a culture shock when you go to heaven. So, better get used to it here. So, that's the type of person who will 19:45 help you to be on the narrow way. I want to meet people who will help me to be on the narrow way all all time. The narrow path that leads to the kingdom of God. That narrow narrow where where others will help. Not you know not only the devil. I'll 20:01 tell you this. The devil doesn't always hit us directly. He uses people. Do you know the people who preached to Job? It wasn't the devil. It was people through whom Hey Job, accusing him. Your children must have committed some sin. That's why 20:18 they died and all this type of thing. Accusing him, accusing him. The devil uses people. So it's not the devil coming and throwing water. He's got agents through to throw water on your fire. But you know you meet with certain 20:28 people and you find you cool off after meeting them. And your devotion to the Lord is gone and you're more involved in gossip and backbiting. What did that guy succeed in doing to you? Cooling you off. I don't want to meet with such people. I 20:41 say, "Dear brother, you please go your way. Excuse me, but I I I want to go another way. I want to fellowship with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." And you say, you know that's a question people ask. Call you know we read that verse 2 20:55 Timothy 2, call those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. And you may say, "How in the world do I know whether a person's pure heart is pure or not?" Good question. There's an answer to it. What did Jesus say? Out of the abundance of the heart 21:14 the mouth speaks. So you listen to what a person is talking about. Is it gossip? That's what's in his heart. Is it challenging you to follow Jesus better? That's what in his heart. It's very easy to find out who's got a pure 21:27 heart. If he's talking about purity, he's got a pure heart. If he's talking gossip, he's got a gossiping heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You know the mouth is the overflow valve of the heart. Your heart gets filled up and overflows 21:43 through your mouth. So you can very easily find out what's in people's heart. I just got to listen to him for a little while. I say, "Hey, I don't want that. Thank you." That's why Paul says, "Keep yourself away from those who cause 21:55 divisions, from those who are gossiping, those who are trying to draw you away from Christ into something else. Let it be anything. Who are not helping you to see Jesus more clearly, not challenging you to be more godly, stay away from them. 22:11 If you want to stay on that narrow way, if you want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, if you want to keep your conscience clear before God and men all the time. That's a narrow way that leads to life. So turn back to Matthew chapter 7 22:24 and look at this. After preaching the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are those who rate themselves as insignificant, you know, who are willing to be zeros and put Christ in front of them. And he teaches all this stuff about 22:36 overcoming anger and sexual lust and everything else. And then he says this is a very narrow gate. And beware of those who say, "Oh, it doesn't really matter. You don't have to take all these things seriously what Jesus said about uh the broad way and 22:51 narrow about anger and sexual lust and all. It doesn't matter. God's very merciful." Do you know I don't know whether you know it. I've moved around among Christians, believing Christians who actually say that the Sermon on the Mount is not for 23:06 Christians. It's for the Jews. There are people who teach that. And that's called the Jewish wastepaper basket. That means anything that doesn't I can't follow I just put it in the Jewish wastepaper. That's for the Jews. That's 23:22 for the Jews. That's for the Jews. And the easy things like, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." That's for Christians. It's a deception. Every word is inspired by God. Particularly in the New Testament, it's for us. 23:36 It's for us. It's for you. So beware of those it says you know the those who preach a broad way. And who are these people who preach the broad way? You know it's all in scripture. Jesus said he gave the entire Sermon on 23:49 the Mount. And then he says, let me paraphrase it. Now you heard me speak all these things. And I tell you it's a very narrow way. Don't let anybody tell you this is a broad way. It's not. And the Lord goes on to say, "Do you know 24:03 who are the ones who will tell you it's a broad way?" Verse 15, Matthew 7:15. It's all there. It's all in sequence. Beware of the false prophets. Who are these false prophets? Read a verse in its context. The false prophets is not those who say 24:19 Jesus is not God. You won't be deceived by them. The false prophets are those who use very religious language and make the way very easy for you to walk in. You can sin and it doesn't disturb you. You can be thoroughly worldly and it 24:35 doesn't disturb you. You can be covetous and a lover of money and it doesn't disturb you. That's a broad way. Live as you like. You'll finally go to heaven when you die. Those are the false prophets. The false prophets are not preacher people who say 24:48 Jesus is a heretic or um Allah is the true God or Lakshmi is the true God. No, no, no, no. They you can't be deceived by them. It's the ones who tell you it's not so narrow. Don't be so narrow-minded. You know people say that sometimes to me, "You're 25:04 so narrow-minded in what you preach." I said, "Yes, brother. Truth is narrow-minded. 