0:00 [Music] I'd like to read two verses in Proverbs first before we continue with the message. One is 0:17 in Proverbs 14 and verse 14. It's not exactly like that in the NASP that I have, but the Living Bible paraphrase the la the last part of Proverbs 0:37 14:14 says, "The godly man's life is exciting." I believe that with all my heart and for many years after I was born again, my life was not exciting. It was quite boring, heavy, frequent 0:56 condemnation and uh discouragement. Many times of discouragement. But gradually I began to realize this is not the Christian life. There's something I have missed. I've gone through the formula of saying, "Lord Jesus, come 1:14 into my heart, confessing my sin, going to church, reading the Bible, all those things." But if you were to ask me in those days, is your life exciting? I say certainly not. Most of the time it's pretty boring and it's a 1:30 struggle. And yet I believe today this word is absolutely true. The godly man's life is exciting. And I put it like that that if it's not exciting, it's because I'm not godly in some area. I'm not godly. That's why it's not 1:46 exciting. That means I've compromised somewhere in my life. I've not kept my conscience clear in some area and nobody knows about it. And say, "Oh, well, it doesn't matter. Nobody knows. It's only between me and God." Okay. But the result is your life 2:02 is pretty boring and it's not exciting. You try to work up an excitement when you come to the church, but it's so superficial. It disappears by the time you gone home. I want to tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, don't let the 2:17 devil rob you of your inheritance. I thought, think of a billionaire father who leaves an inheritance for his son and some crooked lawyer takes that will of his father and 2:34 twists it in some way and his son ends up with $500 or something and lives in poverty struggling when he could have lived he lived in a mansion. It's a human illustration, but that's exactly how I feel with so many Christians I've 2:54 met. They're living so far below the standard God wants them to live. So, I want to try and help you to understand some of the principles today. The godly man's life is exciting. Keep that in mind and say, "Lord, that 3:12 is the experience I want." The other verse is Proverbs 4 and verse 18. Proverbs 4:18 says, "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn." 3:30 That's the time you're born again. You see, at dawn, the darkness has disappeared. And it's not fully bright, but the sunrise, sun has risen and light has come. And born again experience is like that. It's not the bright light of 3:46 having become totally like Christ. No. No. But it's not the darkness either. The the problem of my guilt of my sin is gone. The darkness is gone. And the sun has risen. And it says here Proverbs 4:18, "If I walk in the path of the 4:05 righteous, my path will be that from dawn shine brighter and brighter and brighter like the sun going up in the sky until the full day." So what I learned from that is I never find the sun stopping. I never find the sun going 4:22 back a little. It's just you don't see it moving. That's the other thing. You can't watch the sun and see it moving. And our spiritual growth is also like that. You can't see it sort of yeah I've taken a step forward but it will be a 4:37 steady growth. It'll become evident to me and it'll be more evident to others that we are changing. And if we are walking the path of the righteous. So if we are not growing in grace like that it means we 4:56 are not on the path of the righteous. We are on some other path where it's bright and dim and bright and dark and then bright and then dark. It's not the path of the righteous. In the New Testament, the equivalent of that verse is 2 5:12 Corinthians in chapter 3. I'm just trying to show you the plan God has made for his children. And I'm absolutely convinced, personally, I'm convinced that 90% of believers do not walk this way. Please be among the 10% who walk this 5:31 way and we pray that number will increase in the days to come. One reason why we have churches which proclaim the full purpose of God is so that we can increase that small number of people who are walking the path of the righteous. 