0:18 So, continuing our practice, we want to hear another brother who is in his 40s. His name is brother Santosh Poonen. And he happens to have my name, but he's my brother in Christ. When they were little children, I said to the Lord, I said, "Lord, these 0:37 are my children. But one day I want them to grow up to be my brothers in Christ." That is my longing for all my sons. And all of you who have little children, you must pray that they'll grow up to be your brothers and sisters in Christ one day. 0:53 So, he's an elder in a church linked with CFC over which I have responsibility in the city of Loveland in Colorado in the United States. And um he made a sacrifice of his profession to go there to build that church. 1:13 I believe wherever wherever people make a sacrifice, God blesses them. And um I believe that, you know, I remember the first time he's spoken at previous conferences, and the first time he I asked him to speak at a conference a 1:30 couple of years ago. I checked with brother Yin because he happened to be my son, so and Yin said, "Sure." But I thought about this, you know, naturally, what will other people think? And I I always try to find an answer in 1:46 scripture to this. And I got an answer from scripture that when Jesus chose his 12 disciples, two of them were his first cousins. His mother Mary's sister Salome's two sons, James and John. 2:05 And when he took an inner circle of three people who would he took to special places like the Mount of Transfiguration, these two were among the three. Peter and his two cousins. So, I thought what would people say about 2:23 Jesus having chosen his cousins to be in that inner three? And I found that Jesus didn't bother about what people thought. So, there I was liberated. So, Santosh. As I've been sitting here and listening to the messages the last couple of days, 2:41 I've been thinking especially about this, what is unique about CFC? What is unique about the message that we hear and believe? I believe it must be unique and we've heard a little bit about that this 2:59 morning. But there must be something unique about it because I believe there was something unique about Jesus. I was thinking about this. Do you know that in Jesus' time when he was alive, he was a leader, a religious leader 3:16 who drew disciples to himself and was eventually killed and the disciples scattered, but he wasn't the only one in his time about whom that was true. Let me show you something in Acts chapter 5. In fact, I can think of 3:33 at least three other men in Jesus' time about whom this was also the case that they gathered a group of people to themselves as disciples, to them as disciples. Eventually they were killed and the disciples were scattered. 3:51 Besides Jesus, there as far as we can read in the scriptures, there were three other men who did the same thing. The first was John the Baptist. We heard a little bit about him yesterday. John the Baptist also gathered disciples 4:06 and was killed and we don't know what happened to many of the disciples of John the Baptist. We assume they were scattered. But here we read in Acts chapter 5 and the context is Gamaliel is telling the rest of the Sanhedrin, the group of 4:20 Pharisees, to be careful how they deal with these disciples of Jesus Christ, especially Peter and John. He says, um, verse 35. This is after the day of Pentecost. Peter and John have been arrested and they're being, uh, on they're on trial 4:37 as being followers of Jesus. And he says to the rest of the Pharisees, he said to them, verse 35, Acts 5:35, "Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men. For some time ago, and here you read about another of these men, Theudas rose 4:54 up claiming to be somebody and a group of about 400 men joined up with him. He had a bigger church than even Jesus, it seems. But he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. So this, presumably this man Theudas 5:12 also tried to build a church, if you will, and it came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, presumably around the time when Jesus was born, if that's the same census, 5:29 and drew away some people after him. He too perished and all those who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, in the case of this man Jesus, who also gathered some men to himself, and was killed, 5:47 and the disciples scattered for a while, but now they seem to be coming back together. Gamaliel has this to say, "I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be 6:04 overthrown." Very prophetic words and very wise words from Gamaliel. But, verse 39, "If it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, or else you may even be found fighting against God." And I've thought about that in this in 6:21 the context of this theme for our conference, preserving the glory of the Lord in the church. Preserving the glory of the Lord in the church. Is there something unique about CFC? Not in ourselves. 6:37 Not in like Theudas or who was it Judas, both of them drawing people to themselves. There was nothing unique about Theudas and Judas because their church is not around today. Their work died with them. 6:55 Their disciples scattered. And if we are building the true church of Jesus Christ, there must be that unique aspect of what we believe and what we teach. What is the message that we carry on from one generation on to the next? There must be that uniqueness. 7:13 And I was thinking about this. What is the unique message of CFC? What is it that has been a blessing to so many? What is it What is unique about what we believe and what we hear which is why we are all sitting here over this weekend. 7:30 I used to think that the unique message of CFC was this, victory over sin. And perhaps you've heard that. Perhaps some of you have thought that, too. It's very easy to think that because we hear a lot about that in a Christendom that 7:46 does not preach victory over sin, that preaches primarily just uh forgiveness of sins. It is true that we do believe in coming to a life of victory over sin, but is that the unique message of CFC? I used to think so for many years, but I believe a little 8:04 bit differently now that the message that that's not quite the the unique message of CFC. Because if we believe in victory over sin, it is possible for us, and perhaps you can relate to this. I found in myself in this desire to really 8:23 come to a life of victory over sin that I struggled and I fought and I battled and I'd fall and I'd get up again, and I'd fall and I'd get up again, and I was determined by hook or by crook to get victory over sin. Because for me the 8:40 ultimate goal of my life, the unique message of CFC was this in my mind, was that I was going to get victory over sin. And the result was that I manufactured a level of victory over sin that there were certain sins that God was able to 8:58 bring me in my life or allow me to come to a life of victory in, but then I found I was defeated in other things. Or after some period of time I would fall back into those old sins. Or what's worse, because I had succeeded in 9:14 climbing up this cliff by straining and struggling and finally I overcome and overcame in that area, I could now look down on others. I could now look down on them who were still struggling and says, "Look at you, I'm better than you." I 9:30 wouldn't say that, but I would think that. And I believe that this is the ultimate goal of our life. It's not victory over sin, even though that that's part of the journey. The ultimate goal of our Christian life, and this I believe is the unique message 9:45 of CFC, which I believe the devil is going to try to twist. If he can deceive us into being content with forgiveness of sins, that's great. He'll be happy with that, but perhaps we've come past that. We believe, "Lord, you're not just my forgiver, you're my 10:03 savior. I'm going to get victory over sin." And if the devil can allow us to be deceived with even that, and allow us and get us to miss the real destination, he has succeeded in