2 + 2 is 4. It's not 5. It's not 3. Actually you're asking me to be broad-minded saying at least say it's 4 and 1/2. No, I'm sorry. It's not 4 and 1/2. It is 25:23 4. What about 4.01? It's not even 4.01. 2 + 2 is 4. There are no two ways about it. It's not 3.99. It's not 4 4.01. Oh Zach, you're so narrow-minded just to believe that 2 + 2 is only 4. Can't you be a little more broad-minded? I'm sorry. 25:41 Truth is narrow-minded. 3 + 3 is 6. There's no other two ways about it. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." That's the truth. Blessed are those who rate themselves as 25:54 insignificant. The whole kingdom of heaven is there. That's the truth. If you don't rate yourself as insignificant, the kingdom of heaven is not yours. That's the truth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They will be 26:07 satisfied. What's the reverse of that? Those who don't hunger and thirst for righteousness but occasionally ask for it, they'll never be satisfied. That's the truth. 2 + 2 is 4. Don't I will not make it 3.99. So it is a narrow way. Truth is very 26:24 narrow. I'll tell you that. But when you know the truth, you remember what Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free." John 8 read 36, 32 and 36. The truth will set you free. Why is it so many people are not free 26:42 from sin? Turn with me to John chapter 8. It's a very interesting verse. John chapter 8 and verse 32. John 8:32, you will know the truth 27:01 and the truth will make you free. Now I'll tell you how this word helped me as a young man. When I was converted, I came out of what is called the Orthodox Syrian Orthodox Church. They pray for Mary. They baptize babies. 27:16 And pray for the dead and all that. And I came out of that church. And I accepted Christ. I I took 1 and 1/2 years for me to break free from that slavery to infant baptism and get baptized. But I decided I'm going to be baptized because every time 27:32 I knelt down to pray the Lord said, "You're not listening to me. Why should I listen to you?" I saw in the Bible nobody was baptized as a child. And yet my the entire Orthodox Church was baptizing children completely disobeying God's word. He said as it was 27:49 spitting in the face of Jesus. I know you said, "Be baptized." But I'm not going to listen to you. I'm going to listen to what my priest says. Imagine telling Jesus that. That's what I was doing after I accepted Christ. 28:02 Literally spitting in his face saying, "I'll accept what the priest tell me, not what you say." And what did happen? Uh God is very merciful to me. He didn't send me to hell for that. He just stopped answering my prayers. I 28:14 knelt down and the Lord said, "I'm not You're not listening to me. Why should I listen to you?" Till I got so fed up. I said, "I don't care what happens. I don't care which church throws me out. I'm going to get baptized." 28:25 And sure enough and I got baptized and let me give you my testimony. All those 1 and 1/2 years after I accepted the Lord and I did not take baptism, I did not grow spiritually. I was in the kindergarten when I started. Years later I was still in the 28:38 kindergarten. But when I took baptism, I suddenly shot forward. Not because of baptism, but because I obeyed God. And any step of obedience you take it'll make you shoot forward. Whether it's baptism or anything else. God asked me to set certain things right 28:55 in my life. I cheated other people. I gave the money back. I shot forward. Any step of obedience. So John 8:32 says, "You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free." So when I was a young Christian after I became a Christian, I said, 29:09 "Lord, there are so many churches here all holding the Bible, born-again churches, brethren, Pentecostal, Baptist, Methodist. Many of them preaching the new birth, the different varieties of uh Pentecostal like the different you 29:21 know the different varieties of tea you get. There are different varieties of Pentecostal churches. You can pick your choice. And I said, "Which of these shall I go to?" I tried this church, that church. I went to many churches. 