5:46 Make that number more and more in every country. Proverbs 3 and verse 18. We as in a mirror see the glory of the Lord with the unveiled face. Many people their face is veiled. You put a veil over your face and then try to see the 6:05 glory of the Lord, you won't see anything. But Jesus has come to remove the veil and uh bring us into life in the spirit. It says in verse 15, wherever Moses is read, there's a veil over the heart. This is what brings 6:24 the veil that I can't see the glory of God. You know, it's like if you had a cloth in front of you and tried to read the Bible, you can't read it. And why does it say where red mo wherever Moses is read the veil is lies 6:40 over the heart. Moses speaks of the law. And when a Christian lives under the law by rules and regulations, I must do this. I must read the Bible for so many minutes in the morning. I must go to church on Sunday. I must not do this. 6:54 I must not. It's a law. It's good to have such principles. But I say it is the second best. The true Christian life is one where law is I believe law is second 7:11 best. God started with the second best and then came the life in the spirit. And life in the spirit is very different. See for example we have to teach our children laws thou shalt brush thy teeth in the morning otherwise they don't do it and 7:31 we keep on drilling it in them tell now you've grown up people don't need it you moved out of that realm of a law that's just one example I'm saying and you must change your dirty clothes for children you have to make certain laws like 7:46 that and when they are very small thou shalt not eat mud Now when you grow up you don't need these laws. I'm just taking an example. It's exactly like that. Certain when we start in the Christian life we live with certain laws. That's like old 8:00 covenant life. It's good. It's needed. Until Christ came, the law was very important because the countries that didn't have the law, they were a mess. So thank God for the law. You have to if you if you don't teach your 8:16 children certain laws, they'll never get anywhere. But that's not the ultimate goal. So God wants us to move out of from the realm of the law to life in the spirit. It says here the veil is removed. The veil is gone. Then now we see the Holy Spirit 8:35 showing us the glory of Jesus. And now it's the life of Jesus that leads us. And that's the our guideline. And that when we make the life of Jesus our guideline, we get transformed from one degree of glory 8:55 into that likeness and that is done by the Holy Spirit. So the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is clearly mentioned in this verse to increase the likeness of Christ in my 9:12 life. And I believe those who are closest to us will see it. If your wife or your husband does not see a greater Christlikeness at the end of a 9:29 year, you're not growing. It's not a question what other people in the church think of you. That's secondary. Or in the office, they see you rarely. The real you is what you're at home. Particularly under times of pressure there the real you comes 9:48 out and in the beginning we are upset and angry and irritated and all that but gradually there's a holy spirit removes the veil and say you're not living by a law saying thou shalt not get angry thou shalt not get irritated thou shalt not 10:02 get upset thou shalt not have keep offense against anybody no these are all laws which are good but that's not the way we are to live forever when the life of Christ comes in through the Holy Spirit it it he holds us back whenever we are 10:16 going the wrong way and pushes us forward to go in the right way. See this verse in Isaiah chapter 30 and verse Isaiah chapter 30 verse 10:38 20. This is I believe this is a prophecy referring to the time when we will be able to see the way Jesus lived in the middle of verse 20. He your teacher is referring to the Lord in the first part of verse 20. The Lord and the 10:55 Lord your teacher will no longer hide himself. In the old covenant then nobody could see Christ. They didn't have the Holy Spirit. The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is not speaking in tongues. This is one of the great deceptions of 11:09 the devil. People have got sidetracked into speaking in tonesues and also 95% of tongues is fake. What I've heard there is a genuine but it's very little and instead whereas the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit I'll tell you 11:24 this Jesus said he shall when he comes he shall glorify me. He will take of the things of mine and show it to you. I see that the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to show me Christ. If I'm filled with the spirit, I'll see Christ 11:37 clearly. So it says here, he, your teacher, middle of verse 20, will not hide himself because the Holy Spirit has come and your eyes will behold your teacher. Your eyes will see the way Jesus has walked on earth. And then as you seek to walk in 11:56 that path, if you're slipping up, your ears will hear a word behind you. This is the Holy Spirit now saying, "No, this is the way." When you're turning a side to the right or left, he said, "No, don't go. Turn right here. Turn right 12:10 another place. Don't turn left. You're missing the path." Thank God for that voice. And when you hear that voice, my brother, sister, listen to it. Some people say, "I don't seem to hear the Holy Spirit. I can give you the answer 12:25 clearly. In the times when he spoke some little thing to you, you didn't listen. and you keep on rejecting the voice