his job, I believe. He's a He has come to 10:19 steal and kill and destroy. If he can steal everything in my pocket, he will. But if he can't, he'll steal as much as he can. That's That's the devil's goal with us, I believe, as Christians. And so, for those of us who have listened to 10:34 the messages, who've been here or even if you've come newly, and you're starting to see the the Lord is starting to grip our hearts with this message, it would be very easy for us to go astray, as I did for many years. And I 10:48 thank God for opening my eyes to see what is my real destination. See, I think of it like a cup. Let's say I had a cup that had dirty water in it. And I thought, "Okay, I And And somebody came and shake shook this cup and see, 11:02 is there water Is there dirty water in your cup?" I can put my hand over it and determine that as much as they try to shake that cup to see what's inside, to see if there's dirty water, uh it will never come out because I've 11:15 got my hand over it. And our struggle in wanting to come to a life of victory can be so much like that, like us trying to put a cap or a lid on top of the wickedness that's in our flesh. Like Paul says in Romans 7, "I know that in my flesh dwells nothing 11:33 good. So, knowing that, what we can try to do and what I tried to do for so many years was to put my hand firmly over the cup so that people shook me, people irritated me, spoke evil of me, or did harm to me, or if I faced a temptation 11:49 to lust or get angry, I could resist and resist and resist and barely make it. But, eventually, the struggles would get so much, the shaking would get so much that eventually a little bit of that water would spill out. Maybe they would 12:06 push my buttons, they would uh goad me and irritate me so much that finally I just gave in and said I got lost my temper or said something irritable to my wife or to that brother or that sister. If you've ever been there where you felt 12:22 like you held on and held on and held on and tried to live in victory and tried to live in victory, but finally you snapped and finally gave in and lost your temper or lusted with your eye or something like that, I have good news 12:36 for you. Good news that the Lord has opened my eyes to see, and this is the essence of the message. I think of a quote from Amy Carmichael, who's a godly woman who lived in India and did uh wonderful work showing the love of Jesus to the poorest of people 12:51 in India, and she said that a cup of a cup brimful of sweet water can never spill even one drop of bitter water, no matter how much it is shaken. So, the secret and the essence of the message of CFC, and really it's the 13:10 message of the church of Jesus Christ in his word and through the Holy Spirit is this. It's not about us trying to control our emotions and control our passions and struggling and fighting and somehow make sure that I come to a life 13:24 of victory over sin. Victory over sin in and of itself is not the message. It's not the message of the church. But the message is essentially this, that I can have this cup of bitter, filthy water completely emptied out 13:42 and have God fill my cup with his sweet water. So that now you can shake it all you want and all that will come out will be the sweet water. If the contents of the cup are pure and sweet, it doesn't matter how much that cup is shaken, it 13:59 will only spill out sweet water. This is the essence. So the goal of our Christian life, the goal is not in it victory over sin in and of itself, but this, the eternal life of God, the divine nature that God wants to give us 14:19 his divine nature as a replacement for this human nature that I have. He wants to get me to be rid more and more and more of myself, of all of this bitter water that I have in my cup, replace it with his divine nature, with his eternal 14:35 life, so that no matter how much I am tempted, I can never spill out that bitter water. Now, as we've heard throughout this conference already, none of us is perfect. Nobody has already arrived. But that, my dear brothers and 14:49 sisters, dear young people, dear children, that is our destination. That little by little, from faith to faith, from glory to glory, I am getting closer and closer and closer and closer to the point where one day, when he see when I see him, when we see 15:08 him, we shall be like him. What does it mean to be like him? Have you thought about this, that it doesn't matter how immodest or attractive a woman is, God cannot be tempted by that. It doesn't matter how much evil you 15:27 speak against God or how much you do evil to to God, he is never never you could do it for a thousand years speak evil against God, he will never lose his temper. It doesn't matter how much you push God, no matter how much sin tries to press 15:47 against God, it can never overpower God because he has the divine nature that cannot be tempted. He cannot be tempted and this is why Jesus Christ came in the flesh to prove that when that same nature dwells in us. So God who could 16:05 not be tempted came and dwelt in flesh that could be tempted proving that even this pressure to be tempted, even being even if God was to come and he did come in flesh that could be tempted, it would still win. 16:23 And this is the nature we must be after. This is that nature that God wants to give us so that we you and I who are in sinful flesh who face these temptations, who face pressures from our bosses and from our wives and husbands and brothers and 16:39 sisters in the church and our neighbors and people on the road and all of that facing all of those temptations, if we really get that true divine nature which always overcomes, then we will increasingly come to a life of victory 16:54 over sin and overcoming, but we will go beyond just victory over sin to partaking of the divine nature of God. This is our goal, our destination. Um turn with me to John chapter 17. I think this verse was already referenced already. John 17 where Jesus 17:16 gives us the definition of this eternal life. Now this is may me this may seem simplistic but when the eyes of my heart were opened to this fact that my goal in this particular temptation that I'm facing right now wasn't just to 17:35 overcome this temptation. You know how that can be a short-sighted goal. Lord, just get me through this temptation and then I'll just go back to being myself. That's not what God wants to do. He doesn't want you when you are tempted to 17:47 get angry, he doesn't want you to just make it through that temptation and then go on being yourself. No, he wants to change my nature. He wants to change your nature which will allow you to overcome in that circumstance but will 18:02 continue to allow you to grow into the fullness of Jesus who has the fullness of the Godhead, the fullness of divine nature. So, I used to think that if I get through this temptation, I'll be all right, then I can relax. No, it's not 18:15 about just making it through this temptation. It's about this journey where my destination is Jesus Christ. Now the good news about that is if I fall and I want to be careful how I say this because I don't believe that sin is ever glorifying to God. It is 18:31 never glorifying to God but the beauty of the grace of God and the beauty of the sacrifice that Jesus made is this, that even that thing that is not glorifying to him, my sin, when I fell, God can use that because his ultimate destiny his ultimate goal for 18:50 my life wasn't just to get me to overcome in that area, in that temptation. His goal was not just to get me to overcome in that small short-sighted temptation. His goal is to make me like Jesus and he says, "Okay, if you fell 19:05 into sin and you're willing to trust me and you get back up and you walk in humility with dependence on me and you set your eyes on the goal, which is to be like Jesus, then I can use even your failure. I can use even your sin, and the fact 19:23 that you've repented of it, and have asked me for forgiveness, and I've cleansed it, and I don't remember it anymore, but now allow me to give you my divine nature, so that the next time, or at sometime down the road, you will come 19:37 to victory in that area, and become more like Jesus. So, John 17:3, Jesus gave us this definition of why he came down to this earth. You read earlier in John 3:16, a verse that perhaps you children learned when you were young. I learned it when I was 19:53 very young. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes on him should not perish, but get victory over sin. Right? Is that how your Bible reads? No. Should not perish, but have eternal life. 20:10 This is the destination. This is why Jesus came down to this earth. It wasn't just to forgive my sins. It wasn't just so that I would get victory over sin and be proud of it. No. It was so that he could give me his eternal life, and then 20:24 he defines, towards the end of his life, what that eternal life is here. John 17:3, "This is eternal life, that they may know you." I Put those two verses together. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's John 3:16. 20:44 That whoever believes on him should not perish, but know you. The The problem with most of Christendom is and is that we have lightened, we have made light of this knowing God. What does it mean to know you? 21:03 Why would God, Jesus, leave his throne on high? Why would the Father send his son Jesus all the way to this earth to live for 33 years and then suffer an unjust death just for us to get to know him? And the reason that it's such a light 21:20 thing is because most Christians assume that they know Jesus, that they know God. And the reality is that they don't. We saw this verse also. Let me show it to you again. Let's look at it. Matthew chapter 7. So, Jesus defined eternal life, which we 21:35 know as the reason why he came down to this earth to give us eternal life. Jesus defined it as knowing God, knowing the Father and knowing Jesus whom he sent. That's the full verse in verse 3 of John 17. But, look at what Jesus said to some people who 21:52 did know him supposedly, or at least they thought they did. Mat- Matthew 7 verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord." Now, I assume that the people who are saying, "Lord, Lord," are saying, "Lord, Lord," because they think they 22:09 know Jesus. They're not talking to Krishna or Allah or to their some other idol. They're talking to Jesus, and they think they know him. That's why they are calling him Lord. They are people who we would call born again. 22:25 They are people who have a testimony of having given their life to Jesus, but they have more. Look at this. Um Lord, these people who said, "Lord, Lord," look at what they did in verse 22. And these people will say to me on that 22:41 day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you." You called me Lord, Lord, and you went 23:01 even further. Like we saw this morning. You came into the outer court and you even came into the holy place, into the tabernacle and did service for me. You prophesied. I assume that they must have done that with the anointing of the Holy 23:15 Spirit. They cast out demons. They had to have done it in the name of Jesus, otherwise that demon would not have gone out of that person. They did miracles. They did great works of power. They came within a few feet of the most holy 23:30 place. See, the tabernacle was a pretty small building. And the distance, you could be in the holy place doing all that wonderful service for God and be just a matter of few meters, a few feet from the ark of the covenant and not 23:45 know God at all and God not know you at all. That's the danger. That's the warning that I see from these people. They were perhaps on the very edge of that veil that we heard about this morning. See, on the other side of the 23:59 veil in the holy place was the altar of incense. And I bet there were there were people who come even that close to the point of offering a sacrifice on the altar of incense or offering up this incense to God and never coming into 24:14 that most holy place relationship with Jesus. And that's why Jesus says at the end of it, "You were on the other side of the veil. I could hear your voice, but I never knew you." That would be, sadly, like a wife telling her husband, "I I 24:30 heard your voice in the house. I knew you were in the house. We got married and then after that we lived in the same house, but we never spent time in the same room. You were in your office doing your thing and I could hear you typing 24:42 on the computer, but I never knew you." Or a husband saying to his wife, "I could hear you in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, but I never knew you. We never spent time together. You never held my hand and went for for with me. 24:56 You never just sat on the couch and talked to me. This is the call, the yearning call of Jesus. He says, "I want to know you." What do you think it means to desire the presence of God? When we say that that's our goal to 25:11 preserve the glory of God and His presence in our midst in the church, what does it mean to do that? See, the the charismatics think of the presence of the Lord is this uh you know metaphysical or just a aura, this like cloud or fog or some 25:29 sensation, various other things. And maybe maybe you have that same idea, the presence of the Lord, you know, if they talk about gold dust and all this stuff that people that the devil has deceived people into thinking is an indication of 25:42 the presence of the Lord. If I ask you like this, what does it mean when I when I tell my wife that I will be in your presence, you will have my presence in your midst? It means that I'm there with her. It means that we 25:56 have intimacy with each other. We are close together. My presence is there in a real way, that we're together. And God longs for that. That is, in its essence, what it means to desire the presence of the Lord. It's a simple thing. You don't 26:13 need the music to be just right. You don't need to be crying. You don't need to be extremely joyful. You just need to be intimate with Jesus and you have His presence. I've been thinking recently about the intimacy of the Lord. 26:29 You know, I believe we we hear about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and how that means that I've opened up my life, all the rooms that I'm aware of, for the Holy Spirit to come and fill. And the more God shows me one more 26:42 room that needs to have the light turned on, I open the door and the Holy Spirit comes and fills that room. That is me allowing the Holy Spirit to come and explore the intimate, private areas of my life that nobody else knows, not even 26:56 my spouse, not even my husband or wife, not even my closest friend. But I've been thinking about this that there is an intimacy about the Lord. There are private areas of Jesus life that he has reserved for a few that say, 27:11 "I want that Jesus. I'm not content with just hanging out with you in the kitchen or in the yard cleaning the the the room and the yard and the house and all that stuff. I want more. I want to know you." And I believe that 27:26 word know has something very powerful to it. When it says that uh husbands must love their wives as Christ loves the church, he draws the picture of marriage. And that's why marriage is such a holy thing. That's why we're 27:39 we're told that the marriage bed must be held in honor. It talks about how immorality is one of is such a serious sin because a man sins against himself if he commits immorality. But the reason for that is because that picture in the 27:53 physical realm of the union between a husband and wife is a symbol, a symbolic picture of the spiritual intimacy between Jesus and his church, Jesus and each one of us in the church. And so there is an intimacy of Jesus, the 28:08 bedroom, if you will, in a in a reverential way, in a sacred way. What what that chamber, read the book of Song of Solomon and you'll see the bride and the bridegroom talk about that. The the