29:34 This is the verse that helped me. You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free from what? Not free. I mean in India we were free from the British rule. It's not that type of freedom. It's That's what these people said in verse 33, "We are not 29:49 enslaved to anybody. We are free." And Jesus said in verse 34, "If you commit sin, you're not free." So, what type of freedom is he talking about? Not independence of the country from other countries. Freedom from sin, verse 30:04 34. If you commit sin, you're a slave to sin. And when I say the truth will make you free, it means you'll be free from sin. Ah. Then I could find out which church is speech preaching the truth. I go to this church and listen to the 30:20 preaching there. It didn't make me free from sin. There were gossipers, backbiters, and all types of people sitting there. And they made me like that. I go to another church and you're talking about something else. They're talking about 30:32 Israel or talking about millennium and so many other things, but I'm still defeated by sin. Maybe what they're preaching is all right, but another church I go to is all psychology. You know, human psychology. And there are many Christian preachers who 30:46 who don't talk radically against sin. They just be nice to everybody and you know, treat your cat nicely and your dog nicely and be nice to everyone and help people and help the widows and bring them along to church and do 31:00 something good like that. Yeah, but I'm still defeated by sin. All these things are good. I'm not saying you shouldn't be nice to your cat or dog. Go right ahead and do that. But if you're defeated by sin, brother, all that is no use. It's just psychology. 31:14 I said I want to go where I where I the preaching makes me free from sin. That is the truth. That's It's a narrow way, I agree, but not many churches that do that. But I want to be in such churches all my life. The truth that will set you free. You 31:33 shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. You know, we go where we we we look for a church which will satisfy our need. Supposing you're greatly interested in music. You go to a church where the music is great. 31:50 Especially if they got this some special type of lights, I forget the names, strobe lights or something, all over the platform and uh it's like these rock musicians. And they also stand like this. They don't all stand aligned. One will be 32:04 here, one will be here, one will be here with different instruments. Exactly like the way rock musicians have their um programs and and some people like that. They say they have a wonderful time. But they go home and they divorce their 32:18 wives and it doesn't matter. We go to this church. Pastor himself is probably divorced. What all is going on today in the name of Christ? And then some people like a very eloquent message which stirs them. Oh, what what wonderful thoughts I have. 32:32 What Some people like a pastor who's a joker, just makes fun all the time and laugh makes them laugh from beginning till end. You need to find a church where you'll be free from sin. You shall know the truth. The truth will 32:45 set you free from sin. So, that's where I discovered. Now I know which church to join. They're all talking about the truth, but the real truth is that it will free me from sin, which challenges me to give up the smallest sin in my life. 32:59 Don't you want to go to Don't you want to be treated by a doctor who is hates disease 100%? I mean, if your child is sick, let's say, the love of a mother for a child is the greatest love there is in the world. I say that because God said it. 33:14 And Isaiah 49:15, "If a mother forgets her child, sucking child, then I'll forget you, but I won't." When God wanted to speak about his love, he did not take a two Hollywood lovers. He talked about a mother loving his child. 33:29 That's how God loves us. And take a mother's love for a child. Supposing your child has got 10 sicknesses. Would you be happy if eight of them are cured? Much better, 80% healthy. You'd still be concerned about the other 33:44 20%. Which mother will not be concerned? We want to be completely free of sickness in our children. What about sin? What about sin in your children? What about sin in your life? Do you take it lightly? I never want to take it lightly. 34:04 I never To me, the people in the church which I have responsibility for, they are my children. They're all my children. I don't want to see sin in their life. I don't want to scold them for it, but I want to show them how to escape it. 34:19 There's a narrow way by which you can escape from sin. The devil may be this side and that side, but he can't touch you. Like I told you, those lions are chained. There's a way through them. Without sinning, you can go through. 