0:01 Brothers and sisters, it's wonderful that we can come together like this and hear God's word concerning building the church of Jesus Christ in [clears throat] holiness and humility. 0:19 The two most important requirements. I I call them the two legs on which we stand. If you have only holiness and only or only humility, you're unstable. You need both holiness and humility to have a stable Christian life and a 0:37 stable walk with God. There are some people who major on holiness but don't have humility. There are others who major on hol humility but don't have holiness. But I pray that all of us will be will measure on both of them because Jesus 0:57 taught us to be to emphasize both. So [clears throat] what I'm going to share is basically from what I myself have experienced in my life and that's the only thing worth sharing. When I was 1:18 converted and baptized, God gave me a great desire, I can only put it like that, to study the Bible as the word of God. Now, I was working. I was a working person. And I was working for the next seven or eight years before I quit my 1:36 job to serve the Lord full-time. And in those seven eight years I spent every day I'd spent some time studying the Bible. I had not read the whole Bible till then. I was 19 and a half. I was 21 when I was got baptized. And for the next six or seven years I 1:54 studied the scriptures, studied the scriptures. And that was my preparation later on when I came out into full-time Christian work to start a church and to plant many churches in different places. Because here was the guideline, here was 2:11 the pattern that God had and laid down and and as I became very familiar with the scriptures and I went around different churches in those seven eight years listening I I didn't get much chance to preach those 2:28 days because I was young but I listened carefully to what different churches were preaching different different denominations. I went to the brethren to the Pentecostals and CSI and all types of churches and the Lord told me to listen 2:45 carefully and to note what is it that you studied in the Bible which they are not preaching. What is it that's being left out? They're not preaching things contrary to 3:03 scripture. Most of these churches were preaching some things based on scripture. Particularly the brethren and Pentecostal people, they were preaching things based on scripture. They would open the Bible and preach. But as I 3:19 examined what they were saying with my own study of the word, I found there were certain things left out. And so the picture I had in my mind was we don't know what Jesus looks like, but we have paintings of Christ. So let's 3:34 imagine here is a painting of Christ like the common paintings we have of his face and if you have somebody's rubbed out part of it like there's only a year there or one eye part of the mouth 3:51 and part of the head see how ugly it is when the full picture of that is a beautiful picture of Christ but when some parts are missing it's ugly. And the Lord showed me that is what is happening in Christendom. 4:11 The full message of the gospel which presents Christ as the savior and lord of the world is a beautiful message but parts of it has been left out either because they feel that will offend somebody if 4:28 they preach that or because they were careless in not studying carefully what the Bible taught. So the result is a I'd call a hideous a hideous means a ugly picture of Christ that is being 4:46 presented in the church. And then as time went on and the Lord called me to we started a church when I was 35 years old. The Lord said to me, "Now you know the things that are left out. 5:06 Now I want you to preach those things [music] when you try to start a church. You will not be able to you will not be able to start a church the way I want it to be planted if any part is left out. 5:24 The whole council of God must be preached. So I studied carefully and I remember when we started our first church in 1975 I said okay I'm going to go to start 5:42 with what the Lord told us told me to start with. So it's like going to the ABC to the ABC of building the church. The Lord Jesus before he went up to heaven 6:01 gave a commission to his disciples. He said based on that commission that we do his work. We don't do whatever we just feel like. So the first thing he said was just as he was going up to heaven before he went 6:19 up he was giving a last command to his disciples in Mark chapter 16. And verse 15, he said to his disciples in Mark 16:E1 15, 6:38 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creatures. He who is believed and is baptized will be saved but he who does not believe 6:57 will be condemned. This we can say is the basic elementary truth to receive forgiveness of sins. See man's biggest problem is sin that separates him from God. 7:15 And in order to restore to fellowship with God, here is the basic elementary truth. If you believe, turn from your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and get baptized, you will be saved. 