private chamber that Jesus has that he's 28:22 longing for you and I to say, "Will you take me there, Jesus?" Let me show you that. There's a verse in Psalm 25. Psalm 25 verse 14. Psalm 25 verse 14. My The NASB reads the secret of the Lord, but I read the margin. Sometimes you can get uh some 28:40 wonderful revelation by looking at your margin, if you have a margin or other translations, other paraphrases. My My margin reads this, "The intimacy of the Lord." The secret, that's that's true, but when I read the word intimacy, 28:55 something beautiful comes alive. The intimacy of the Lord. This is Jesus talking about his intimacy, his private room that he says, "Do you want to go there with me? Do you want me to take you back into that back room where I 29:08 haven't taken anybody else yet? You, it's for you and I, for you and I to have communion. For you and I to have sweet fellowship, to have intimacy where it's you and I and nobody else. And nobody else even needs to know about the 29:23 fact that you went there because it's going to be such an awesome thing. This is what it means to covet, to long for the presence of the Lord. Lord, I want to be in your presence where you are so amazing and so awesome to me that it's 29:36 almost like I don't want anybody else to be there because I might be distracted by them and what are they thinking about me. I want to dwell in that place where it's you and I. And Jesus says, "If you want to, there is an intimacy 29:48 about me. There is an intimacy about my nature that I want you to know." The intimacy of the Lord is for those who reverence him, who fear him, who reverence him, who have a fear of him, who fear his word, who are interested in his name and his 30:05 honor, not in their name and in their honor. If you have that sincere desire, dear brother, dear sister, and that's the reason why we are building the church, because we fear God and we reverence him, not not even just to 30:19 reach the lost, not even just because we want to make disciples, but because we reverence him. If that's the reason why we're building the church, then he says, "Come, let me show you my intimacy, those rooms that you haven't seen yet. 30:34 And there are so many more rooms about God's nature than there are about mine. There are just a few rooms. I'm a finite being. Eventually, the Holy Spirit will have discovered every I will have given him every part of me. 30:47 But, I don't in my lifetime, I know I will not be done exploring all the back rooms of the divine nature. This is what I want to know. And look at what he goes on to say, "He will make them know his covenant." This is a 31:02 difference between me making a covenant with God and saying, "God, I will do this for you if you do this for me." See, that's the employee mentality, the service mentality. Lord, I'll you know, like we sign contracts. Some of you who have 31:17 jobs probably at some point signed contracts with your company saying, "I'll work for you every week or every 2 weeks or every month, you should give me a paycheck." That is my covenant with them and they pay me. This is different. This is the 31:32 husband initiating the covenant. The husband coming to the wife and saying, "Will you marry me?" "I will set the terms of the covenant," Jesus says, "and I will make you know my covenant and then we will have marriage relationship together." Have you thought 31:49 about this? Who asked who to get married in your relationship with Jesus? Did you ask Jesus to marry you when you said, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart and come and forgive my sins"? Were you the one that initiated that? See, the 32:05 difference it may seem simple, but the difference is this because if I feel like I initiated it, I chose Jesus, so now he owes it to me. Lord, I'm your child. I said that prayer. I asked you to come into my heart. I'm going to I'm 32:21 fighting to overcome sin in this particular area and I did resist temptation in that area, so you better do this for me. That's That's completely backwards. But, the true covenant, the true relationship with Jesus, the true 32:35 intimacy with Jesus is this. He says, "Will you marry me?" Now, he sets the terms of the covenant. And that's exactly what he did. Jesus said very clearly, "You did not chose choose me. I chose you." He saw you and I out of all the 32:52 multitudes of lost people in India and anywhere else in the world, and he handpicked you out of his foreknowledge, it says. Out of his foreknowledge, he picked you. He says, "I have a purpose for you. I want you to have my divine nature. I 33:09 want you to come with me into those intimate private rooms that I have and explore my divine nature. I WANT TO GIVE IT ALL TO YOU." And sadly, the devil has convinced many, many Christians to reverse it on its on its head and say, "Well, Lord Jesus, I 33:25 picked you. So, I'm going to give you 10%. You give me you take care you give me health, you give me wealth, you make me prosper in my business, you help me to do this and do that, you help me get a big ministry, you make me famous, and I will continue 33:40 to give you this 10% this employee mentality." In John chapter 5, we see how we receive this eternal life that Jesus Christ wants to give us. John 5 verse 26. As I've been saying, 34:01 the destination of our life, the goal of our life is not just to overcome right now. And that's why I I I I want to uh uh belabor to underline that point because I I tell you this as a young person, especially when I was in my 34:16 teens and 20s, I thought if I could just get through this temptation, I'll be all right. And sometimes I would, but it wouldn't be all right because guess what? There's another temptation waiting after that. And if I didn't, I thought, "Well, 34:27 that's the end of it. I didn't make it through that temptation. I fell again." But when we see that there is a purpose that's bigger than the current pressure I'm facing. Yes, God wants you to overcome. Yes, sin shall not be not have 34:39 dominion over you because you're not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14. Yes, that is all true. But God is willing to allow you to fall. God is willing to allow us to fall if he can make us like Jesus. And if he allows 34:54 us to fall, not causes us to fall, but if he allows us to fall and if he must withhold his grace because we are proud then he will. That's his law. But in doing so if we can come to the place where we truly humble ourselves and say, 35:07 "Lord, I am done with trying to fight and get victory and get victory and get victory and get victory and get victory. I'm done with that." I fall on my face before you and say, "Lord Jesus, I don't even care about victory over sin. Give 35:21 me your nature." This is what I want more than even victory over sin. In John 5:26, Jesus shows us the source of this eternal life. For just as the Father has life in himself, so the source of this eternal 35:40 life, this sweet water that God wants to fill our cup with, the source of this life is the Father. So even just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. So Jesus also has this 35:58 life in himself, this eternal life, this divine nature is also present in Jesus. Now back up in verse 21 and you'll see that this Jesus so the Father has life in and of himself, he's given to the Son to have life in and of himself, and then he 36:15 says just verse 21, John 5:21, "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he chooses. The son also gives life to whom he chooses. So, this eternal life, this 36:34 intimacy of the Lord, is not just available to everyone. Jesus isn't just handing out eternal life like that. He's just He's not just throwing eternal life out for anybody to take. To get this eternal life, Jesus must wish it. Jesus must choose to give it to 36:53 those who are the ones that he gives it to. It's not just anyone. It's for those, like we read in in Psalm 25, who reverence him, who long for this intimacy with him, who are not satisfied even with some level of victory over 37:08 sin. I'll be honest with you. And this I'm not saying this to brag or anything like that. I have come to some level of victory over some sins in my life. God is by his mercy and grace, after many years of struggling and failing, there 37:21 are some areas that God has brought me to a place of victory over sin. But, you know what's interesting? As the Lord has started to open my the eyes of my heart to this, I have a deeper hunger for more of Jesus and a more a greater 37:36 desperation in my life now than I did before when I was still falling into sin. Because I've seen that the goal is not just to get victory over sin, but it is this, I want your nature. I want to be like you, Lord Jesus, so that it 37:51 doesn't matter how great the temptation, it doesn't matter how much the pressure, only sweet water will come out. So, the son gives to whom he wishes. And who are the ones that Jesus gives this eternal life to? I want to be one of those. I 38:08 want to be one of those that Jesus comes to me and says, "Will you marry me and come into my private rooms and let's share intimacy together?" Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 13. We heard this morning how Hebrews is a 38:26 wonderful book contrasting especially for me it stands out as a book that contrast the old covenant and the new covenant. See the old covenant was all about this employee mentality not that God intended for it to be that way but that's the 38:42 only way God could relate to people because they never had the opportunity to have God's spirit dwelling in them. And we need this life in other words that cup could never be filled on the inside. You probably heard that analogy 38:56 already. That cup could never be filled on the inside so some people could come to some level of victory. You know, they they could be pure to a certain extent. Joseph for example could face a temptation with Potiphar's wife and he 39:09 could overcome. Job could say I will not lust with my eyes even under the old covenant but that was still a don't push me too much. So even Joseph if the temptation had gotten strong enough he would have fallen. Even Job if the temptation had gotten 39:25 strong enough he would have fallen. Some of the godliest men in the old covenant proved that like David who perhaps was even more spiritual than Job and Joseph he fell into adultery. So it wasn't that they somehow had God's spirit dwelling 39:40 in them Joseph and Job in that area of lust they they they just were able to overcome in those particular areas but under the new covenant now God puts his spirit within us for the very first time. Jesus was the first person in whom 39:55 the spirit of God dwelt fully inside and is the first person who had his cup filled to the brim with sweet water and now he says I want to fill your cup as well. Come be intimate with me and I will take of this life that the father 40:10 has given me because I made myself like you and he has filled my cup up to to brim I can pour it into your cup as well. Do you want that? Or do you want more of this where you're keeping your hand firmly on the lid and hoping that 40:23 the temptation will finally stop so that you can make it through without sinning. It's a completely different life. So, Hebrews contrasts the old covenant with the new covenant. You'll see how it contrasts even this employee mentality. 40:37 It says about Moses all the way, I think in chapter 2 or 3, how Moses was a servant, but Jesus is a son. Moses was even as godly and a humble man as he was, his contract with God was that of a servant, that of an employee. Jesus' his 40:53 contract with us is that of love. A new covenant is the covenant of love. So, towards the end of this book, he says this, Hebrews 13. You know, you read, we already saw that he talks about the tabernacle, he talks about the altars, 41:07 he talks about the high priest and the high priests and the priesthood of Melchizedek and all this stuff. And then he says in verse 10, Hebrews 13:10, "We" He's talking about you and I, who having read all of these things, having 41:19 listened to all these messages, are drawn, have our appetites uh interested and teased by the desire to be intimate with Jesus. We who are after this divine nature have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right 41:38 to eat. We, you and I, let me read that again, have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. What he's saying is that there are people who will be in this service mentality, the service employee 41:53 relationship with God. I'll serve you, God, you do this for me. I'll serve you, God, we'll do this, you do this for me. They never come to worshipping God. They're content to stay in the holy place and in the courtyard. And I think 42:05 it's possible, the danger for us, for myself I know as one of the original CSC members, I can be proud of that. The But, the danger is greater for me having been here longer than perhaps most of you. Having been here for that long that 42:20 I can remain in that service mentality is, "Lord, I've been a CFC member for so long. How could you do this to me? How could you allow me to go through that circumstance? Why won't you give me this?" That's the danger for me. That's 42:33 the danger for us that we'll dwell in the holy place, in the courtyard content with the service, content with the conference, content with the church and the church local church is growing, content that things are going well, 42:46 content that our messages are on YouTube and all this stuff. And never coming and dwelling in the presence of the Lord. But, the good news is this, we have an altar from which those who just are content with serving the tabernacle have no right to eat. 43:02 For the verse 11, "The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp." I don't have time to show it to you, but you can read it in in Exodus 43:17 23, I think, and then also in Leviticus 4, where he talks about this, where the the sin offering that was made for the people if they sinned unintentionally or even if the high priest sinned or the whole congregation sinned, they had to 43:30 offer an offering of a bull on the altar outside in the courtyard. There were two altars as we saw earlier, an altar out in the courtyard and then an altar in the tabernacle. And what they had to do was to sacrifice the bull 43:44 on that altar and take out some very specific organs and burn those on that altar, which represented the sin offering. And then they would have take the blood and sprinkle it and put it on the horns of the altar in the holy place 43:57 and sprinkle it before the veil. But, then all the rest of the animal, everything else, see, there were very specific parts that were offered that represented the sin offering. But everything else, the hide and the the rest of the meat and even the refuse, it 44:12 says, was to be taken outside the camp into a sacred or a consecrated place, a clean place, it says. So, you would burn the certain specific organs of the of the of the bull as the sin offering, but then you take everything else and 44:28 outside the camp and burn it there. And then he says that this uh verse 12, he goes on to say, "Therefore, Jesus also, because we have an altar." And I believe the altar he's talking about is that altar outside the camp. It's not It wasn't even really an 44:45 altar. There wasn't really an altar in those days, but it's that altar outside the camp where Jesus also, it says in verse 12, "that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate." That's why 45:00 the the Golgotha, where he suffered, was outside the city of Jerusalem. So, he says in verse 13, "Let us, who desire this intimacy with Jesus, go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach." I read these verses for many, many years 45:16 and didn't really understand it. And I I don't claim to know to to say that I fully understand it, but it's come alive to me in the last few weeks in a in a fresh way. And that's the essence of what I wanted to share with you this 45:28 evening. Is that for those of us who have come and have experienced the forgiveness of our sins and perhaps even some level of victory over sins in certain areas, are we as individuals, as families, or as churches content to just hang 45:46 around the altar, whether it's the altar in the courtyard or the altar in the holy place? Are we content to hang out there? Because guess what? Jesus is outside the camp. Jesus, having done all of this, left and went outside the camp. And now he says, 46:03 it's like he's whispering and he's calling and says, "Do you want to come? Or are you taken up with all these things I've done for you? Yes, I've forgiven your sins. Yes, I've allowed you to come to some level of victory. 