34:33 The truth will set you free. So, that's the first thing I want you to see. Choose a church where the message will challenge you to be free from sin. You see, there are very few like that. Agreed. We had a great burden when the Lord 34:48 opened this truth to us about being free from sin and we gathered together a number of people in our church who really wanted to be free and it was wonderful. But I said, "Lord, you have you told us to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, 35:00 Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth." For us, it meant Bangalore and Karnataka state in India and the uttermost parts of the earth. So, we began with Bangalore and said, "Lord, if there are people in Bangalore who want to walk this narrow way, not 35:13 who want to go to heaven." Everybody wants to go to heaven. I said, "Lord, I don't want to gather people who want to go to heaven. My message is not how to go to heaven. My message is how to be free from sin." "You shall call his name Jesus." The 35:26 first promise in the New Testament, Matthew 1:21. "You shall call his name Jesus because he'll take people to heaven." No. "Because he'll save his people from their sins." So, that's my message. Not how to go to heaven, but how to be saved from your 35:39 sin. So, how many people want to be saved from your sin before they go to heaven? Lord, I only want that those people in our church. Then I realized we'll never be a mega church and we're not interested. We are interested. Jesus could gather 35:52 only 11 people to follow him and even after that he died on the cross, 120 on the day of Pentecost. That's enough. Fine. Only those who want to be free from sin. First, Lord, in Bangalore, is there anybody? And God brought little ones. 36:06 Then I said, "Lord, we want to expand our circle, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. Now, are there people in in in our state or other surrounding states?" Select Samaria. States next to Bangalore. Yeah, we found somebody there. 36:20 And then in India. And then we said, "How do we reach the world? We have a burden to reach this message to the whole world." And God gave us the internet. And God gave us brothers in our church, computer scientists who would do give 36:36 their spare time to work free. They'd come back from work at 8:00 at night. They'd sit in the church building and uh work free and work because they were the ones who knew how to handle it and put things on the internet. 36:48 And we had a number of people like that. We had about 40 people who uh know how to operate computers and Who invited them? We We didn't look for computer experts. We looked for people who wanted to be free from sin. But God brought people to help us to 37:02 take this message to the world. And we got a brother who helped us to print our books. Without any charge. I mean, there's charge for the printing, but to organize the whole thing, to set it up and print it. And like that, God brought to us all 37:20 people who are going to do it without payment. To spread the word to the world. And the Lord said, "Everything must be free. Give it out on the internet free." You know, those books out there, you can go to the internet and you can read it 37:33 free. The only reason we charge for something there is because it costs money to print it. And you're only paying for the printing. You won't get books at that price. And it costs money for shipping. Other than zero, there's no profit in it. 37:47 But if you don't want to pay that price, you can go to the internet and read those books free of charge on the internet. God said, "Give everything free." Paul gave his letters free. He didn't charge for it. Jesus preached his 37:57 sermons free. And there's so much of charging for everything. I got a letter the other day from someone who said uh uh Brother Zac, I'm so blessed by your sermon. Then I tried to listen to somebody else on the internet, to some other site. 38:11 And after 10 minutes, they said, "Please now pay $3 or $5 if you want to listen to the rest of the sermon." They caught them, you know. I mean, they don't say that at the beginning. A shrewd salesman. They allow you to listen about 10 minutes and then catch 38:25 you. You got to pay $3 if you want to or $5 if you want to listen to the rest. So, by the time you listen to 10 sermons, you paid $30 or $50. It's gone. And Jesus said, "Never. The truth is too expensive. It's not worth $5. Maybe 38:38 their sermon is only worth $5, so it's okay. Ours is so expensive that we can't afford to charge so much. It's free." Do you know that's how God is? I'll tell you. If you want the oxygen God gives, it's free. You try and go to a hospital and get 38:57 oxygen. You got to pay for it. The water God gives in the rivers is free, but your city council makes you pay for the water they give you. Do you know this is a law? God gives everything free. Man sells everything, and the devil 39:13 steals everything. This is the distinguishing characteristic of three people. The devil and some preachers will steal your money. And men are always selling something. They even sell their sermons. God's giving everything free. 39:28 So, that's He said, "We have to give everything as far as possible free." Now, I realize that we have a lot of expenses. I mean, to conduct a conference like this is expensive. If