7:32 Saved from eternal damnation. But that's not the only commission he gave. You can say that is a small part of Jesus' face. What about the other part of it? to get the full picture and that is in Matthew chapter 28 7:51 which is also this is called the great commission there he said go into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone but here he says in verse 19 when you go to all the nations he didn't 8:08 just say preach the gospel he said make them disciples you You know a disciple is a follower. So he said make disciples and then baptize them. So it's not that we just make a person 8:26 believe and baptize. No, make him a disciple and then baptize him in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit. And then teach them after you have made them disciples and baptize 8:43 them. there's something more to be done. Teach them to do all that I commanded you. Now, there's a difference between saying, if you read carefully, teach them all I commanded you and teach them to do all I commanded you. You see the difference, 9:02 teach them everything I taught you or teach them to do everything I taught you. It's like you know you when we teach children whether training a child to ride a bicycle or any other job. 9:22 It's not enough to teach them this is how you got to do it. You got to actually teach them to do it. I remember the days when I used to teach my children how to ride a bicycle. I have to make them sit on it and hold them and 9:36 teach them how to pedal the pedals and gradually train them. This is how we make disciples. Teach them to do everything that I commanded you. Now most of you have read the gospels 9:56 and you know the number of things that Jesus taught. many things. There's a very high standard. Forgive everyone. Everyone. And he said if you don't forgive everyone, 10:15 your heavenly father will not forgive you. Just let's take that one command. We are seeking to bring people into God's kingdom. And the first thing they need is forgiveness 10:33 because we have a huge list of sins that we have committed and I can't come into God's presence with all those sins. And the reason why Christ died on the cross was to for those sins to be forgiven. So the message of the gospel 10:51 is that Christ died for you and me to forgive us so that we can come into fellowship with God. But let me tell you that 99% of churches do not preach. They they don't first of all many of them don't even preach repentance. They 11:09 say believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. What about turning from your sinful life? That's the first thing. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that repent part is left out in a lot of preaching of the gospel. I remember in one of the songs this very 11:29 popular song in gospel circles one line says the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus apart receives. That's a lie. The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon 11:48 receives. What about repentance? Will he get pardon without repentance? But that repentance part is left out in that song. But that is one of the most popular songs in the preaching of the gospel. 12:05 The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus of pardon receives. So we may say, well truly believes means he's got to repent first. But that unconverted person doesn't know that that's required. So when we used to sing 12:20 that song in Bangalore in our church, we changed it. The vilest offender who repents and believes that moment from Jesus, a pardon received. Now many of you may have sung that song numerous times. But did you notice that error in that? 12:39 I don't think many of you have noticed that error. And that is typical of how it is in Christendom. They sing something without thinking. Is there something missing here? Yes, there is something missing. Very important. Without that repentance, 12:55 belief is useless. So that's just one example. So that's what we began to teach. Here's something missing. We got to preach. Repent and believe. And then here Jesus said, don't just bring them to Christ. 13:14 Make disciples. A disciple is not just a believer. A disciple is a follower. He Jesus told his disciples, "Follow me." So we are not training people to go to heaven. No, that's a wrong gospel. We are training people to follow Jesus 13:34 Christ. But that's what we must remember. We're training people to follow Jesus Christ. Whereas many people when they preach the gospel, it is only to believe. So let's start there. Now I want all of you to ask yourself. 13:51 When you first accepted Christ, did you understand that you have to follow him every day of your life? Or you say, well, I've accepted Christ and I'm on my way to heaven. I know in my own life, nobody taught me about disciplehip. When I was converted at the 14:09 age of 19, I was in a brethren assembly. They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." I said, "Yes." You believe he died for your sins? I said, "Yes." "Do you want to give up your sins?" "Yes." "Okay, believe." And I was not taught that I have to 14:24 follow in Jesus' footsteps every single day. That's a disciple. A disciple is not one who feels like following his master once in a while. or comes on Sunday and sings some songs, that's not a disciple. A disciple is a follower. 14:42 And so I realized that a major part of the Christian message was completely left out. I told you if the whole Christian message is like the face of Jesus, a major part is cut out. It doesn't look like him at all because a major part of it is cut out. 14:59 Disciplehip. And so I knew that if I preach disciplehip, the number of people is going to be less in the church. If you just preach believe and you'll be saved, many will come. But if you say no, you got to be a 15:17 disciple. You got to follow him every day. Say people say that's too much. Okay. So one of the first things I I realized that is that when you preach the full gospel, your numbers are going to be less. It's not going to suddenly become big. 15:34 In fact, a big number will become small. So that's the first thing I had to face in leading a church. Are you willing to see your church not increase in numbers but dwindle in size? I had to make a choice and I said yes 15:51 Lord. And as a result, we have seen amazing transformations of lives in many many people throughout the world and many homes that are transformed. You cannot have a home that is 16:10 transformed if the husband and wife are not disciples. If they only believe, I want to go to heaven. The husband says, I want to go to heaven. I'm sorry, Lord. I believe you died for me. The wife says, "I believe you died for me." 16:23 They'll be fighting with each other all the time. That's not a Christian home. A Christian home is not a home where husband and wife are fighting. Let me tell you that. Because Christ cannot be in a home where husband and wife are fighting. 