46:13 Yes, you have a good reputation. Yes, you have a ministry. Yes, you're an elder or whatever it might be, but do you want to come with me? Do you want to come with me outside the camp and nobody will even know you're there. Nobody's going to watch you and 46:27 be in awe of all that you do." Think if Jesus called one of the high priests. And the high priest said, "No, but it's my turn to do the sacrifice. I get to impress all the people with the sprinkling and the singing and whatever 46:40 else they did." Think about it like that today. When Jesus calls you to be quiet and it's your turn to preach the message. When it Jesus calls you to be quiet and it's your turn to lead the singing perhaps, will you? When Jesus calls you to do something 46:55 menial when you covet some prominent ministry, will you choose that? That's the essence of what it means to go outside the camp. And when Jesus calls, when Jesus says, "I am going here." Will you follow him? I just remembered an incident uh some 47:13 years ago when I was uh it was like a Saturday evening and I was just studying God's word. I had to speak at my church the next Sunday and I was just thinking about what I should share and I was trying to focus and I heard one of my children crying. 47:27 And I'd also heard my wife. I knew she was in the kitchen uh cleaning the kitchen. I heard one of the children crying and I was trying to shut out my children's voice because they're bothering me from studying God's word. I'm trying to study and hear, 47:40 "Jesus, what are you trying to say to me?" And I'm trying to get something out of God's word and meanwhile the baby's still crying and my wife is working in the kitchen and I'm trying to hear what Jesus is saying and then all of a sudden 47:50 I heard what Jesus was saying. He was saying, "You need to get up and take care of your child." So simple as simple as that. Your child's diaper is dirty, you need to go change the child's diaper. That's where It was like I was sitting 48:03 there and Jesus and I were about to have a Bible study and Jesus left the Bible study. Jesus went upstairs. Says, "There is a practical need. There is a reproach. There is something ordinary and menial and simple that will 48:18 that that is representative of my life." You know what it says about Jesus that he went about doing for 30 years before he ever did a single miracle? He went about doing good. When he saw a need, he did it. If there was some kind word he could say to 48:33 somebody who looked discouraged, he said it. If there was somebody sitting in a corner that looked lonely, he found them out. Long before he turned the water into wine, long before he raised the dead, he saw the glory of this eternal 48:48 life, this nature of God that goes about doing good. When Jesus gets up from your Bible study, my dear brother, dear sister, when Jesus gets up from that religious activity, that that sincere service that you're about to offer to 49:03 him, and he says, "Guess what? I'm going outside the camp." Will you go with him? Then you will have the intimacy that he longs to give you. Then in that private room, he will pour into your life his divine nature. And it won't matter and you will get 49:18 revelation of his word where you go into and preach a sermon or or do something else and you will continue to serve him, but you will come back with such fullness of his divine nature that it will flow out of you. Where you won't 49:30 have to make it a a work. You won't have to struggle to produce that message. You won't have to struggle to do that good work. It will flow out of you because God has filled your cup to the brim and overflowing. Paul understood this. 49:45 Let me show you in Philippians chapter 3. As I as we saw in Hebrews 13, there was the burning of that which represented the sin offering, but then there was the burning of everything else. I think of this as two burnings. The 50:00 burning up of my sin. Yes, thank you, Lord Jesus, that you've taken care of that. But Jesus wants more. He wants to burn up everything of you. The sin and that which you think is not sin. Those ambitions, those goals, those 50:14 aspirations, those desires, those habits that you have that Yeah, you could justify it and say that's not really sinful. That television program. Yeah, it's not really that simple. It's clean. What's wrong with that? That habit, that 50:29 thing that you like to do every day, that that that way you like to spend your money or that other that music you like to listen to. Sure, you can you can justify it all you want with the fact that there's no verse in in the 50:42 Bible that says you cannot listen to that or you cannot watch that, but Jesus is interested in far more than just the letter of the law and burning up that which is sin. He says, "I'm going outside the camp and I want you to bring everything of 50:56 yourself with me and we're going to burn it. We're going to have a bonfire over there. We're going to have an altar that has nothing to do with the altar of sacrifice of your sin, where I'm GOING TO BURN UP EVERYTHING." YOUNG PEOPLE, 51:08 you want to get married? And I say this with sincerity as one who's married and has come to a place in my life where even in my marriage I treat it like that. When God can bring you to the place where you say, "Lord, it really 51:20 doesn't even matter to me if I get married if it means that I won't have fellowship and intimacy with you." Now, the good news is this for young people, don't lose hope, that you can have intimacy with Jesus even after you're 51:32 married. In fact, it can get sweeter. I pray it will. But this can be the prayer of our hearts that Lord, this thing that I want, marriage or other good things, let it never be at the expense of you going in another direction and me 51:45 saying, "No, I want this. Or if you have your heart set on one particular girl or one particular boy, and maybe they're sitting here in this conference, but you find Jesus is saying no. I can't go with you into that marriage. 52:00 And he's speaking to your heart and your elders are speaking into you, but you have your heart set on it. Will you go with Jesus and be prepared to suffer the loss of all things, good things? Good things from the world standpoint, and then your worldly 52:15 friends will say, "What's so bad about THAT? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GIVE THAT UP? Is that really sinful?" And your life will become more than just is it sin or is it not sin? Because you've left the altar of sin offering long time ago, and 52:29 you've gone with Jesus outside the camp, and you've given him everything and say, "Here, Lord, you can burn it up." That ministry you covet, you want to do this or you want to do that, and it's sincere. Yes, I'm sure it is. But when 52:41 you're willing to allow the Lord to burn that up, too, oh, what he will pour into your cup, his own divine nature. Philippians 2 verse 2, in the last part. He begins by saying, "Beware of the false circumcision." This is probably a study 52:59 in and of itself, the false circumcision and the true circumcision. Paul is saying, "Beware of the false circumcision." There is a cutting off. There is a cutting off of certain things that is false, where you will get rid of 53:13 certain outward things, and maybe you'll come and have your sins but it's a false circumcision because there is a true circumcision, he says in verse 3. We are the true circumcision, which is what? Who worship in the spirit of God and 53:28 glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. That means I want nothing of my flesh, nothing that pleases my flesh, I want to do nothing that comes out of my flesh. My confidence is only in Jesus Christ, and my glory is only in Jesus Christ. 