of the Holy Spirit, I guarantee you will become deaf, you will not hear. Repent of that and say, "Lord, the 12:41 next time you tell me don't speak that word, I'll keep quiet." The next time you tell me don't sign that statement, it's a false statement. Lord, I'll keep you. Keep your word. The next time you tell me return that money, it's not yours. You 12:58 obey it. It's a small amount. Gradually, you'll find you begin to The Holy Spirit is checking on that. Do you listen to these little prompings of the Holy Spirit? Go and apologize to your wife right now. Tell her you're 13:13 sorry for the way you just behaved or what you said. Immediately. Don't wait till the evening. If you get a if you're walking on the grass on barefoot and a thorn gets into your foot, how long do you wait till you pull it 13:32 out? It'll get infected. Pull it out immediately. If a mosquito sits on your hand, how long till you wait till you drive it off? You know that mosquito is not going to bless you. It's going to give you malaria. You nick it, take it off 13:48 immediately. That thorn in your foot can get infected. It's exactly the same with sin that you delay in confessing. You can wait for 10 hours and take off the thorn at at night. You'll get infected. You can wait till the and uh wait for 10 14:06 hours before you go and apologize to your wife. Fine. The next time you will not listen hear the voice of the spirit so clearly. If you are not hearing the voice of the spirit, here's the reason. In the previous times when he spoke to 14:20 you, you did not obey immediately. You say, "I'll think about it." How dare you say, "I'll think about it." When Almighty God tells you something through the Holy Spirit, but he's very faithful. He'll show you your teacher saying this is how 14:37 he walked. And when you are missing the path, he'll say, "No, not that way. This way. Walk in it." when you have to turn to the right or the left. The path that the Lord has appointed for us is from one degree of glory to 14:54 another. As we saw here in 2 Corinthians, this verse that we were looking at 2 Corinthians and chapter 3, from glory to glory in the middle of verse eight, last part of verse 18, your life should be from glory to glory. The 15:10 path of the righteous is like the sun rising, moving up and up and up and up. And the noonday position is when I be completely like Christ when Christ comes again. So I should be increasing in Christlikeness. And the best person to 15:23 tell you whether that's happening or not are the members of your family, your children. Is daddy more patient now? Or is he more irritated than he was last year? We don't grow every day. I mean, your children, they don't get promoted to the 15:43 next class every day, but one year later, they should be in the next class. And you you'd be very disturbed if you're a parent. If your child is sitting in the same class for one year, say, "Hey, you should be sitting in the class only for one year, not more 15:57 than one year." Do we feel the same way about our Christian life? Lord, I shouldn't be sitting at the same level in my speech, in my thought life. Not perfect. I've not graduated yet. That's a long way. But I have moved from first grade 16:15 to second grade. Last year I was in the second grade. I moved to the third grade. That's all I'm saying. Not talking about perfection. We press on to perfection. But we should be going just like in a school and like you are concerned that 16:30 your children should move to next class in one year. You're not asking them to move every day or every month at least once a year. I say the same to you. As a spiritual father, move up at least once a 16:48 year. There are some children who are smart who get a double promotion and jump two classes in a year. There are some Christians also like that who move shoot ahead because they're very zealous. Let's seek to be like that. 17:01 Press on more and more and more. So in order to help that I want to we know we try to explain things very simply so that even 10 year olds can understand. One way we can Jesus used illustrations and that's why I use a lot 17:19 of illustrations. We can think of the Christian life like a three-story building. We our theme for this conference is firmly founded and bearing 17:36 fruit. So the foundation is like it says no man can lay any foundation other than Christ. We must be solidly founded on Christ plus nothing. Not Christ plus the Virgin Mary or Christ plus anything else. It's Jesus 17:55 Christ alone. There is no other foundation. No, there's no one in my life I will give the same place as him. Nobody. No preacher. You can have your favorite preacher because those who blessed you more naturally you'll want to listen to 18:11 them. But nobody can should take the place of Christ in your life. Not your wife, not your husband, nobody. If you're firmly founded on Christ, that's the beginning. It's