16:40 Christ is in a home. He's called the prince of peace. And wherever he is, there'll be peace. So we not only wanted people to become disciples but we wanted these disciples to come together and establish homes of peace and that became our calling to build a 17:01 church and that's what we've sought to do in more than 100 churches now in many many countries that the Lord has raised up to make homes that are homes of peace. So, as I began to meditate on this and began to teach it more, I discovered 17:19 that building the church is like building a three-story building. The foundation is faith in God as our heavenly father and Christ who died for our sins and rose again. And on top of 17:35 that, we personally become disciples. And then on top of that, the second story is we make our family into disciples. And then on third story is we make the church into disciples. You can't straight away build 17:54 a church. It's the individuals, the families and the church. Now I never heard that being emphasized anywhere in any church I went to. In fact, so many churches I found the home life was a mess. The pastor's own home life was a 18:11 mess. And they were only talking about the personal life. And they say, "You can't build a church with just a personal life. It's the personal life and the home and the church. They try and build a third story when you don't have a 18:25 second story built." And that's the reason for the confusion in so many places. And so, you know, people got offended when we begin to preach the whole truth. They wanted to sit in a church where they don't get convicted about husband 18:38 and wife fighting with each other. And we said, well, I'm going to preach about it all the time as far as possible. I'm going to speak about husband wife relationships in every single meeting. And if people want to get offended and 18:50 go, okay, but we're not going to lower the standard. Now, as I was seeing how, you know, sin is a spiritual problem and sickness is a physical problem. So, I thought of people going to a 19:07 hospital when they are sick. If all the treatment in all the hospitals were free, wouldn't you choose the best hospital with the highest standard of cleanliness and that do a perfect job of curing cancer 19:27 or operating people or even if it's painful, but they'll guarantee a cure. Now, people are willing to go through pain to be healed of cancer, to go through a very painful surgery, 19:45 to be healed of a cancer. Why shouldn't they be willing to suffer a little pain in a church to discipline themselves to be holy and I found it was not there. People would just go to some church 20:05 where their singing is nice. Now you don't go to a hospital because they have good music there. You go to hospital for treatment to be cured. You got a sickness and you need to be cured. Now I say the church is a hospital with a sickness which is 20:21 far worse than cancer. A sickness called sin. And if a church is not healing people of sin, you might as well close it down. What's setting up a big hospital if it doesn't heal any diseases? People are not coming there to listen to 20:41 songs. But unfortunately, I saw many Christians go to church because they like the songs. Nobody goes to a hospital because they have good music there. The purpose of a hospital is curing the sickness. It's exactly the same in a good church. 21:00 I say why is it that so many people who would be very careful to select a good school to or a good hospital for treat and treat treatment when their wife or child is sick. Why aren't I not why are they not equally careful say I want to go to 21:16 a good church where I can be healed spiritually. No, they'll choose the best hospital for treatment of sickness, but they'll choose some cheap church which is just got a lot of good singing and where the service is not too long, 21:33 speak the preacher finishes his message in 15 20 minutes. I like to go there because I go there in 10:00 and I come home by 11:00. I say such people are not really disciples. So these are the things I found wrong. When I looked around at Christendom, I 21:50 told you the Lord told me what you see in your word in the word of God, compare it with the Christendom that's going on around. And your job is to preach what is left out to use an illustration. Sometimes we give 22:08 a a drawing of something to a child to color. You know, horses or animals of farm with many many animals and people walking around and here are here's a here are some color pencils. Color it. And you know children and sometimes they 22:27 can be careless smaller children and they leave out certain parts not colored. So we say no we must fill up these parts also. That's exactly how I felt when I looked at a lot of the way a lot of preaching was going on in many churches. 