0:16 I want to start with a my subject today is Christ wants a body not a congregation and I want to begin with a promise which we want to claim Isaiah 0:34 43 and verse 19 I thought of this especially in relation to Abundant Life we've gone through some difficult times but here is what the Lord says Isaiah 0:53 43 and verse 19 behold I will do something you now it will Spring forth will you not be aware of it I will make a roadway in the 1:10 wilderness and rivers in the desert a promise from God is like a check when you say Amen to that will you say Amen to that God will do something new he will make a roadway in the 1:29 wilderness and rivers in the desert when you say Amen you're endorsing it with your name at the back and putting it into the bank of heaven and there's never been a check endorsed with amen that's gone to the bank of Heaven that was not cashed 1:48 every single one of them I proved that for 55 years it's really true so we want to think about this that God wants to do something new but he does it through men and women God could do a lot of things on his own 2:08 there are millions of angels who would rush to serve him but he's decided to use men and women there's an instance of that in the Acts of the Apostles where there was a man called Cornelius who needed to hear the gospel and an angel came to 2:28 Cornelius and he could have given him the gospel didn't the angel know that Christ died for the sins of the world Christ rose up repent believe that God did not allow that angel to give the gospel to Cornelius and you need to understand the 2:44 reason why even though he knew the gospel and he could preach it much better than any human being God did not allow him he said send for Peter and Peter's coming would take three four days because he was living in some other City Cornelius had to send 3:01 for him and he had to walk and come here but it doesn't matter if it takes 3 or 4 days but that angel will not be allowed to preach the gospel for one reason because that angel could not say Jesus died for 3:18 me you and I can say that that's why that angel was not allowed to preach the gospel to Cornelius it's only one who's been redeemed by the blood of Christ who can say this is what Jesus did for me who's permitted to preach the gospel so God 3:36 uses men and women so when we think of our situation here there's no situation that's too difficult for God to handle one of the great messages I get from the gospels in the Miracles that Jesus did is that 3:53 there's no problem that God cannot solve amen every situation God has got an answer answer and that applies to your personal life to your home life and to any church that's the message in all the 4:10 Miracles in the gospels you never find anyone coming to Jesus with a problem and Jesus sort of scratching his head and saying that's a tough one never never and I want to say to you I don't know what your problem is Jesus is 4:27 not going to scratch his head today say that's a tough one he can solve it there's no problem God cannot solve so that's what we learn in many situations in the scripture I want to turn with you to an Old Testament example in the book of 4:43 hagi hagi chapter 1 this is a time when God's people had were in a very discouraged State because they had gone captive to Babylon they were punished by God and then 7 years 5:00 later God brought them back to Jerusalem Hagi 1 and verse 2 they hadn't started building the Temple that the main thing was the temple which nebuchad had destroyed and these people kept saying all the time is not come the time has not come for the 5:18 house of the Lord to be rebuilt and you know how the Lord rebuked them in verse four he said in Hagi 1:4 is it time for you to dwell in your panel houses while my house lies 5:35 desolate verse 5 consider your ways if our house was destroyed in a tornado or storm we'd start working on it the very next day we'd spend time money energy to 5:54 do it and the Lord says what about my house are you concerned about my house as much as you are about your own house after all that I've done for you consider your ways and so the Lord told them in that day to go up to the mountain and bring 6:10 wood build his Temple bring Stones Etc and that's what the Lord says to us I want you to come to me in prayer and pray that God will that I will do something for your church and if all of us will do that God is going to do something something 6:30 wonderful I want to say that and I want to now share with you what I the subject Christ wants a body and not a congregation there are two pictures primarily in the New Testament of what a church is supposed to be first of all in the Old Testament the 6:48 temple was in Jerusalem it was a physical building and if you wanted to worship God you had to go to Jerusalem if you wanted to offer a sacrifice you had to go to Jerusalem but that all that's changed in the new Testament in the New 7:02 Testament you know God says I don't dwell in temples made with hands I dwell in the midst of my people and the early Christians never had a church building they would meet in caves forests all types of places because they 7:17 were persecuted or in houses and little groups they were not meeting in a building primarily the church was people and those most people church was Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday church that doesn't mean 7:34 they had meetings all the time but they recognized I'm part of the church and whatever two three Believers met together that was Church Fellowship you could be just sitting talking together in a home two three Believers and you 7:46 talk about the Lord its Fellowship in the church and that's how the church got built connections between different Believers and we need to come back to that that type of relationship the church is called a body body and it's 8:00 called a building so let's just look at those two pictures in Ephesians 2:21 first of all Ephesians 2 and verse 21 the church is called a building fitted together that's growing into a holy Temple in the 8:19 Lord and the individual bricks are you and me you and I are the individual bricks in that now here in the United States you