you sit in a church, I mean, just like if you live in a house, you got to 39:41 pay rent for it. The house is a building you're going to pay for the electricity, water, so many other things. And those who are wealthy and those who have plenty, God's given them abundance, they'll take care of it. And the poor people, they're 39:53 welcome to come. They don't have to pay anything. We never charge anything for anything. God takes care of the expenses. By moving the hearts of those who have enough to give and those who don't have anything, you they don't have to give 40:03 anything. It's what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9. Those who have plenty will give more. Those who have nothing may give nothing. That's how what we preached in our church. Brother, if you don't if you don't have enough for your 40:14 family, please take care of your family. Don't put one cent in the box. Take care of your children. That's how we build the church. The narrow way that leads to life. I want to say one more thing before I close. In Romans 8 and verse 29, 40:33 it speaks about destination. Let's conclude with this. Like the finishing line of the race, you know, this marathon race that we run and run and run and run and run and finally we come to the finishing line. What is that finishing tape 40:47 at the end of the race? Here it is in Romans 8:29. He predestined. This is a joining of two words. Pre means beforehand. Destined means destination, where you reach at the end. God has determined beforehand what your final destination is going to be. You 41:07 know what that is? To be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Do you know what the finishing line tape is? Complete likeness to Jesus Christ. Have you become like Jesus Christ? No. Have I become like Jesus Christ? No, but 41:23 I'm running the race. And every year I'm trying to become a little more like Christ. That means a little more closer to the finishing line. Join a church that will help you every year to go a little closer to the finishing 41:37 line. What is the finishing line? Not better music. No, sir. Becoming like Christ. Not even good sermons. But it's good. I mean, I don't think Jesus was ever boring to listen to. I believe Jesus was the most interesting 41:56 preacher that anybody ever heard. He preached to the disciples to Emmaus for 7 miles, it says. It says there in Luke 24, the distance from Jerusalem to Emmaus is 7 miles. And that must have taken 3 hours for a leisurely walk. And those two disciples 42:10 walked with Jesus and he opened up the scriptures and explained to them. And it's that the end it says their hearts burned within them. Imagine a sermon, 3 hour sermon, and their hearts were burning, burning, burning, burning. That 42:23 was Christ. I remember when I read that, I said, "Lord, please, whether I speak for 10 minutes or 3 hours, I want to preach like that." That's the only type of sermon I ever want to preach in my life. Jesus preached like that. He drew them 42:36 to himself. And the best sermon is that which challenges you to become a little more like Christ, challenges you to give up sin in your life, not just entertains you, teaches you a few jokes, and gives you some good music. I believe in 42:51 music. I believe there's going to be music in heaven. So, I enjoy music in heaven, but the words are important to me. The words that we sing of worship and praise and challenge to follow Jesus, the words. So, I used to pray, "Lord, 43:10 I don't want anybody to to be drawn to our church either by my eloquence or by the music." And I remember, I'll tell you this, this is absolutely true story. One Sunday, I mean, we are not great musicians. You probably discovered that. Even back home 43:28 in our church in Bangalore also, we are not great musicians. Uh but we try to sing. We make a joyful noise unto the Lord. That's what we do. We are happy to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Partly because, you know, I 43:41 live in a country where and in a church where 80% of people don't speak English at home. They speak a mother tongue at home. It's It's another language for them. I mean, I grew up speaking English, that's why I speak English so 43:50 freely. But a lot of other people in India do not speak English freely. I constitute about 1% of India's population who can speak English so clearly. But I believe God allowed me to learn that properly so because he wanted 44:01 me to preach to many countries. That's the only reason. It's not because I'm in any way better. But so, I say we don't want um anybody to attracted by the music. And one Sunday, our music was particularly bad. It's not great any any Sunday, but this day 44:19 some things were out of tune and some of the songs were being sung and I don't know what happened that Sunday. I said, "Lord, what's happening today?" It's okay. Anyway, we made a joyful noise unto the Lord. We meant what we 44:30 said even if we didn't sing it properly. And at the end of the service, when I was meeting people at the door, there was a couple there who had come to visit our church for the first time from the city. They were exploring churches. 