53:46 This is the glory and the presence that we want to preserve in our church. And he goes on to say of how he was qualified to glory in his flesh because he was a Benjamite and a Hebrew of Hebrews, Pharisee of Pharisees, etc. But 54:02 then he goes on to say in verse 7, "But all these things, whatever things were gained to me, what things were gained to you? Paul's not talking about sinful things. Sinful things are never gain. But Paul is talking about those other things that he 54:17 used to think of as gain. Lord, you'll give me a ministry. You'll allow me to lead the singing, or you'll allow me to do this, or somebody will refer to me, or somebody will tell me what a good Christian I am, or somebody will tell me 54:30 how much I helped them. I will be exalted a little bit more. All of these things that the world considers gain. He says, "Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. I've gone with Jesus 54:45 outside the camp and said, 'Lord, you can burn that.'" "More than that, I count all things, whether they were gain or loss, to to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, 55:03 knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, dung, absolute nothing, so that I may gain Christ." See, the reason we are willing then to go and allow Jesus to burn up 55:19 all these other things. My job, my house, my car, my scooter, my anything else, my savings account, my retirement, all these plans I have. I'm willing to allow Jesus to burn that up on that other altar outside the camp because 55:36 I've seen the surpassing value of Jesus. This is how we preserve the presence and the glory of Jesus in our in our midst is we're captivated with him that through our circumstances, it doesn't matter what we do, it doesn't matter 55:49 again, even if we overcome in a particular situation as long as that hunger for that intimacy of knowing Jesus in his true nature is growing in us. And if God is able to give us that divine nature in increasing measure, oh, 56:05 we will look at one by one the things of this earth just being taken away from us and burned up. One day they will. Whether in our lifetime or not, everything that we have saved and and earned and gathered and hoarded for ourselves will all be burned 56:23 up. And Jesus is inviting us to this privilege of saying, "Let me burn it up now because if you allow me to do that, I will give you my eternal life the Father has given to me and I have the right and the and the privilege 56:38 to give it to you. Come, let me give it to you." So that I may gain Christ, verse 8, verse 9, "and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which 56:55 comes from God on the basis of faith." See, he talks about two groups of people who are found in him. It's possible to be found in him, apparently, people who think they know Jesus, who have a righteousness of their own. It belongs to them. They earned it. 57:11 They gritted their teeth and they overcame and they have come and now um they they're not tempted by lust anymore. You know what I call that? That's Buddha manifest in the flesh, not Christ manifest in the flesh because Buddha 57:23 said the same thing. He says, "You meditate hard long enough and you do this and you chant and you close your eyes and you sit in a particular position and you won't be tempted by lust. Christ manifest in the flesh is a 57:35 completely different thing. It is the divine nature, not the human nature succeeding in overcoming, but the divine nature which always overcomes. This is what This is our goal, that I may be found in him not having this 57:50 righteousness of my own according to the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the night righteousness which comes from God. This righteousness which has been poured into my cup by Jesus because I was willing to suffer the loss 58:05 of all things, willing to let him burn up everything in that altar outside the camp. Verse 10, that I may know him. I don't know if I understand the extent of how Paul understood it because Paul is saying this at the end of his life 58:23 having walked faithfully he wrote Philippians towards the end of his life and his desire as he got closer to Jesus he says, I feel like I've walked with you for so long but there's so much more I WANT TO KNOW OF YOU. You've shown me 58:36 so many intimate rooms of your house Jesus but I know there are so many more and I want them all that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death in order 58:51 that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, eternal life. See, this is how Jesus built his church. Let me show you in John chapter 6. Like we've already seen Jesus came to give us eternal life, not just to give 59:11 us victory in a particular sin, not just to allow us to overcome lust, not just to overcome anger, but to give us eternal life which overcomes lust and overcomes anger and all those other things. But that's our destination. 59:25 And so he came to this earth to show the people of Israel and ultimately to show the world that this is what he wanted to give us. You see at the beginning of John chapter 6 and verse 2 that he had a mega church. You know, Jesus had a mega church at one 59:38 point. John 6:2, it says a large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick. These were people who believed in Jesus at some level. They saw something impressive either in the 59:51 courtyard or in the holy place and they says, "Man, let's this church you got to go here. The preaching is fantastic and the fellowship is great and even a few miracles. Let's go listen to him and his preaching is awesome." 1:00:03 A mega church. Jesus seeing the mega church says, "I know why you guys are here. You don't really want eternal life. You want more miracles. You want more conferences. You want more fellowship. You want more good sermons, all that, but you don't really 1:00:17 want eternal life. You want more sacrifices and more praise and better praise and all that, but when I leave and go outside the camp, you don't want to go with me." That's what he saw in the mega church. We see in verse 34, 1:00:31 they said, "Lord, always give us this bread." Because he had said, you know, "The bread of God is that which verse 30 33, that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world." They says, "Yeah, give us this bread. Do a miracle 1:00:44 for us every day." This is the Christianity that says, "Lord Jesus, do a miracle for us every day. Every sickness that I have, heal it, Lord. Every lame or blind person that comes, heal them." Would you want to go to such a church 1:00:58 where every time somebody that's lame or sick or blind gets healed by a miracle? This is what the mega church wanted. And so Jesus says, "Well, I got to clear out this rabble. I want to find out who are the ones that really want to go into the 1:01:12 inner room. Who are really after my intimacy?" So he says, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst. Verse 38, he clarifies what this bread of life is. I have come down from heaven 1:01:28 not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me that of all that he has given me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. We'll skip to verse 50. Um This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that 1:01:45 one may eat of it and not die. Actually, skip down to verse 53. He says, "This is the bread of life is is to not do my will but the will of him who sent me." And he says, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat this same 1:02:00 bread and flesh, unless you too really