very, very important. And if you're firmly founded 18:25 on Christ, what will happen is Jesus Christ will introduce you to his father. You know, he said, "No one can come to the father except by me." So when you're founded on Christ, one of the things that will 18:42 happen is you will spontaneously call God daddy. Nobody has to teach you that. Turn with me to Romans in chapter 8. Romans chapter 19:05 8 and verse 15. You have not received a spirit of slavery to fear again. Who had the spirit of slavery? The old covenant people under the law. The law they they taught people to 19:23 obey by fear. If you do this, you'll get punished. If you do this, you you have to go and offer this sacrifice. So, it was always fear. Oh boy, if I do that, I have to go and buy a goat and offer a sacrifice. Boy, that's going to cost 19:36 money, so I better not do it. It was always out of fear or an obligation. It's a spirit of slavery, but that's gone. It's not by fear that I obey God. He'll punish me if I do that, so I won't do it. You know your children in the 19:54 early stage of their life, they obey out of fear of punishment. And in the beginning, it's good to fear God like that. If I do this, he'll punish me. But when you're grown up, you shouldn't be obeying God out of fear of punishment. Do you want 20:08 your 20-year-old son to think my dad will spank me if I don't do this? He's a kid then. And apply that to yourself. You say, "I won't do that because God will punish me." Ah, you're a kid. You 20:26 haven't grown up. Is that why you obey God? Because you're afraid he'll punish you. That's a spirit of slavery. A grown-up son obeys God because he wants to please his father. So it says we haven't received a spirit 20:45 of slavery. But you're a spirit, you received a spirit of adoption. Adoption means placing. It's not the adoption that we read of today where you you adopt a boy which is not even your son child which is not even your child. In 20:57 the Jewish meaning of adoption is placing as a son at the age of 12 or something the child is considered a son now or a daughter. That's the meaning of adoption here. Placing as a son and not a baby or a child anymore. So the Lord says in the new covenant 21:15 your child your sons and daughters not babies and one result of being come to that place is we cry out aba father. Now I'm sorry these guys didn't translate the word aba. Aba is a Hebrew 21:34 word. The new testament the English translation of that would be daddy. The spirit cries out. Father is a more formal word. Daddy. All children have a more intimate word than father. When they call their 21:51 dad, the word dad for example. They they don't call father father. They call dad or in India is close to aba. Apa. So, it's that intimate word that the Holy Spirit uses to make you talk to God. And I want 22:11 to ask you, my dear brothers and sisters, when you pray to God, do you use that intimate word to call him your dad? [Music] Or people, a lot of people in when they pray, their primary, oh Lord, oh God. 22:29 There's nothing wrong with that. Paul also said, "I pray to the Lord." But I believe that God wants us to call him father. In the beginning, I always used to say, "Oh God, oh Lord." But as the Holy Spirit filled me more and 22:46 more, I like to talk to him as dad. I don't use the word dad in public because I'm praying for so many people and they may not know God so intimately. So in public whenever I pray I say father. Jesus taught us to pray. Our father who 23:02 art in heaven. So that's the foundation. Jesus Christ introduced us to the father. I'm firmly founded on that. You can't build the Christian life if that foundation is not there. Just like you when you start a building, you lay a good foundation 23:18 and make sure it's solid. If it takes time, let it take time. then your building will never shake. So from there we go to the first floor or the first 23:34 story and that is walking with God with a clear conscience. That is the first story on the first floor of the building. And I want to give you the testimony of the Apostle Paul as a good example and guideline for 23:54 us in this area. And that's in Acts chapter 24 and verse 16. Acts 24:16. In view of this, I do my 24:19 best. And not not many times Paul uses that expression. This is Paul standing before a judge and called Felix and giving his testimony and he's saying, "I do my best." That's the first word to 24:36 emphasize my best. My very best. I work hard at it to do this to maintain always. Always is another important word here. 247 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Always a blameless 24:54 conscience. Blameless means not a spot on my conscience. I get rid of the big ugly spots and the small little ones. I get rid of those lustful thoughts, those big ugly spots. the anger. Get rid of the big spots and the small 25:13 ones. Just a little bad thought about somebody. Those