44:44 And I knew them as a very musically minded couple. They were experts at music. And I That's why the Lord made the music bad today. Because he did not want this couple to join our church cuz they were looking for music, not for godliness. 45:04 I said, "Thank you, Lord. How wonderful you are. But when you see that, you that day you make the music really bad." I tell you, let God be in charge of your church, he'll do absolute miracles in your church. I've experienced that in 45:18 numerous ways. I said, "Lord, we only want to attract those who want to live a godly life, who want to become like Jesus Christ more and more. Let all the others go." And we've seen many, many times that people have gone away by 45:33 false accusations and they even spread small stories about me that I was pulling people's tongues to make them speak in tongues and all that. Amazing. Amazing stories which I myself was surprised to hear that my wife was not 45:47 my first wife, but was my second wife. In fact, somebody gave a a CD of mine to somebody and that chap said, "I won't listen to this because he's he divorced his first wife." So, he had to show that person a copy of my marriage wedding 46:01 photo to show that I still had the same wife. It's amazing what all stories the devil spreads about a person just to prevent people from knowing the truth that will set them free. It doesn't disturb me. I'm told to love my enemies and bless 46:16 those who curse me. So, I say I love all of them and bless them. God bless them. I hope they will repent and come to the truth for their sake. But we are determined to preach the truth that will set people free from sin 46:28 and make people follow Jesus Christ. Those who offended, God bless you, brother. Go where you like. But we are determined to go this way even if you are left with two or three people. You know, Jesus once preached a strong 46:39 message and it says many of the people left. John chapter 6. Finally, there were only 11 left. And he said, "You also want to go away?" And Peter said, "Where shall we go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life." And if one of those other fellows who 46:55 left came to Peter's home later that evening, "Peter, why didn't you Why didn't you leave like us? Can you explain what he said about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and all that type of stuff?" Peter would have said, "Listen, buddy, 47:07 I'm not so clever. I never finished high school. I'm a fisherman. I don't understand all that. Maybe one day I'll understand it. Today I don't. But I know this man. I've never seen a man who was more upright in Israel. This man, Jesus. 47:23 I know him. And he's I I believe I'll follow him. And one day I'll understand some things I don't understand today. You know, that's why they followed Jesus, not because they understood everything that he said. Many things he 47:36 said they didn't understand. But the integrity of his life, his total freedom from the love of money, his purity, his purity with women, and the humility where he never took advantage of anyone and would accept insults and 47:53 forgive people. That's the thing that gripped these disciples. See, I want to follow this man, not because of his preaching, but because of his life. That's why Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Dear brothers and 48:06 sisters, we are approaching the end of time. There's a lot of deception in the world. Please be careful whom you follow. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this 48:23 wonderful time that you've given us. I pray that we will not forget what we have heard. Words will sink deep and produce fruit for eternity to make us more like Christ. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I just want to tell you, you know, you 48:39 see such a lot of books there and you may wonder I will suggest a few books if it interests you. There's a book there which my personal testimony called The Day of Small Beginnings where I talk about the stages where God led me 48:54 step by step in my own life. And there's a book called God's work done in God's way which speaks about our ministry, not our church, but the principles of our ministry. And there's another book called Hear, O My Sons, which is a sum total of all the emails 49:11 that I sent to my sons when they were far away from home studying in college to protect them when they were 20, 21 years old from the ways of the world. And there's another little booklet called The Purpose of Failure, which has been distributed even in 49:26 prisons and challenged people who have made a mess of their life how God uses even that to bring people to success. I would if any of those books meet your need, please free to take them. God bless you all. Yeah. 49:53 God has answered our