build buildings with wood in India we can't build with wood because a lot of problems with termites Etc so all 8:37 houses are built with bricks and that's a beautiful picture of the church how the church is built with each person is an individual brick being cemented with another that's how the house comes up so when a house is built 8:52 in India the first thing that happens is a truck comes with about 20,000 bricks or 10,000 depend standing on the sides of the house and lays it by the side of the road and then they start building now if you leave that pile of bricks like that 9:11 in India they start getting reduced in number every day because somewhere down the road someone else is building his house as well and this is what this is a picture of a congregation 10,000 people what you call 9:29 mega churches not joined together sitting together just like in a movie theater with no connection with one another a pile of bricks one day one brick disappears another one disappears Satan just picks them up one by 9:48 one and finally very few are left that's because they're not built together and then pastors preach about somebody stealing my sheep that's because they're just lying like a pile of bricks I mean if you build a building 10:03 with bricks a building like this how could anybody ever steal a brick from here it's impossible once it's built you belong that's the first picture of the church brothers and sisters we must not come together in Abundant Life like a movie theater to 10:23 watch a performance a praise performance [Applause] or a preaching performance that only caters to you know preachers who make 10:39 themselves like film stars and super personalities centered around one man that is not the Church of Jesus Christ in the Church of Jesus Christ is centered around Jesus is the 10:56 head he's the only head that the Church of Jesus Christ has and any man who tries to project himself in such a way that people are connected to him rather than to Christ I want to say 11:15 that's not the Church of Jesus Christ and unfortunately we have a lot of these type of churches being built today everywhere in the world even in India it's centered around one Gifted Man who's very gifted maybe he can heal or 11:32 he can preach or he's very eloquent and all the others are just like mushrooms little mushrooms growing up under this big oak tree that is not the church in the New Testament the church in the New Testament is where every single person 11:47 is connected with Jesus Christ the head personally and can respond see this little finger this little finger can respond to the commands of the head all by itself it's got a connection that's the second picture you 12:04 have in the New Testament about a the church being not a not only a building but a body God uses pictures to show us what he wants we need to be gripped by this so I hope you'll take what I'm sharing this morning this the burden of 12:21 my heart seriously if you take it seriously that promise we saw at the beginning will be fulfilled God will do a new thing he will make make a way in the desert he will bring rivers in the desert in the wilderness so the second picture is in 12:39 Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16 I want you turn to Ephesians 4 and verse 16 where we read of the whole body being fitted and held together this 12:56 is Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16 the whole body fitted and held together it's like the like the building where there were bricks here it is speaking about individual parts of the body being fitted and held together by what every 13:15 joint supplies and here's the part where you come in ACC and you and I according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love now if there's nothing else you can do 13:34 you can love that anybody can do even a little child but there's a proper working of each individual part and that's the thing my brothers and sisters you need to ask yourself whether you're doing your part every part of this body has got a 13:52 function it speaks about joints joints are very important each part of this book body has got a function there's no part in this human body which does not have a function some have a more important part maybe a more prominent 14:09 part the eyes and the ears and the tongue they are more prominent but there are small parts inside the body like nerves and arteries and veins through which the blood flow and many other things I don't even know everything 14:24 inside but they are all very very important and there's no part of this body which is unimportant some are visible you know we see hands and we're amazed when someone can play an organ or a piano the eyes and the ears the tongue 14:43 are important but what about the invisible parts are they not important there are the visible parts are those who have a lot of prominence coming up in the platform the invisible parts are those who sit there are they important 15:00 is your heart important what about the kidneys and the liver you never see them none of us have ever seen these parts in our body there are parts of the body that never have a public function but they are very important for example I I often think of 15:20 people who pray fervently I don't mean just pray a ritual prayer but to have a burden in their heart and pray they're like the heart that pumps the blood that makes the tongue to speak if the how could the tongue speak if the heart doesn't pump the blood I'm 15:39 very conscious of that myself the Apostle Paul once told Christians pray for me he says to number of those Christians who be when he wrote letters he said pray for me that God will enable me to open my mouth and speak boldly now when I read that I think boy 15:57 you mean the Apostle Paul need somebody to pray for him I thought he's this type of guy who stand up and speak boldly anywhere but to speak under the anointing of the Holy Spirit needs the functioning of a body that's why wherever I 16:12 go wherever I speak I always ask people in all the 50 or more churches that I have oversight for to pray for me and it makes a lot of difference and it's because people pray I'm able to speak because