want to not do your own will, not seek your own gain, be willing to give up everything of yourself, unless you're willing to do that, you cannot have eternal life. Unless you eat the flesh 1:02:16 of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves." He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who 1:02:32 eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me as I and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate 1:02:48 and died. He who eats this bread will have eternal life. The result of that, when they saw Jesus leaving the big show, the theater experience, when Jesus when they saw Jesus leaving outside the camp, verse 1:03:03 66, as a result of this, the mega church withdrew. Many of his disciples withdrew. And I believe that if this is the message and this is the essence of the message that we hear in CFC. As we continue to preach this message, there 1:03:21 will be many who will withdraw, many disciples, many who were once wholehearted followers of Jesus will withdraw because they realize, you know what? I've gone with Jesus long enough. That other church down the street, they 1:03:32 really do miracles. I'm tired of this church. I haven't even seen one miracle my whole life here. That other church, they've got the anointing, they've got the presence, they've got the glory cuz gold dust comes down. And Jesus will say, let them 1:03:45 go. Come to me if you want not the gold dust, but you want eternal life. They withdrew and were not walking with him anymore, and then he's left with 12. And Jesus said to the 12, do you want that, too? Do you want to go and follow the gold 1:04:03 dust and the miracles, so-called miracles, and the great music, and the bands perfectly in sync, and all this stuff? And Peter says, Lord, where else can we get eternal life? You have the words OF ETERNAL LIFE. THAT'S WHAT WE WANT. THIS IS WHY Peter 1:04:19 became the mighty apostle that he was. This is why Peter could be used, uneducated, illit- I don't know if he was illiterate, but he was certainly uneducated fisherman that he was, could preach such a mighty sermon, and could 1:04:30 be involved in building the church, could be the leader of the apostles. Why? Because he realized, I will go with you, Jesus, wherever you go, even if it means that nobody will be impressed by it, even if you don't give me any 1:04:42 ministry, because I want eternal life. I want to know you, Jesus. I've gotten to know you over these past few years. I don't know how many years it had been, but he said, I'm after eternal life, Jesus. I'm not after the bread, I'm not 1:04:56 after the wine, I'm not after the miracles. I want eternal life. I believe that has been the testimony of CFC as well. There were many that were impressed by the teachings years ago, and then God called a few families. We 1:05:10 heard about that from brother Ian this morning. It says, "A small work." It It shrank down to a handful of families meeting in a living room 40 years ago. And they said, "Lord, we want eternal life." This is the essence. This is how we will 1:05:26 preserve the presence and the glory of Jesus for another generation so that 40 years from now, whether we're sitting in this building or somewhere else, we will be preaching the same message, "Come to me and I will give you eternal life." 1:05:41 Jesus said, I'll close this with this one last verse. Turn to Genesis 22. You know, I showed you already that Jesus said to those in Matthew 7, "I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness." Yeah, you did all those works. The music was 1:06:00 great, the miracles were great, you cast out demons and all that stuff, but I never knew you. And then there was some to whom Jesus said, "I know you." Here's one. Let me set the context. God Abraham had lived for many years without having 1:06:17 a child, and I'm sure he longed to have a child. I'm sure any any father and mother would any husband and wife would long to have children. I bet they longed to have children. And he lived to the age of 99 without children. Then he reached the 1:06:31 age of 100 without children, him and Sarah. But God had promised him, "I'll give you a son." And he'd suffered the loss of many things. Suffered the loss. Counted it as loss. He says, "Okay, Lord, you give me a promise." He says, "Okay, even 1:06:44 if it doesn't come out of my wife Sarah, will you take Ishmael?" He says, "No, not Ishmael," God says. "It will come out of Sarah." "Okay, I'm holding on in promise, in hope against hope," it says in Romans, that Abraham 1:06:56 held on. He says, "God, I'm going to hold on to you. You're going to come through." I'm sure he doubted at times, but he held on. He didn't give up. And one day Isaac was born. Those things that he had counted lost, those 100 1:07:08 years of loss, he experienced one day in a moment. God salvaged it and gave him a son out of his own body and out of his wife's own body, Isaac. But then God says, "Now, I want you to suffer the loss of this very thing that I have 1:07:24 promised you. Take your son Isaac." Came about verse 1, chapter 22 verse 1. After these things, what things? After Abraham had counted the loss of all things. And he had received the some level of the promise, God says, "No, 1:07:41 Isaac is not the promise. Jesus is the promise. And I want to prove that you're worthy of the seed, which is Jesus, not Isaac." See, that was the real promise. That's why we get to partake in the blessing. If it was Isaac, guess what? 1:07:54 We're wasting our time here. We better move to Israel. But the promise was Jesus, and God was interested in proving in Abraham that that promise of Jesus would be true in his life. So, he says, "Abraham." He says, "Here I am." And you 1:08:06 know the story. Says, "Take your son Isaac, this very son whom I've promised you, and kill him because I want you to prove to me that you're interested in the seed." So, he takes him up to the mountain. It was a 3-days journey, right? 1:08:21 And I can imagine Abraham was tortured. "Lord, why? You just gave me Isaac. You're going to take him away? That thing that I waited for so long? You're going to dash those hopes now? You just teased me all this time." Have you ever 1:08:35 had those thoughts? I have. Where you felt like God was just teasing you. No, he's not. He wants to know if you want his intimacy. And you long for that. You want to be his friend more than anything else, no matter what he gives you and 1:08:49 doesn't give you. So, he starts to kill Isaac, and then God, the angel of the Lord, stays Abraham's hand. And you read here, verse 10. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son, but the angel of the Lord called to him and from 1:09:04 heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham." And he said, "Here I am." He says, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him, for now I know." I love those words. Now I know, Abraham, I tested you. I saw you were willing to 1:09:24 give up even that which you thought I had promised you. Now I know you. This is how Jesus longs to know us, dear brothers, dear sisters. This is how he longs to know us as his church, that we're willing to be intimate with him, 1:09:37 that no matter what it is. And if you feel like God's called you in a particular way, or given you a ministry, or promised you something on this earth, you got a job and then just like that God took it away, you were healed of 1:09:48 something and then it came right back. In the midst of that, if you can say, "Here I am, Lord." And then you hear him say, "Now I know." There's a hymn that's really touched my heart in the last We used to sing it and I miss some 1:10:02 of the old hymns that we used to sing in CFC from the that Christian hymnal or the the golden bells, too. Wonderful hymns in there. One of those has come alive to me in a fresh way in the light of these thoughts. It's called 1:10:15 Jesus, I my cross have taken. Jesus, I my cross have taken. I thought we could sing it together um if the team wants to come up. Thank you.