prayers, especially for our local church. Um I believe we have uh seen very clearly the way forward. I actually thought of that the those verses in Luke 24. Were not our hearts burning within 50:12 within us? And it says at the end of that, I looked it up, that they confirmed that it was Jesus by the breaking of the bread. And uh I don't know about you, but I have seen Jesus more clearly by the breaking of the bread this weekend. Even 50:28 though we didn't get to physically take part in communion, the bread of life has been opened up to us. So, um I thought I'd take a couple minutes for the sake of you visitors here and those listening online to share about our 50:43 church very briefly. What you heard uh this weekend has been just a little to me a little bit of a clearer expression of the way that I chose to go personally many years ago and that brought me here. And uh we have been going this way for 51:00 the last 10 years and will continue to go this way as long as God is uh allows us to be here on this earth or until Jesus Christ returns. And if anything, we'll see it more clearly and we'll run after Jesus more wholeheartedly. 51:16 I Romans 8:29, we heard about that already. That's our destination. And how do we get there? We've seen that Jesus leads us. The Holy Spirit leads us to that destination day by day, every day. Through two things especially. The first 51:34 is discipleship. That our personal devotion to Jesus must be pure. Jesus Christ. My devotion is to him, not to any human being, to Jesus Christ. And secondly, the result of the pure devotion to Jesus, it says in 1 John 1, 51:48 as we walk in the light, is that we have fellowship with one another. And I'll tell you this, my dear brothers and sisters, I've seen more and more, especially recently, that fellowship is something that can't be broken 51:59 unless by sin. And where there is no sin, if something is broken, it means that there was not really a fellowship. And I want fellowship with God first of all, but also with brothers and sisters that can only be broken by sin, which means 52:14 either I sin or you sin, and that would be the breaking of that fellowship. And I believe God's going to fulfill that as he has been in my life and in yours, I believe. We'll continue to do that. We also have a practice in our church of 52:28 memorizing scripture and we try to bring our child bring our children along with it. So, our verse for last this past week, we usually on a Sunday set aside a time, so we'll continue to do that even though it's a conference weekend. 52:41 Uh our verse for last week, and we you know, we we don't it's not a school. We're not trying to show off if we know it. And we've also shortened it so that we can make it manageable for all of us to remember and we all try to make an 52:54 effort to memorize it. Uh John 7:38, he who believes in me from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. That was our verse this week. In fact, that's like a theme verse. That's why we're called River of Life Christian Fellowship. It's also our 53:09 Wi-Fi password in case you're trying to use our Wi-Fi. We offer it freely. Our verse for this coming week, we'll put it up there. We're going to try to memorize that this week is from first You don't have it. It's already shut down. Okay, so we'll 53:24 have to look it up. Um and it's in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. I'll read it out and then you can say it with me. It's 1 Thessalonians 5:14. It's an interesting verse. Let's turn there actually, 1 Thessalonians 5. I'll just take 2 53:40 minutes and we can What we've done, and we have all the memory verses for the year, by the way, on our website. So, if you're interested in following along with us, we tweet about them and and Heidi puts it on Instagram, so you can we you try to use 53:55 social media to get the word of God out there as well. So, if you want to follow along with us, do follow our our social media channels. This is verse 14, 1 Thessalonians 5:14. Admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, 54:12 help the weak, be patient with all men. And what we've done is we've alternated between promises and commands because we believe that we want to get to the end of our lives having experienced all the promises of God and having obeyed all the commands 54:28 of God. And to help us, we alternate between a promise and a command each week. This week it's a command. This command in 1 Thessalonians 5:14, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men. Now, that's just of one 54:45 sentence and we encourage all of us as a church to go to the word of God and actually look at that verse, the whole verse, because sometimes we don't have the whole verse, and look at it in its context. I want to look at it a little bit in its context 54:57 here. Verse 12. We request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction. It's a very practical way we can do that. 55:15 How long do you think it took my dad to