are small dots. They're not big blotches on the conscience. Small little dot. I get a a blameless conscience before God and before men. This is a very important 25:31 verse. There are many important words here. One is I do my best. That means he's wholehearted about it. I'm completely determined to keep my conscience. Absolutely. The second is the second word important word is 25:50 always. Always means 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, I do my best. And the next important word about the conscience is before God and before men. So there were some important phrases here. I do my best always before God and 26:09 before men. So in other words, it's not just a clear conscience before God. Equally important, a clear conscience before men. That means if I've hurt somebody, I have to ask that person's forgiveness. Can I shall I show you one 26:27 place in the scripture where Jesus said, "Don't pray or stop praying." Many times we read he encouraged his disciples to pray. Luke 18 he said we should pray always. We should pray always. He said in Luke 18. But I'll show you one place 26:44 where Jesus said don't pray. Let me show you that. Turn with me to Matthew's gospel. In Matthew's gospel he's talking about prayer as an offering that we are giving to God. Prayer is an offering. In the olden 27:02 days, they used to bring an offering to the sacrifice of the altar and give it up to God. Today, we have we don't bring such physical sacrifices. We pray. So Jesus is saying when you come with your offering to the altar, Matthew 5 verse 27:17 23. I come with my offering to the altar which is my prayer. And as I am about to pray, take this seriously my brothers, very very important. You suddenly remember that you hurt your brother, you hurt your husband, or you hurt your wife 27:37 or your little child or somebody. You did something to hurt him. Stop praying. That's what he's saying in the next verse. Leave your offering there at the altar means stop praying. This is Jesus telling you to stop 27:55 praying because you're wasting your time. to use a modern illustration. God hasn't picked up the phone. Sorry, you dialed his number, but he's not picking up the phone because you got something you have not settled with your wife. There's 28:13 something you have not settled with your husband. There's something you not settled with your brother or not settled with your neighbor. Something you where you hurt somebody with words or actions and you did not set it right as yet. God 28:26 says the phone can keep on ringing. I know who's calling and I'm not going to pick it up. It's a terrible thing when God doesn't pick up your phone. You can continue speaking. You know how some little children sometimes get on a phone 28:40 and say hello, hello and keep on carry on a conversation half an hour. There's nobody at the other end. That is exactly how many Christians pray. They don't know it. God hasn't picked up the phone. Have do you grown-ups ever speak on a 28:53 phone when you the other person hasn't picked it up? Yeah. When you pray, it sometimes was like that. God has not picked up the phone. Did you know that you had something against your wife, you did not apologize to her. You thought you were talking to 29:07 God. You were talking into the air just like those children playing games on the phone. And you wonder why he didn't answer. He didn't answer because he didn't hear what he said. What a waste of time. You prayed for so long and not one 29:25 sentence went. You spoke so long on the phone and God hadn't even picked up the phone. Leave the offering there. Go first. First, the word first is there. Verse 24. First go and be 29:44 reconciled to your brother, your wife, your husband, your neighbor or whatever it is, then come then God will pick up the phone. This is the reason why I say the vast majority of prayers never get to 30:02 God. All night prayer meetings, they pray all night. God's not listening. Everybody's shouting out on their phones to God in all night prayer meeting. God's not even listening. They wonder why there's no answer. Why haven't we 30:15 got revival? Well, he never picked up the phone. And so that's why it's so important to do what Paul says. I always keep my conscience clear. I do my best to keep my conscience clear before God and before 30:34 men. It's a simple law. It's very easy to do if you're willing to humble your pride. What is the thing that prevents you from apologizing to that person, whoever it is, your husband or wife or a neighbor or anybody? Only 30:51 pride. You're so proud you want to act as though you never did anything wrong, as if you are perfect. Well, then God doesn't pick up your phone. He never picks up the phone of a proud person. God listens to the humble. So, Acts 24 31:10 again, let's turn back there that lovely verse. And let's never forget it. Acts 24:16, I do my best to maintain always 247 a blameless