the heart pump PS the blood the tongue can speak so 16:31 don't ever think that you are you can do nothing for the body if you can't do anything else you can pray and you can love amen on any one of us can do that so remember the there is a function for every part of the body when the Lord spoke through the 16:50 prophet Hagi to build the temple he wanted the people to have a burden for it the tragedy was they were there and they didn't seem to have a burden they were building their own houses in Jerusalem because they had come back 17:02 from Babylon and they didn't care about the Temple of the Lord don't you folks have a burden for my house God says and that's the question that the Lord asks us today I want to ask all of you sitting here if you have given your life to 17:17 Christ and you're born again you're a child of God do you have a burden for his house do you treat his house as your house I remember many years ago in our own building back in Bangalore where we meet as a 17:37 church there was a time a day when there were different maintenance jobs to be done and we had allotted it one week day to different brothers and the brother who was supposed to clean the toilets the restrooms hadn't turned 17:54 up I don't know maybe he was held up but he didn't tell anyone to take his place and initially when I I was there and I was a bit disturbed and the Lord said to me why don't you go and do it why you wait for him to come is this your 18:13 house supposing somebody volunteered to come and clean the toilets in your own home every day and he didn't turn up one day what would you do call him up and say hey don't you come to clean the toilet the restrooms in my home every 18:27 day why didn't you turn up today I wouldn't say that that's my responsibility that day the Lord said to me treat my house as your house and I changed my whole view towards the church it was not a place where there's somebody else's house I want to ask you 18:45 whether you treat God's house as somebody else's house is he really your father Jesus called it my father's house would you be just as happy to clean the restrooms here as in your own house always say that's somebody else's job 19:01 isn't your father's house really do we come here to get benefits to be blessed but never think of offering our service to do something would you do it if somebody paid you $2,000 a month you do it for 19:20 money which you wouldn't do out of love for Jesus Christ that's the tragedy in Christendom today we have Merchants money changers who come to the house of God to make profit that's why Jesus drove them out 19:39 there's nothing wrong with selling sheep and doves for people who want to offer sacrifices to God but there's everything wrong when people try to use that as a means to make money that's why Jesus never offered a salary to his disciples he told them to 19:54 trust him God's work it's not like the old Testament Levites who were paid by the others the New Covenant is not like that we serve because we love Jesus said if you love me keep my Commandments and I believe the great need my brothers and sisters 20:14 is for all of us to express our gratitude to God for what he's done for us for dying for us on the cross for saving us from our sins for giving us a hope for the future to express our gratitude and say Lord what can I do for 20:27 you you know when the Apostle Paul was converted on the road to Damascus you know the question he asked the Lord Lord what will you have me to do it's a wonderful question if every one of you who are converted Paul asked 20:44 that question the moment he was converted as soon as he was converted his first question was Lord what do you want me to do for you that is the question of anyone who has seen how much the the Lord has done for him what can I do for you to build 21:02 your body to build your temple then I want to say one more thing because we can think well I'm not so gifted I'm not so capable I'm not so educated what are the type of members that the Lord has in his body turn with me to 1 Corinthians in chapter 1 and 21:18 verse 26 in 1 Corinthians 1 26 to 29 26 to 29 we read this is the early Church in Corinth there were a few Mighty Noble educated people but he says consider your calling Brethren there are not many wise 21:38 according to the flesh that means there not many clever intelligent people as the world considers in your church not many mighty not many noble verse 27 God has chosen the foolish things of the world do you feel that you're one of the foolish people 21:57 not so clever and smart maybe you're a blue collar worker you know that's the type of person God's chosen to shame the wise to shame all the white collar people he's chosen the poor to shame the rich he's chosen the weak things of the 22:12 world to shame the things that are strong verse 28 and the base things of the world those who are considered low down in India we have unfortunately the Hindu religion has got a cast system but God is has chosen sometimes 22:29 Christians from the lowest cast to be his people to be children of God we've seen that and they're wonderful they Anointed with the Holy Spirit and have such a mighty Ministry we've seen that in our churches the despised God has 22:42 chosen are you one of those who despised and base in the world that's the type of person God chose to be part of his church and the reason is so that he me he might nullify or bring to nothing the people who think they are 22:54 somebody verse 29 the whole purpose is so that no man May boast before God and I like to see a church which has got that type of people that's exactly what about in life is praise the Lord and God can do something wonderful so that no 23:11 man can glory is through the power of the holy spirit that his church is built I want to show you another verse in Acts of the Apostles 4 and verse 13 you know the Peter and John were preaching there and all the high priest 23:30 Scholars saw the boldness the confidence verse 13 of Peter and John and they understood they were uneducated and untrained men filled with the Holy Spirit they were amazed how could these uneducated 23:48 untrained men speak so powerfully