prepare the sermons for this weekend? Eight eight messages he preached. It's taken about 78 years for him to prepare the the messages. Um I think we all him thanks. We give 55:35 the Lord glory. We don't glory any man. We don't give glory to any man. God gets all the glory. But this is a verse we must obey. And if he says in in 1 Timothy 5 also a similar but to be concerned especially those who 55:52 work hard at preaching and teaching. And because Now, sadly, I I honestly don't believe I I I think we have not done enough to appreciate in this church to appreciate the ministry of Brother Zach. And we're going to try to do that more 56:07 often. Not to glory in man. And people might misunderstand what we say and and what we do or even uh fault me because I'm physically related to him. God is my witness, that has nothing to do with it. I seek to obey every command in God's word and I 56:21 believe it will go well with us spiritually if we learn to appreciate and give thanks. Um Those of you that are visitors here, you may not know this, but he has My dad has never once asked us for a payment for his coming 56:39 here every year. 15 years ago was the first time that he came here um before I even lived here. That's where I found out about Loveland. Didn't even know there was such a town. He was invited to speak at a conference. I came 56:52 here and that's when the Lord planted a seed that I'm thankful for that seed. Uh that ultimately led to my coming here to be a part of this local fellowship. And I believe this is where the Lord's called me to serve until he calls me 57:04 home. Um and he's faithfully come every year since 2005. So, that's at least 14 This is the 14th year that he's come. Um and never once asked for payment, never once have we even paid for his airfare. We've given him gifts that he's 57:21 received out of our own desire to give him gifts, but it's never been out of even that basic uh expectation because he has had the heart of a father towards us as a church. And like he said, fathers don't expect when you know, when when he comes and 57:38 visits us as a family, my wife and I here in Colorado, he doesn't ask me to pay for his airfare. I try to get him to pay for it, but I find other ways to give it back to him, but and that's what we will do as a church as well. But 57:51 when we see the new covenant and how the family of God is, we realize that this is how we must be. This is the spirit he has and this is the spirit we must have of appreciation of him. Let's give the Lord glory and give 58:07 Brother Zach thanks. And I encourage you again, I I hope that we as a church, especially as a local church, will learn to do that better than we have done in the years past. That you'll take time to personally thank him. If you can't do it 58:27 in in person, you know, I've been I've I've met preachers who I believe have had far less anointing. I'm not saying this to judge anyone. I'm not thinking of anyone in particular. Where the moment the message is over, they become inaccessible. 58:40 They disappear into a back room because their church is, you know, thousands of people and I'm not here to judge why they do that. But you've been around my dad long enough to know that he's stands in line just like all of us to get his lunch 58:54 plate. Um sits and talks with anyone, even the children. This is how Jesus would be. Not the famous and the exalted of the world. So, I hope you'll take some time to thank him personally for that as well. Finally, in closing, 59:11 I just want to read these verses earlier in 1 Thessalonians 5 as an exhortation, as a word of encouragement for you if you're a visitor listening online, or for us as a local church. So, 1 Thessalonians 5:1. Now, as to the 59:23 times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying peace and safety, 59:43 then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief. Because you're seeking to live with a 1:00:00 clear conscience. If you knew Jesus was coming tonight, would it make a difference how you live for the next 3 hours? If you really take this word of God seriously, it doesn't matter if he tarries for another 10 years, I will live as if he's coming. 1:00:17 That's what it means to not be caught for the coming of the Lord not to be like a thief in the night for me. So, you are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief, for you are all sons of light and sons of day. 1:00:30 We are not of night nor of darkness, so then let us not sleep as others do. But let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, 1:00:45 let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Who died for us 1:01:04 so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him. I will forever keep the Lord before me, whether you I'm asleep or awake. Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another just as you also 1:01:19 are doing. This is our goal as a church to encourage one another because Jesus is coming soon. We want to be ready.