22:45 So many parts are left out just like those children are careless in the coloring when so many preachers just ignore certain things. But the reason why the pay preachers leave it out is because it's not popular to preach it. 23:03 A lot of people get offended. See, for example, what does it mean to be a disciple? That Jesus said, "Go and make disciples." So that's the first thing. I remember when we started our church 51 years ago, the Lord said, "Preach 23:22 disciplehip." And that's what I've done in every country I've gone to in all these 51 years. And I saw that the conditions of disciplehip were mentioned in Luke's gospel, chapter 14. Now 23:39 in this church you've already heard it but I find there's a need to hear it again. There was a great preacher in America called Charles Finny who used to preach here about more than 23:57 150 years ago. Mighty anointed speaker preacher. After many years of preaching, he said, "I've discovered one thing. Most Christians will understand something fully only after they hear the 24:14 same message 10 times." Now, he's saying that after 20 30 years of preaching experience, he says, "I've discovered through throughout my preaching in different places that only when a person listens to a message 10 times, he 24:29 understands it fully." That helped me. I said okay my aim is to make people understand. Now I discovered another thing that many preachers that was not their aim. Their aim was to get a reputation as a speaker. 24:48 And so they would have their notes. They'll have a book of notes and they'd say this sermon has already been preached. And this they tick off all the sermons that are preached because they always had to preach something new. Otherwise people 25:00 say this guy's just repeating the same old things. So I realized that if you really want people to understand you have to repeat. For example, if a teacher is teaching addition to a kindergarten class, teaching the 25:19 kindergarten class how 2 plus 2 is four and 3 plus 3 is six and you know go to higher numbers, addition and subtraction. Is it enough to have just one class? Okay, we spent 45 minutes teaching addition. Okay, finished. We're never 25:33 going to teach addition anymore. Next class we'll teach subtraction. You spend 45 minutes teaching subtraction and that's it. Do you think those students will understand it? No. A good teacher is one who keeps on repeating the 25:50 subject until everybody in that class has understood it. that every last student in that class knows how to add and how how to subtract. Now I say teachers are like that. Teachers are not getting a trying to get a reputation 26:06 that in every class they're teaching something new. No, you go to a kindergarten class in any school. They're teaching the same old thing again and again and again again. Not only in kindergarten, the same in first grade or second grade or you go to 26:19 college, it's the same thing. teacher. People who are teaching physics and chemistry and all, they don't just teach in one session and that's it. They repeat and repeat and repeat until he's a good teacher. He has a burden that 26:32 every person in the class understands. I'm sorry to say very very few preachers probably 1% of preachers preach like that where they keep on repeating until every person understand. Now some people may be very clever. They can understand 26:51 like in a class some students may be very brilliant. Now if a teacher teaches only the brilliant ones I would say he's a useless teacher. A teacher teaches only the two or three brilliant students in the class can understand 27:07 and the other 35 people don't understand anything. That's a useless teacher. A good teacher is one who makes sure that all the students understand even the weakest ones. And if some people are brilliant and have already understood, 27:19 they must be patient until all the others understand too. So I followed that policy. I say I'm not here to cater to the whims and fancies of a few clever people here who've understood everything and say we don't want to hear that 27:33 message again. But who have such a love, the people sitting in the church also must have such a love for their fellow believers that everybody must understand what I have understood. Maybe you're one of those who's very clever. Maybe you're 27:47 one of those who's already got a good background in scripture. So you don't need to hear that message a second time. But there are others who don't have that background of scripture. I remember in in Bangalore when we started meeting, we 27:58 had people from non-Christian backgrounds who have never read a Bible in their life and how do I lead them to become disciples. There was a need for constant repetition again and again and using different illustrations. is how Jesus used so many 28:14 illustrations to illustrate spiritual truth and I found I had to do the same thing because I wanted to make sure everybody's a disciple. So when I came to study in Luke chapter 14 the conditions of disciplehip. Remember Jesus said go and make 28:30 disciples of all nations. Okay here are the conditions of disciplehip. It's very interesting. Jesus never minced words. He didn't uh you know what you know the meaning of that minced words means he didn't say something very simple and easy to 28:46 accept. He spoke the truth strongly and in Luke 14:26-33 are the three conditions of disciplehip and that's what we majored on and I found that was not being preached. 