conscience before 31:28 God and before men. starting today. Let's start on that. Make a decision right now before you go home that from now onwards always you're going to keep your conscience clear. However much you have to humble your pride and ask forgiveness from 31:45 anybody, you're going to set it right because you want God to pick up the phone next time you pray. And even more serious than that, let me show you something more here. Read carefully. I want to read now one from verse 32:05 16. The last part of verse 16. There will certainly be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. You know there are two resurrections. You read that later on in Revelation 20. All people do not get resurre all the dead people are not going to be 32:21 raised at the same time. when Christ comes there will be a resurrection of the righteous and then years later a resurrection of the wicked. So it says there will I know absolutely certain there will certainly be two resurrections. The resurrection of the 32:38 righteous and the resurrection of the wicked. I want to ask you a question. Which of these resurrections do you want to be in? Do you have a doubt about it? Resurrection of the righteous. I certainly want to be in the resurrection 32:53 of the righteous. Paul says, I too. And now read the next verse. I want to read it like this. In view of this means because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, I do my best to keep a blameless conscience before God and men. You got 33:10 it. The context of it now. He doesn't say, "Oh, I will certainly be in the resurrection righteous because I accepted Christ into my heart five years ago or 20 years ago." He doesn't say that. He doesn't say, "I'll be in the definitely in the 33:25 resurrection of the righteous because I accepted Christ." No. He says, "I will be in the resurrection of the righteous because I do my best to keep my conscience blameless before God and men 24 hours a day." Have you heard that type of 33:38 gospel? Or this cheap easy belieism? Easy belieism. That's what I call it. This cheap gospel. Say the few words, "Lord Jesus, come to my heart." Okay. you're going to be the resurrection of the righteous. The number of deceivers 33:54 who are going around preaching that nonsense and leading people to hell, Christian preachers leading people to hell, not preaching the truth here. Is this is this in your Bible that to be in the resurrection of the righteous in view of this I do my best 34:10 to keep my conscience clear? How in the world do you get the idea that you can be in the resurrection righteous without doing what Paul says here? This is the great apostle Paul speaking at the age of 60 after having served the Lord so 34:23 faithfully for 30 years. He says, "I want to be the resurrection righteous by keeping my conscience clear." My dear brothers and sisters, we preach strong truth in CFC because we don't want anyone who comes here to go to hell. And I don't 34:40 want anybody's blood on my hands. I don't want anyone to turn to me in the day of judgment and say, "Brother Zack, you never told me the truth." Nobody will say that to me. You will say that to many, many preachers whom you heard. Many preachers 34:57 whom you have heard on the internet, you will turn around to tell them, "You did not tell me the truth." But nobody will be able to tell me that. A lot of people say, "Brother Zack is so strict and so hard." Well, I'll tell you what. You'll thank me in 35:11 the day of judgment. You may not thank me today. It's Christian life is not a joke. It's a serious thing. Christ died to save us from sin. But he says you got to do your part. And your part is not so 35:29 difficult. What is he asking you to climb some mountain? No. What prevents you from setting your setting matters right in your conscious? only your big pride, your pride. Destroy that pride and never let me build that 35:47 up again. A humble man has absolutely no problem. A proud man is very difficult for him to even say sorry to somebody. Get rid of that pride and life is easy. I decided long ago I'm going to obey this verse. I want to be the 36:07 resurrection of the righteous. I'm absolutely certain I'll be there because I followed this verse very rigidly. I paid back money that I took wrongfully in my unconverted days. I apologized to people I've hurt in my unconverted days. I've apologized as a 36:23 Christian to people I've wrongfully I remember once I rebuked a young brother who was looking after the audio equipment in our church many many years ago cuz somebody said he bungled up something and I said, "Hey, listen. You 36:37 got to be careful because we want this recording to bless other people. And somebody told me later on that was not his fault. Can you imagine how bad I felt that I had rebuked him for something it was not his fault. I immediately dropped 36:52 everything and went and sin. That guy was younger than my youngest son and he was a young boy in his teens. I put my arm around him. I said, "I'm really sorry. Please forgive me. It was my mistake. I thought I I misunderstood. 