and in the living Bible it says they were uneducated nonprofessionals so if you're an uneducated nonprofessional who never went past 8th grade in School you qualify to be along with Peter and John 24:06 to be even an apostle those are the type of people whom God chose Christianity has drifted from that thinking you need great Scholars and mighty CEOs of companies to be board members it's not true the first Disciples of Jesus were fishermen 24:26 uneducated nonprofessionals were Anointed with the holy spirit that is how he built his church those days and we need to come back to that we need to come back to seeking for the power of the holy spirit this is the reason I'll tell you myself when God 24:43 called me to quit my job 50 years ago I was in the Navy I decided I would never go to a Bible school I said I'm going to demonstrate in my life that we can serve god without ever going to a Bible school or col Bible College or seminary with the 25:01 anointing of the Holy Spirit alone and reading the Bible and that's what I've done in 50 years and because I say we have to go back to that first century the way they did it in those days I want to encourage you my brothers and sisters one reason I 25:17 said that was more than 99% of God's people who sit in the church never get a chance to B to go to Bible school and if we give them the impression you got to go to some Bible College before you can serve the Lord that that's a lot of 25:30 rubbish you can serve the Lord just what you need is the anointing of the Holy Spirit sure without that you can do nothing right but I want you to have that faith that every one of you and when I say every one of you every 25:45 one of you who's born again and a part of this church I want to encourage you to believe that God can use you to do something to build the body of Christ here it's not just educated people God is the god of the 26:03 weak in Deuteronomy chapter 10 let me show you how he said that in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 10:17 he said this the Lord your God is the god of gods the Lord of lords the great the 26:21 Mighty the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe Verse 18 He exercises Justice For Whom for the orphan for the Widow he shows his love for The Stranger by giving him food and 26:38 clothing you see widows and orphans and strangers who come into a new land are the people on the fringes of society they're not the big people in the center of society they're on the fringes and God is saying I am the god of the people 26:55 who are the outcasts and on the fringes of society and he's the same today I want you to know that I want you to be encouraged Jesus was despised and rejected by people and he is the first Body of Christ let me show you another 27:11 verse in James in Chapter 2 see it's very important for us to be gripped by this because so many wrong Concepts about Christianity in today's Christendom that need to be erased as we come to the scriptures James 2:5 listen my beloved 27:32 Brethren whom did God choose God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and hes of the Kingdom who are The 27:48 Heirs of his kingdom the poor of this world which he has promised to those who love him and if you don't happen to be poor well seek to be poor in spirit which means to have a sense of 28:06 your own need blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven you know in the very first miracle that Jesus did in the marriage in canaa you know whom he 28:24 used he did not use all those big shots who were there in the wedding all the important people they sat there they couldn't do anything he was in the kitchen he was using the servants you read that in John Chapter 2 he called the servants he said I'm going 28:42 to use you servants to do the first of my Miracles and those servants poured the water and the servants Drew out the wine there's a message in all of this that we must not miss and God is always on the side of the underdog the one 29:00 who's despised the one who's rejected he's not on the side of these mega churches don't you believe that he's looking for the weak and the helpless and says I'm the god of the widows and the orphans and those in the fringes of 29:11 society I've chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith those are the ones I'm going to use so that I can put to shame the wise and the Great and the mighty so that no one will boast in my presence turn with me to Luke chapter 4 when 29:30 Jesus said he was preaching the gospel to whom was he going to preach it Luke 4 verse 18 the spirit of the Lord is upon me Jesus said in his first sermon in Nazareth he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the 29:48 poor have you read that why does God placed such an emphasis on that because he knows those are the ones who nobody cares for for I've seen I remember when I was a young Christian and I saw the different churches and they were always giving 30:07 importance to those who were very big in the world who were very rich and all the pastors would want to gather the rich people I said Lord if you ever give me an opportunity ever in my life I was just 20 years old then but I said Lord 30:22 if you ever give me a chance to build a church for you I will seek for those who are Godly irrespective of whether they are rich or poor I'll be blind to whether they are rich or poor are they God-fearing are they humble that's what I look for and 30:39 that's what we have done in all the churches that God's helped us to plan in the last 40 years we've given honor to those who fear God now we I was saying about the proper functioning of each part you know what happens when this 30:56 hand does not function properly think of a person playing the piano but both all the fingers working together it's not because they Fellowship together but because they got a connection with the head that's what makes all the fingers 31:11 every little finger is obeying the head that's why the piano plays so beautifully it's not by our spending time together that we can work together sometimes we think that's how it is that's good but it must come through a connection with the head we 31:28 can