29:05 I never heard that in a single church I went to. In all the years I went around to so many churches I never heard someone preach on the three conditions of disciplehip nowadays because we preached it so much and it's on YouTube and so many people 29:23 have heard it there may be more people preaching it but 50 years ago I never heard anyone preaching it in India. So the first condition of disciplehip is so extreme. Now Jesus could have put it like this. If you come to me and want to be a 29:42 disciple, you must love me more than everybody else. That's what he meant. You must love me more than everybody else. That's like a wife [snorts] telling her husband, if I'm to be married to you, you must love me more than anybody else. Is that a very high 30:00 demand? If a woman says to her husband, "If you want to marry me, you must love me more than anybody else in the world." We understand that in marriage. It's exactly the Bible says we are married to Christ. 30:20 And what about is it am I is a husband is to be devoted is a wife to be devoted to her husband every single day of her life. Yes. In other words, every single day, she must seek to please her husband. 30:39 That's a good wife, loyal and faithful. [clears throat] What about a wife who says, "Can I go and spend one week in a year with some of my old friends? I used to love another man once upon a time. Can I go and live with him for one 30:56 week? 51 weeks I'll be with you." Which husband will accept that? Or if she says, "Okay, you won't allow me one week. One day, 364 days I'll stay with you. One day I want to stay with my old friend." The husband will say, "Go and live with 31:13 him forever." Every one of you husbands will say that. What about when Jesus says, "I want you to be devoted to me every single day." Not only every single day, but every single moment 31:31 of every day of the year. Say that's a very high demand. Really? Isn't that what you demand of your wife? Every single moment of every single day of the year. Otherwise, there's not a proper marriage. The Christian life is a marriage. 31:50 And that's another thing which is not being taught in a lot of Christianom. Disciplehip is to be united to Christ in a way that you're devoted to him continuously, constantly all the time. And so Jesus put it in very strong words 32:06 in Luke 14:26. If you come to me and you don't hate your father, you don't hate your mother, you don't hate your wife, you don't hate your children, you don't hate your brothers, you don't hate your sisters, you cannot be my disciple. There is no second class 32:24 of disciplehip. There is only one class of disciplehip and that is what does it mean to hate. So [clears throat] you know Jesus used illustrations and I found many things in the Bible get explained to me when I think of it in 32:42 picture language. So I thought of my love for Christ to be like the brightness of the sun. so bright that everything else is looks like darkness compared to the brightness of the sun. And the Bible says I must love my 33:01 father. I must love mother. I must love my wife. I must love my children. So how can I combine that with hating? On one one side I'm told to love my parents and my wife and children. The other side Jesus says I must hate them. Putting 33:13 them together I pictured it like this. My love for my father, mother, wife, children must be like the light of the stars. Stars are bright. And but the moment the sun comes up, the stars disappear. 33:33 At least on in the sky, you don't see them. They're there, but you it's not visible anymore because the light of the sun is so powerful. So that's the picture I got that my love for Christ must be so powerful that even though the 33:47 stars are there, even though I love my husband, I love my wife, I love my children, I love all that, but they disappear in the presence of the love of love for Christ. In other words, if it's a question of the Lord telling 34:03 me to do something and some loved one telling me to do something else, there's not even not even a second. I don't even have to think about that for one second. I do what the Lord says. Many of you 34:23 are Christians. I want to ask you is that true in your life that once you have seen what the Lord Jesus says it doesn't make a difference after that who says something else contrary to that your boss in your place of work your 34:42 wife your children your friend your neighbor brother in the church or even a pastor in a church you know Christ's word is supreme That is what it means to be a disciple. And that is something we have to be 34:58 careful to do every single day. And I'll give you an example of what it means. The main way by which the Lord speaks to us is in our conscience. All of us have got a built-in 35:16 conscience that the Lord placed in us. And it is through that conscience that the Lord speaks to us. And now the question is, is that voice of conscience supreme in your life? Do you listen to that more than to 35:34 anybody else and anything else? That if your conscience tells you something, even if everybody in the world tells you something else, you're going to follow your conscience. That is a disciple. That's a number one. It's not the only 35:46 condition, but that is the number one condition. Even if your wife pleads with you and prays and weeps, say, "Sorry, I can't do it." And conscience says, "This is what the Lord wants me to do." That is what it means to be a disciple. 