0:08 66 years ago I discovered Christ died for my sins and has accepted me and I was forgiven. I was born again. But for 16 years after that I was defeated defeated defeated defeated defeated. I would sin and ask forgiveness. Sin and 0:24 ask for You know these merry-go-rounds where you sit on a wooden horse and many wooden horses and the thing goes for children sit on it and they go round and round and round and round and round. And after sitting on that horse 0:36 and riding for 1 hour you're still in the same place. That's the amazing thing about a merry-go-round. You never make any progress. But a lot of movement a lot of movement but no progress. That's a merry-go-round. Many people's Christian life is like 0:49 that. You sin and you repent and you ask forgiveness and you come back and you sin again and you repent ask forgiveness and you come back. You sin and you repent and you ask forgiveness and you come back. And day after day after day 1:01 you're in this is not a very merry-go-round. It's a pretty wretched go go around. And you But the point is you're always in the same place. And you know that 1 year from now you'll be in the same place in this wretched go around. 1:18 And you're back there all the time. And you say, "When will I ever get out of this?" This is exactly how I felt. I can sympathize with you because I faced it myself till one day in his great mercy I saw this truth. 1:37 Just like you remember in your I hope most of you have received Christ as your savior. And you remember the days when you were not sure whether you were a child of God. And now you know that Christ has come into your heart 1:49 and your sins are forgiven. That's very important. That is the first thing that I had in my life. You know I I I was grew up in a Christian home. So, I must have asked Christ to come into my life and I have maybe when I was 13 2:02 years old. Because my dad would take me regularly to meetings. My dad was a born-again believer. And he wouldn't have sent never sent us to a dead church, always some good church that preached the gospel. And from 13 years old I was hearing 2:15 hearing Christ died for me and I would ask Christ to come to my heart and I would at the end of the meeting, how many would like to receive Christ in my heart? I would raise my hand, I want to Christ come to your heart. I would say 2:23 Lord Jesus come to my heart. But my life is the same the next day. Maybe I would change for 4 5 days, but next week I'm the same person. Then the next meeting would come again, I say Lord come into my heart. And it went round, it was just another 2:36 merry-go-round. Where you um never seem to progress. And 5 years, 100 times I asked Christ to come into my heart. I'm the same person. Still defeated. Until one day, I'm very thankful when I 2:56 was 19 and a half years old. I read one verse. I want you to turn back to this verse in John chapter 6. John chapter 6 and verse 37. It was just my daily Bible reading. I was already a 3:16 in the Navy. I had become an officer in the Navy by then. And I was sitting in my room in the naval base in India. And my daily Bible reading that day was John 6. And I came to John 6:37. Where I read the last part of that 3:34 verse. John 6:37, the last part, the one who comes to me I will certainly certainly not cast out. That means I won't reject anyone who comes to me, certainly. And for some 3:53 in some wonderful way I didn't have any I didn't see any light. I didn't hear any voice from heaven. I just in my heart I read it and I said, "Lord Jesus, I believe it." And I said, "Lord, I've come to you at least a hundred times in the last 6 4:09 years. I must have asked you come into my heart, come into my heart about a hundred times from the time I was 13 and now I'm 19." And I felt the Lord saying, "I never rejected you. I will never cast you out." I read that 4:23 verse. That means even the first when I came to him he did not cast me out. But what was lacking? I did not believe. He had accepted me, but I didn't believe it. You know, in electricity for electricity to flow if you study a little bit of physics 4:39 there's got to be a positive and a negative. And when you put on a switch for example what happens when you put on a switch and the light comes on or the fans run? There's just two wires come in touch with each other. When you turn off the switch the two 4:55 wires are set apart. Then the light goes off and the fan stops running. And when you put on the switch the two wires touch. That's all that happens inside that switch. Two wires touch. If you haven't opened a switch, I have 5:11 and I sometimes connected up broken wires like that. I know. So it's some like something like that, you know. Christ loves you and accepts you. But if you don't believe that the contact is not made. And you live in doubt and ignorance 5:31 always and uncertainty. Oh, I'm not sure that and then next time again you say, "Lord, come into my heart, come into my heart." That's what I did. But one day the wires touched. I said, "Lord Jesus I believe you have accepted me. 5:50 His wife was always full of power. Power was flowing, but my wire had not made contact with it. One day I made contact and I want all of you to make that contact if you have not made it already that Christ has accepted you. 6:06 You asked Christ to come into your heart and he did come. If you were sincere, he was more sincere. If you say Lord, I want to give up my sin, not if you came to Christ for some money or health or something, but if you came 6:24 to Christ because you wanted to give up your sins and you wanted to become a child of God, well, you can be sure that he has accepted you. I believe that verse. I he will deed not cast me out and that was 66 years ago and I've never