work together when each finger is connected to the head when your personal relationship with Jesus Christ 7 days of the week is right then our fellowship will be glorious then our praise as it sounds in heaven will sound beautiful in God's 31:48 ears see I don't know whether you realize that God's not primarily interested in how good our music is or how well the instruments play that's good but more important is the condition of our hearts I've said this before and I don't 32:05 mind repeating it there was a time in our church once when some of the instruments were not playing together properly and that Disturbed me and the Lord said I'm not disturbed by that I'm disturbed because the husband and wife 32:20 here are not playing in Symphony the two brothers here were not in Fellowship two sisters and not in Fellowship that disturbs me there's a lack of symphony here that disturbs me more than whether the instruments are playing together and I prayed a prayer 32:38 that day I said Lord from now on if something doesn't disturb you don't let it disturb me anymore but the things that do disturb you I want that to disturb me we read that verse in Ephesians about where the 32:55 joints need to function together the joints are for example here think of this hand if it gets paralyzed its connection with the head is gone and then it can't play with the when the hands when the head says come on play something along with the left 33:12 hand it can't because it's paralyze its connection with the head is gone and it's that type of person who does nothing for the church if you got a connection with the head you will do something every part of the body is 33:26 important and then I it speaks about the joints think of this hand how many joints there are there's a joint here in the shoulder there's a joint of the elbow there's a joint at the wrist and there are a number of joints each finger 33:37 has got three joints and think if these joints didn't function think if your joints were stiff think if this elbow was stiff and couldn't bend what would you be able to do you can have a muscular upper arm a 33:56 powerful lower arm but you couldn't do anything because the joint is not functioning you know what the joint speaks of Fellowship you can have a husband who thinks he's very spiritual an upper arm and a wife who thinks she's very 34:10 spiritual a lower arm but they can't Fellowship together they are useless useless for God oh two brothers one who's very proud of his ability another one who's proud of his different ability but they can't Fellowship together they 34:23 can't work together they're useless it would be like a hand like this what can you do with a hand where the fingers can't bend the elbow can't bend it's useless it's far better to have a little child who's not so strong but whose 34:38 joints are functioning the joints are very very important that's why we need to build fellowship and that's why in our in our church meeting and Sunday morning we gathered together about 9:30 we have our service till 11:15 or 34:57 11:30 sometimes and then we hang around till 1:30 to fellowship with one another to meet one another to get to know one another if one member is suffering that all members suffer with it we get to know one 35:16 another we don't just rush off they do that in a movie theater once the movie is over they rush off don't treat Church like a movie theater take time to get to know those who are part of the same church if you believe that we are to be one family the 35:34 church is meant to be a family not a congregation in the Old Testament it was a congregation a huge crowd it was the biggest Mega congregations 600,000 men plus so many women and children and then there was this one Mighty leader Moses 35:50 that was old Covenant and when people build churches like that we have to call it what it is an old Covenant Church with huge crowds of people with one Mighty gifted Pastor or preacher I want to say that is not the type of 36:10 church Jesus is building in the Old Testament it was like that because they didn't have the Holy Spirit within each of them and that is the condition of many churches today because most the people sitting in those churches are not 36:24 encouraged to be filled with the Holy Spirit they're not encour to fulfill a function in the body because that'll take away from this Mighty Pastor who's trying to make himself so great and appreciated by everybody such people are a hindrance to 36:40 the building of the body of Christ however gifted they may be that's why you read Jesus saying in the last day some people will come up to me and say Lord we did this for you we preached and we did Miracles and the Lord will say 36:52 get away from me you never knew me you never knew that I was building a body right and it's very interesting to see a paraphrase of that in The Message Bible he says you used me you read that verse in Matthew 7 in The Message Bible 37:06 Matthew 72223 it says you just used me to make yourself important do you know the number of people in the world who are doing that today preachers and pastors using Jesus to make themselves important you know when one little cell 37:24 in the body or a group of cells takes all the nourishment to itself and crushes out the other cells you know what doctors call it a cancer that's a cancer it's it's supposed to be this size small but it doesn't want to remain that size I'm not 37:44 happy with the size God made me I want to be bigger bigger bigger bigger that's what doctors call a cancer a lot of cancers in churches worldwide today they need to be cut out if Jesus were here he'd do that he's building a body we recognize that 38:01 there are different functions some are more important than the others I agree but what I say is everyone has got a function everyone's got something to do and the joints are very important so seek to build fellowship with one 38:15 another it's very very important my brothers and sisters without Fellowship there'll be no body in the old Covenant it was like that one king in Israel he was the Superman there or one high priest and the all the others were just sitting around one high 38:34 priest one king