36:03 But that is not true with many Christians. They want to please their wife. They want to please their father-in-law. They want to please their parents. They want to please their friends in something or the other and compromise a little in 36:16 order. How can I please the Lord and this person? And so I have to compromise a little bit what the Lord says so that I can please this person. Such a person cannot be a disciple. There's no such thing as a secondass disciple. You're 36:29 either a disciple or you're not a disciple. So everybody sitting here, you are either a disciple or you're not a disciple. There is no such thing as second class or third class. And so that's the first thing that Jesus said 36:43 and we spoke about it. We said that this is and so you know everybody sitting there listens to the message they don't all respond they in inwardly some have decided saying this this is too much to make Christ supreme that in every single 37:01 thing I listen to my conscience if my conscience tells me don't do it I'm not going to do it if my conscience tells me to do this I'm going to do it many people sitting in churches don't want to listen to their conscience 37:15 the apostle Paul once said these words. You know how important it is to listen to the conscience. Acts chapter 24. We all know that there's going to be a resurrection in the final day when Christ comes back. 37:35 But that resurrection is not going to be one resurrection. The Bible says there are two resurrections. And we read that in Acts chapter 24 and verse 15. Acts 24:15. Paul says, "I know for 37:52 certain that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection of the wicked. Among all the people who died, there'll be two resurrections when Christ comes. First, the resurrection of the righteous. Many 38:04 years later, the resurrection of the wicked." And Paul says, "I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. I don't want to be in the resurrection of the wicked. How can I make sure that I am going to be in the resurrection of 38:18 the righteous? Don't you want to be in the resurrection of the righteous?" I said, "Lord, I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. What do I have to do?" Here it is. Verse 16. One verse. You just have to remember this one verse for the rest of 38:32 your life. First of all, I do my best. That means Paul says, I'm going to put heart and soul into this. This is not going to be a sort of a casual easy type of thing I'm going to do. I'm going to do my very best to always. That's 38:50 another important word. Always. Always means 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's the meaning of always. So, let me paraphrase it. I'm going to do my very best. I'm going to strain with all my heart to make sure that 24 hours a day, seven 39:07 days a week, I keep my conscience absolutely blameless, clear. That means if my conscience tells me something, I'm going to do it. I don't care if I lose my job. I don't care who if somebody gets offended. I don't care if my wife gets 39:22 upset. I don't care if my friends leave me, forsake me. It doesn't make doesn't matter what the consequences are. It doesn't matter even if a fellow believer comes and tells me something else. It doesn't matter if some pastor 39:34 comes and says, "Oh, that's not a serious thing. It doesn't matter if you do it." No, my conscience says I can't do it. I don't care which Tom, Dick, or Harry comes and tells me you can do it. I'm going to go by my conscience. 39:46 Now I want to ask you my dear brothers and sisters who are sitting here is that how you seek to live every day or you feel if I take that step my wife will get offended or I won't get that promotion in my job 40:05 if I hurt my boss in that area. Well, I'll tell you this honestly. If you're more interested in retaining your job than in following Jesus Christ, just forget about being a disciple. You belong in some other church. You 40:27 don't belong here. Of course, you can sit here and pretend that you're a disciple, but you don't really belong here. You belong somewhere else where they permit you to violate your conscience. We don't permit that in this church. 40:43 Even in the smallest area, we don't permit it. It means I'm just saying that we don't permit in this church a woman to be disloyal to her husband even for a short time. That's all I'm saying. 41:01 Conscience is the voice of my husband. My divine husband speaks to me in my conscience. And a husband tells his wife, "This is what I want you to do." and she is wishywashy about it. She's not a good wife. Such a person is not a disciple of Jesus 41:18 Christ. And I want to ask you, be very honest about this. Do you believe that there's going to be a resurrection of the righteous different from the resurrection of the wicked? And do you believe that not everyone who claims to be a believer is 41:31 going to be in the resurrection of the righteous? I'll tell you who will be in the resurrection of the righteous. The Holy Spirit says, Paul says, "The one who does his best to keep his conscience blameless always, always means 24 hours a day, seven days 41:48 a week before God and before men." You say, "Boy, that's a very high standard." Let me ask you another question. Would you like to be perfectly healthy or just 90% healthy with some 10% sickness in your body? How many of you 42:05 want 10% sickness? Only 10%. Oh, 1% sickness only. I don't want to be totally healed from my cancer. Little bit of the problems of cancer. Let it be there. 1%. 99% I'm healed. Nobody would say that when it comes to sickness. 