doubted 6:41 that for one day after that even though before that for 6 years I was doubting doubting doubting doubting. And that day I believed and it changed my life. So if you want to be rooted, you must first of all be absolutely sure 6:58 not on the basis of your feelings, but on the basis of God's word, he has accepted you. Him that comes to me, I will certainly Why is that word certainly there? It's not necessary. If you had just said I will not cast you out would be enough, 7:14 but he said I will certainly not cast out and the Jesus used that word certainly especially for weak people like you and me who would doubt whether such a rotten person like me will he accept me? He says certainly. So that's first and then from there 7:32 he said now Lord, I want to live an overcoming life and that's where we need to believe that Jesus not only forgives us, he gives us His Holy Spirit. See John chapter with 14. John chapter 14. 7:58 It's one of the most difficult verses in the Bible. And you find out the most difficult verse in the Bible, you'll find it here. John 14 verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Not one commandment, all His 8:19 commandments. Don't you think that's one of the most difficult verses in the Bible? To keep all His commandments and to say, "If I love Him, I must keep all of His commandments." And I said, "Lord, I can't. I'm not able to. I don't have the 8:33 strength. I find temptation is so strong pulling me the other way. I don't have the strength to pull against His like a tug-of-war. A tug-of-war against temptation and the devil and always I'm losing. Always the rope slips out of my hand. 8:48 The other side is winning the tug-of-war. Temptation, the devil is winning. And the The thing is those temptations are the lust in my own body. They are pulling and I'm failing. They are pulling and I'm failing. Failing 9:02 the tug-of-war against the lusts in my own body. And here I'm told to keep all His commandments. How in the world can I do it? The question comes. And I'm sure those disciples to whom Jesus said this is the last day that 9:18 Jesus was with them when He said this, they were sitting at the table. They had finished the breaking of bread and Judas had gone away. All that is all in chapter 13. And now He speaks to the other 11 disciples. You love me, 9:33 keep my commandments. And they were honest. They They were a thought in their mind, "How in the world can we keep his commandments? He told us to love our enemies." And they think just like we think, "Brother, even some of my friends it's 9:46 difficult to love. Imagine loving my enemies. What all commandments you give that I shouldn't lust with my eyes? I should never get angry? How in the world can I keep these commandments? To bless everybody who curses me 10:02 and to forgive everybody who hurts me? Lord, it's got I never to seek my own glory or honor. And never to seek people's honor. I should When I pray, I must be I must not let people know how much I pray. If I fast, I must not let anybody know how 10:20 much I fast. If I give money, nobody must know what I gave. Everything my work and my service to God must all be secret. I must not seek any honor for myself in anything in the Christian life. Zero honor for myself. Everything 10:35 for the glory of God. You think you can live like that?" I said, "Lord, I cannot." "If you love me, keep my commandments." I said, "I cannot keep it." And so, before we tell him, he gives us the answer. The answer is in the next verse. 10:53 So, John 14:15 is one of the most difficult verses in the Bible. Keep my commandments. The next verse tells us how he's going to help us keep the commandments. I will ask the Father, John 14:16, "and he will give you a helper." 11:09 A helper for what? A helper to keep the commandments. I wish people had seen that that the primary reason why the Holy Spirit has been given is not to speak in tongues or to do miracles or to preach or to sing. No. 11:27 It is to keep God Jesus' commandments. "I will ask the Father to give you another helper, verse 17, the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit is a helper. You know what a helper is? If my 11:46 little son can't lift some box, I'll say, "Don't worry, son. I'll help you." And I help him, and he lifts it easily because I'm helping him. He's holding 1% of it, and I'm lifting 99% of the weight. That is a picture of how the Holy Spirit 12:03 helps us. This heavy box, I can't lift it. I can't even move it. I can put my hand and try, but I can't do it. But Dad comes along and lifts it with me. And this lifts it He takes He does it all himself, but he gives me the credit 12:23 of He He says, "That's how you know." If I'm shifting a table or something, and it's pretty heavy, I would ask my little son when they were when they were small at home, "Okay, son, you hold the other end of the table." And he's He can't 12:36 lift it. It's too heavy. I'm lifting the whole table, but he puts his fingers there, and he can come tell Mommy, "You know, Dad, I and Dad lifted the table." Not Dad and I, I and Dad uh moved that table. Yeah. I'm happy he feels that uh he could lift 12:53 the table. But it's because I helped him. Think of that picture always next time you're tempted with something too strong for you. The Holy Spirit says, "And you can testify in the meeting, I got victory over sin." But Well, actually, the Holy Spirit helped 13:10 you. But give glory to God. But what I want to say is, if there's a commandment Jesus has given, He's also given the Holy Spirit to help you keep it. Will you remember that one sentence all your life? Just one sentence. 13:28 If the Lord has given you a commandment, he's also given you the Holy Spirit to help you keep that commandment.