and very often just one Prophet but as soon as you come to the pages of the New Testament what do you see Jesus sent out his disciples two by two there is no more of this one person John the Baptist was the last lone great 38:52 individual Prophet but as soon as you come to the New Testament Jesus sends out his disciples 2 by two because that is where there's Fellowship you can't have fellowship with just one person we need to understand that from the day of 39:04 Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came he baptized them into one body it was like 120 pieces of iron that were dropped into a fire and they came out as one piece and that's how a church should be all functioning together think of the 39:21 picture of a body and I trust that we will never ever go away from that so we spoke here about in Ephesians 4 about this building up of itself in love the most important requirement in the church is that we learn to love one 39:39 another and that comes out of our love for Jesus Christ first we love him because he first loved us and because he's loved us so much he's put us in debt to love others I'll tell you why you're supposed to love others because 39:56 God loved you because he forgave me I have to forgive others that's what we pray in in the Lord's Prayer forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others in Ephesians 4 it says since God has forgiven you forgive one another 40:14 whenever people have difficulty in forgiving see we are a bunch of imperfect people even in the best Church in the world we're imperfect people but God wants to build us together imperfect perfect people and one of the great 40:30 requirements in building a body is to learn to forgive because we are working with imperfect people a husband and wife they're both imperfect and if they don't know how to forgive they'll never build a family I remember a young couple once 40:45 came to me who just got married in some other church and they were rushing to catch a train and they came to my house and said brother Zach we've just got 2 minutes to see you before we rush to catch a train can you give us a quick exhortation I 41:01 said sure I said be quick to ask forgiveness from one another and be quick to forgive one another now go catch your train you'll be all right I said that's enough learn to forgive one another as 41:21 God has forgiven us so when a husband and wife and I can apply that even to a brother and brother having attention I want to ask you here are there two instruments here that are not playing in Symphony a husband and wife who are having 41:39 attenion two brothers who can't get along with each other sisters you can't stand the side of somebody yet she says she's a Believer you say you're a Believer so when two Believers have attention or a husband and wife have 41:55 attention who should take the first step in asking forgiveness isn't that always the big question who is going to take the first step well the answer is very simple God and man had a 42:13 tension because of sin who took the first step God why because he was more spiritual so if two of you have attention who should take the first step the one who is more 42:31 spiritual and when a husband and wife have attention since both think they are most spiritual they should be just running into each other's arms why isn't it so when you hesitate to take the first 42:49 step you thereby proving I am carnal you're not spiritual God took the first step God commends his love to us it says in Romans 5 that while we 43:08 were yet sinners Christ died for us that is the one we are to follow be imitators of God so that's one very important thing forgiving one another another very very important thing if you really want to be Overcomers I've discovered when I began 43:27 to seek for this Victorious Life one of the things the Lord showed me was one of the first things I need to overcome is getting offended there are many sins which are so deep rooted in us that it takes a long time many years sometimes to be 43:45 free from them for example if you have a tremendous problem with anger you're not going to get overcome it in one day as soon as you're born again you will overcome it if you're serious about it I had a problem with it and it's gone but 44:00 it took years it takes time with men there's a tremendous problem with sexual Temptation in the mind and with all the bad habits thought bad thought patterns that most men have it takes a long time when they're converted to be free from that to have a 44:19 pure thought life it'll come but it'll take time if you battle it and love of money that's another thing which every human being has it's not only the rich people who love money I've never found a homeless person who 44:36 doesn't love money no no who doesn't love money everybody loves money it it's in us but it takes time to get rid of it but you'll never get rid of it if you don't battle it if you don't acknowledge it as something that's destroying you as much 44:52 as anger or dirty thoughts it destroys you and if you fight it you can overcome it you can make it your servant instead of it running your life as your master but these are difficult ones it'll take time but getting offended that's something we can 45:08 overcome easily because that's not a a deepr rooted thing in us it's just our pride that makes us get offended with somebody because they didn't treat me right they didn't smile at me they didn't shake my hands ignored me or they did something 45:26 that hurt me what all stupid things we get offended with we need to overcome that if you're serious anybody here who is serious about victory over sin and living an overcoming life let me tell you the first step the kindergarten lesson is to 45:43 overcome getting offended and if God sees you serious and willing for that he will lead you into overcoming your anger and overcoming your sexually dirty way of thinking and Love of Money And every evil habit that the Devils put upon the race of Adam 46:01 start with I'm not going to get offended Lord I'm going to die to myself dead people here's a dead man here you can do nothing to offend him absolutely nothing you can call him