42:25 But they do say that when it comes to things which are not straightforward, which are not honest, which are sinful. This is the condition of Christendom which has made Christianity a joke for so many people which has made 42:41 Christianity bringing such a bad name upon the Lord Jesus Christ and we have decided to honor Christ. It doesn't matter if you're small in number. We are building the body of Jesus Christ in this church. That's the number one condition. And the 43:00 second condition of disciplehip, Jesus said in Luke 14, is to take up our cross every day and die to ourselves. That's linked to keeping a good conscience. That means not just keeping a conscience 43:18 clear, but anything that's not pleasing to God, which can hinder my following the Lord, I'm going to put it to death. For example, there's nothing wrong in making a lot of money. That's another condition of disciplehip that Jesus said if you want 43:38 to be my disciple, you have to give up all your possessions. That means don't possess things. Hold it. You can have things but not possess it. In other words, I must not be crooked in money matters. I must be honest and I must not possess 43:58 it. I must have it. It's like I keep something in my open palm and say, "Lord, it's yours. It's not mine." To recognize that all my possessions belong to the Lord and the Lord has got every right to take them away. And if he takes them away, 44:12 I'll have no complaints. Are you willing for that? For example, you lose your job because you decided to be upright and you decided to speak the truth. You're willing to lose your job. 44:32 I remember a brother who told me he was a secretary to a boss. This is in the old days when you used to have these hand type of phones. He was sitting with his boss and the phone rang and he picked it up. The boss had 44:53 already told him if somebody calls from me tell him I'm not here and he's sitting opposite. And the man picked up the phone and he wanted I want to speak to your boss. What could this Christian do? He very wisely put the phone down 45:12 and then he told his boss, "Sir, I'm a Christian. I cannot tell a lie that you're not here." That man, I don't know who he is, will ring again. Please ask somebody else to answer the phone. I cannot pick up that phone and 45:30 tell him you're not here. I'm willing to lose my job. Fortunately, that man did not lose his job. His boss was so impressed by this man's integrity that he was willing to lose his job that he honored him and kept 45:49 him. But would you be willing to displease your job boss in a way that you could risk losing your job because you're going to be true to in a small thing like just to tell a person my boss is not here. What do you lose by saying 46:04 that he's not here? The boss has told you to say, "I'm not here." But it's a lie. I praise God for that brother that he would not violate his conscience, a small thing, even if it meant losing his job. These are the people, brothers and 46:19 sisters, with whom the Lord builds his church. Those who willing to die to their own ambitions. Do you have ambitions? Are you willing to die to them in order to follow Jesus Christ? The church is only built with such people. 46:36 In India, those who are those who are in India know how houses are not built with wood. Houses are built with bricks and cement. And I remember supervising looking at people building a house. And I would see the mason, 46:55 somebody would hand him a brick. He'd be there and they pass a brick to him and he would take it and tap it and he can detect the sound is not good. He said, "Throw it away. Give me another one." And he would only select good bricks to 47:11 put into this building. And that's how the building was strong. I saw a number of times he tap it and see no I don't want that. Give me another one. And I feel sometimes it's that's how the Lord checks with people to build his house, 47:27 to build the church. Someone comes along and says, the Lord says, "I got to tap this person, see if it's a really solid brick or is he a bit hollow that some difficult situation comes and he'll compromise where he can gain something, 47:42 he will not hold up to the highest standard." Then the Lord will say, "No, I don't want that. put that brick aside. And I used to see a pile of bricks lying there which are unfit to be added to the building. The result is when a mason 47:57 builds a building like that, it'll be a solid building. And the Lord is building a solid church with people who will not compromise in the slightest area. That's going to be a small church, but it's going to be a very strong one. 48:16 when your children go to school I don't know how here probably marks up in India it's not A B and C how they give grades in India marks are given out of a 100 if you get everything right you get 100 48:34 out of 100 if you get some things wrong you get less maybe 80 70 80 90 don't you want your children to get 100 out of 100 every arithmetic problem Right. Oh, would you tell them you know in in India pass marks are 40%. 48:52 If you get 40% the subject you pass. So which father will tell his child aim for 40%. Please you must get promoted next to next year. That's never what I told my children. I said aim for 100%. 49:09 Aim for 100%. That's what we want in school. You go to a doctor and the doctor examines you and says there are four or five sicknesses in you. What do you say? Doctor, can you heal me of at least one or two of them or four 49:28 of them? 80% leave one sickness in me so that I'll be humble. No, we never have such a we never tell a doctor that we say I want a to be completely cured. Supposing the do after some treatment after a number of visits the doctor says well I think there's 49:48 still a 1% of that sickness is still with you and you say oh only 1% it's okay no get rid of that also doctor we are so particular about getting our children getting full marks in subject are so particular about being completely healed of sickness but 50:05 when it comes to the church and to our conscience we're a little wishy-washy. And my dear brothers and sisters, that is the