the devil you can kick him he won't get offended I'll 46:19 tell you that and the Bible says we had to reckon ourselves having died with Christ and Alive with him you couldn't offend Jesus Christ you know that you called him the prince of devils the people called him the prince of devils he didn't sue them 46:34 in court for defamation you know what he said he said I'm the son of man you're forgiven I asked the Lord once Lord what do you mean by son of man he says I'm just an ordinary man that's what he meant you call me Prince of 46:51 devils I'm an ordinary man you're forgiven just make sure you don't blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was he an ordinary man not at all he was almighty God walking on this Earth as an ordinary man when Lord opened my eyes to that I 47:10 said Lord help me till the end of my life to be an ordinary man to live as an ordinary man among other people not to think of myself as some great preacher or a great servant of God and an ordinary man the greatest man who 47:29 walked on this earth called himself an ordinary man that's why he was not offended when they called him Prince of devils do you get offended with lesser words that people spoke against you let's learn to follow Jesus he 47:46 didn't get offended when they spat on him said I'm an ordinary man so forgiveness and getting offended very very important let me show show you this verse in 2 Corinthians 2 2 Corinthians 2 I'm a little different from most 48:05 preachers today I quote a lot of scripture because I don't want to impress you with my eloquence I'm not interested what you think about my eloquence I want your 48:22 faith to be founded in God's word that's the that that's that's the one thing that'll that's the one thing that'll see you through rough times in your life not you're being impressed with my eloquence that won't help you one bit 48:37 that's just temporary 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 10 whom you forgive anything I forgive Paul is saying indeed what I have forgiven I have forgiven anything I did it for your sake in the presence of Christ I forgive that person now he 48:54 tells us the reason in the next verse verse 12 it's verse 11 sorry in order that no Advantage be taken of us by Satan because we are not ignorant of his schemes now take those two verses together 2 Corinthians 2: 10 and 11 I if 49:14 I don't forgive somebody Satan gets a foothold in my life how many of you knew that how many of you knew the reason why you have so many problems and you're not able to sleep SLE properly at night and you have so many dirty dreams and scary 49:30 dreams and so many other things is Satan's got a foothold in your life somewhere and he gets a foothold when somebody doesn't forgive someone learn to forgive he gets a foothold in your life when you get offended with what somebody did or said 49:46 or didn't say or didn't do and you retain that Grudge you got a little bit of the devil inside you do you want that you want a little bit of hell inside your heart get rid of it let mercy triumph over 50:06 judgment like the Bible says now I want to turn with me turn with me please another verse in 1 Corinthians 12 to speak about I want to say a little bit about attitudes that we can have towards one another in the 50:23 body attitudes are important and there are people who feel inferior and there are people who feel Superior when both are mentioned here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12:1 15 1 Corinthians 12:15 it says 50:40 here if the foot says because I'm not a hand I'm way down at the bottom of the body not a hand I'm not a part of the body these are the Believers in the body of Christ who feel inferior to others 50:58 he see I'm not so gifted as that person you remember the story of the person who got one talent and he looked at the person who had 10 and he said well I don't have as much as him I don't even have as much as this guy's got five I got only one so he 51:12 was discouraged and he buried it and he was cast out by the Lord finally he could have done a lot with that one Talent you know 11 people with one Talent would have would do better than one person with 10 talents it's true a lot of the church 51:28 suffers because a lot of people with one Talent do nothing about it they just bury it so there's this inferiority complex I'm not the hand or it says verse 16 if the year says because I'm not an eye I'm not a part of the body do you ever feel 51:46 like that oh I I can never stand up there and preach I don't have that gift so you're not a part of the body who said that this is speaking to those who have this inferiority complex and God wants you to get rid of it and 52:03 then it speaks further about those who have a superiority complex and the verse 21 the I cannot say to the hand I have no need of you you know this is the person who thinks it doesn't matter who goes away I'm the great eloquent leader here and I 52:23 can run this church I cannot say say that the eye needs the hand and now this is the most wonderful part is that second part of that verse the head does not say to the feet I have no need of you you know who 52:40 the head is Jesus you know what the feet is the feet are the lowest members in the body and Jesus looks at the lowest the weakest the most ignorant the most foolish the most helpless member in his 52:56 body and says I need you have you heard that I need you uh you remember that time when the Lord was sending his disciples to prepare the room for the last 53:14 supper and he said go into that um not the Last Supper sorry before that when he was going to ride into Jerusalem he sent his disciples and he said you'll see a donkey there tide losen it and bring it and if somebody says why are you doing that say 53:33 the Lord has need of him the Lord is need of that donkey I have a little picture on my table at home of the Lord sitting on a donkey with these words underneath the Lord has need of you I always look at that and I'm greatly 53:53 encouraged if the Lord could look at a donkey and say he has need of him him I want to say to you my brothers and sisters I hope all all of you at least have this much confidence