reason why you have not grown spiritually. That's the reason why you're still 50:22 defeated by so many sins in your life. Because the Lord sees you're not a serious disciple and you got a sickness still. You're defeated by sin is like saying you got a sickness in your life. You say that's that's a habit I have. 50:39 Okay. Do you treat sickness like that? Is there a single sin which Jesus cannot help you to overcome? The promise in the Bible is sin will not rule over you. Why do you tolerate that anger? Why do you tolerate that anxiety? Why do 50:56 you tolerate that fear? Why do you tolerate that gossip with somebody else? Why do you allow yourself to sit at home and gossip husband and wife, speak evil of others? Nobody's listening. Nobody's listening. The devil is listening and he's 51:11 delighted. All the demons are listening and they are delighted that you're speaking evil of others and the angels are listening and they are grieved. True Christianity is a wonderful life. Can sleep peacefully at night, free from 51:28 anxiety, free from fear, free from thinking that one day I may not have enough to take care of my family's needs. I will not be able to educate my children. You'll never have such fears. If you're a true disciple, you have a father in heaven who will 51:47 provide for every need in your life. This is the Christianity we preach. Let's pray. There's much that you have heard, but there's nothing that I have preached 52:04 which is not from the Bible. Maybe some of you are hearing it for the first time. It's like a doctor telling you how you could have perfect health. Not 90% health but 100% health. And so now it is up to you whether you 52:22 want it or not. And the thing is in this hospital the treatment is free. In this school, the education is free, but we hold you to the highest standard. In this hospital, we make sure that you 52:40 are completely freed from the sickness of sin. That is the only type of church worth building because we will ensure that everyone who responds to it will one day be in the resurrection of the righteous. And that's what we're looking forward 53:00 to. I don't want anyone to land up in the final day and say, "Brother Zach, you never told us the truth, and here I miss out on the resurrection of the righteous because you tried to please me instead of telling me the truth." 53:14 Heavenly Father, we pray we shall everyone here will take their Christian life seriously. Even if you are few in number, you had only 11 disciples, but you worked with them and they you turned the world upside down with those 11 disciples. 53:31 We don't need a huge number, but we want a powerful church that will be a pure testimony for your name. Help us, Lord, we pray each one to remember what we have heard. And I want to ask you my dear brothers 53:52 and sisters as we bow before God in prayer. Let me begin by asking one thing. Please while your heads are bowed. Is there anybody on earth whom you have not forgiven 54:11 for something they did to you or said about you or harmed you? Maybe your wife. Do you have a bitterness against your wife or your husband today because of something she said or did? When are you going to give up that habit 54:28 of never having a grudge against any human being? Would you like a a thorn poked in your feet to remain there or would you pull it out immediately? You're concerned about a thorn going 54:48 into your foot and not concerned about having a bitterness against your wife in your heart or against somebody else. Which is more serious? A bitterness or a thorn? 55:06 I know you'd have the right answer. The question is, do you live according to what you believe? I want to urge you to make a decision today that you are going to forgive 55:23 just as Jesus forgave you. No matter who did what or who said what. You say people will take advantage of me. No, they won't. The Bible gives you a promise that God 55:41 will never never allow you to be tested beyond your ability. You will not be tested beyond your ability by your husband or your wife or a boss or anybody. You commit yourself to the Lord. He guarantees that. Forgive. 56:01 The second thing, have you hurt somebody who you need to ask his forgiveness? Have you hurt somebody? Sometimes we hurt our marriage partners and we say, "Oh, that's only my husband. That's holy my wife. Doesn't matter if 56:17 they got hurt." Really, it's another human being, another member of the body of Christ. You must ask forgiveness. You've hurt somebody. Are you willing? It is easier to forgive others than to ask forgiveness 56:36 because it requires humility to ask forgiveness. To forgive is easy. It's a very simple thing. The only thing that makes you hesitate is your pride. 56:55 And God resists the proud. And perhaps that is the reason why you have not grown as you should have because God's been resisting you all the time. Dear brother, dear sister, get rid of your anger right here. Leave it in this 57:13 room and go away. Humble yourself. And determine that you're going to please the Lord at any cost. It'll be worth it all. Thank you, Father. We believe that you're seeking to build a strong church 57:31 in our midst. Do it. We pray in every life. Do a work today. You're here, Lord Jesus. We are talking to you. 57:47 You are here in our midst. And you're dealing with each one. You're looking at each person individually. You're speaking to each one. Thank you, Lord. We know that you desire the very best for us. 58:06 We know you want us to be spiritually and physically healthy 100%. Help us to cooperate with you. Thank you for hearing us, heavenly father, in Jesus name. Amen.