that you're better than a [Applause] 54:11 donkey I want to say to you in Jesus name the Lord has need of you Lord has yes it's it's a tremendous encouragement to see this picture of the Lord riding on a donkey the Lord has need of you and that's what I always think of 54:28 myself you know people were throwing the coats in front of the donkey and if that stupid donkey ever thought boy I'm an important person be ABS he'd really prove himself to be a donkey then you know we thought he was important because he was walking 54:44 on the coats of other people because as soon as Jesus got off him nobody cared for him that's how it is you know what makes us important Jesus I remember once in our church I wanted to teach this to the children and I said I 55:02 want you know in your children in school you're always in a competitive world where who's going to come first in the class who's going to get A+ in mathematics and who's going to come first in the 100 meters race Etc and 55:16 some of you children are not so gifted you come a little lower down in the class and you don't win those races and you don't qualify for the football team or the baseball team the Bible says we're all basically without God we are 55:32 zeros so I I said we're all zeros and I got them to hold a plaque with 000000000000 I said what about me the great preacher I said I'm also zero and I stood there with the zero there in front of me I said you know what gives 55:47 us value Jesus he's one you put one in front of that zero it becomes 10 you put one in front of three zos it becomes 1,000 just three people with Jesus in front of them without them they useless and they got it I was so 56:04 encouraged it's wonderful to teach children right from the beginning you are worthless without Christ but you're exceptionally valuable once you receive Christ into your life you got a very important function in the body of 56:19 Christ and since it's Father's Day the church is built through homes I want to say that fathers have a very very important function and I hope all of you who are fathers will remember that you have a very important function 56:37 in building the body of Christ the body of Christ is built by homes that are strong this church is as strong as the homes here are and I want to not only we appreciated the fathers 56:54 who are here by God's Grace and his goodness I'm a father of four children and a grandfather of 13.9 children grandchildren rather God's been very good to me but I think of a lot of others who may be here and in in many 57:13 parts of the church who are single mothers widowed mothers whose husbands have deserted them divorced them died you know what they're doing they're doing the job of a father and a 57:31 mother I want you to give them a hand you know single mothers widowed who are doing the job of father and mother together praise God for them you have a very important function to 57:50 build your home John Wesley's mother Susanna Wesley was like a father and mother to her seven or eight children she would spend one hour with e of them every week telling them about God she did more for 58:08 God than if she had traveled around the world preaching Timothy's mother did more for God as a mother bringing up Timothy in a Godly way than if she had traveled preaching and so you mothers who are fathers I want to say to all of 58:23 you who are building homes whether single mother or father you have a very very important function in building the body of Christ the strength of the church is dependent on the type of strength that strength there is in your 58:36 home I believe that we've seen that through the years as we've sought to plant churches in India We Built Homes every conference we have we have a meeting for families to encourage husband and wife to live together in love to bring up children in the fear of 58:52 God bring up children who love Jesus from a very young age age it's the most important thing to give them faith in God that's greater than any inheritance that you can give them and finally let me conclude God always begins with 59:10 something small sometime when you get time read Judges chapter 7 it's a great chapter the Book of Judges can you remember the chapter seven is the perfect number chapter 7 it's about 59:27 Gideon he had a huge Army of 32,000 people and he was going to fight against the midianites who were torturing and ruling Israel and God looked at that Army and he said you're too many send all those who are afraid home 59:44 22,000 people went away 10,000 people were left God said it's still too many take them to the river and I'll test them there and when they came to the river 9,700 people buried their face in the river forgot all about the enemy 1:00:03 occupied with themselves and their thirst God said reject them people are occupied with their own self that's all they're interested in and not in God's enemy send them home but there were 300 people who did not put their bury their 1:00:18 face in the water forgetting about the enemy they stood on their feet and alert for the enemy and slapped up water with their hands said those are the ones I want 300 were left and with those 300 the midianites were 1:00:36 defeated that's how God does his work so that no man May boast in his presence so that all the glory will be God's he uses servants in canaa he used a little boy with Five Loaves and two fish to feed 10,000 people 5,000 men and many women 1:00:51 and children that is God's way so don't ever feel your un important don't ever feel you're too small God can do a miracle through you in Ezekiel 47 we see a little trickle of water coming out of God's house and finally becoming a 1:01:06 river let's pray that that'll happen in Abundant Life a little trickle that becomes a river that blesses many people in this Bay Area let's bow our heads in prayer Heavenly Father 1:01:28 help us to honor you and I pray in Jesus name that here you will do a new [Music] thing Lord that you will bring rivers in the desert make a way in the wilderness and build the body of Christ 1:01:47 here that'll be a testimony for your name and all the glory will be yours we give it to you in Jesus name amen amen