37:05 Please forgive me. I'm sorry. I settled it immediately. I didn't wait even a few minutes. I have tried to live like that. That is why I am absolutely convinced I will be in the resurrection of the righteous. I hope you can say 37:21 that. It's only your pride that will prevent you from getting there. Keep your conscience sensitive. You know how sensitive we should keep our conscience? Jesus told us which is the most sensitive part of your 37:39 body. Ears, hair, the eyes. The eye is the only part of your body which pains when you touch it. No other part of body pains if you touch it. But your eye, you don't have to scratch it. Just touch it and it pains. 37:57 It is the most sensitive part of your body. And Jesus said in Luke's gospel chapter 11 and verse 34, the eye is the lamp of the 38:14 body. If your eye is clear, that means your conscience is clear. Your whole body will be full of light. But if it is bad, even a small little speck, something not set right, you know how even a small speck can blind you. Your whole body is full of 38:35 darkness. Why is it when something falls into your eye, you immediately want to get rid of it? You can stop the most important work you're doing because some dust got into your eyes. God's made it like that. Watch out that the light in you 38:50 does not become darkness. And if you keep your eye clear, your whole body will be full of light with no dark part in it. Like a lamp which illumines you with its rays and the light of Christ will shine across to you. That's the number one. That first 39:07 floor, first story of your life. On top of that, we got to build the second story and that is your family life. If you're married, your wife and your children to love your wife, to seek to love your wife, at least as Christ loved 39:26 the church. There's only one standard given for Christians. There was no such command in the Old Testament because family life was not important in the Old Testament. Moses didn't get along with his wife. The one thing we hear about 39:40 Moses was him fighting with his wife about circumcision. But you can't do that in the New Testament. You got to keep a clear conscience. You got to have a relationship with your wife where you seek to love. Not that you're perfect. 39:55 Nobody's perfect. But Ephesians 5 says, "Love your wife as Christ loved the church." There's a standard given to us. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 23, husband is the head of the wife. Verse 25. Husbands, love your 40:13 wives exactly as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Meditate on that to give yourself up so that you can w love your wife as Christ loved the church. Took the blame. Are you willing to take the blame 40:33 for your wife? Christ took the blame for us on the cross. and uh instead of Christ didn't come with a fingerpointing blaming others his hands were nailed on the cross he couldn't point a finger at anybody the world is full of people who 40:51 point fingers do you point your finger at your wife or your husband or wives it says submit your husband you point your finger at your husband crucify your hand you'll never be able to point finger again you're not crucified that's a 41:04 problem crucified person can never point his finger at anybody because his hands are nailed. The world is full of people who are pointing their finger at this person, that person, the other person. My boss is like this and my wife is like 41:19 this and the one who works in my home is like this and that person's like this and but more than 10 fingers you got pointing all over the place. You got to be crucified with Christ. And that is how we build our home. And 41:37 then once we work on that, we can go to the next step which is to bring up your children. Ephesians 6:4 in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And that is a job given, listen to this, not to mothers, to 41:56 fathers. It's a very sad thing. There are a lot of Christian fathers who are absolutely useless in this area and have left the job to the mothers to teach the children what to do. Timothy had a father who was busy making money. He was 42:14 a Greek businessman. He had no time for his home. Thank God Timothy had a godly mother. He said, "Okay, if dad doesn't do the job, Timothy, I'm going to do the job. I'm going to teach you God's ways." And she did such a perfect job that by 42:31 the time that young boy, that child had grown up to the age of 20, the Apostle Paul said, "I want you to be my coworker." Can you imagine the Apostle Paul selecting, if the Apostle Paul could select your son at the age of 20 42:45 to be a coworker and the father did nothing, that mother must have been a fantastic mother. If the father doesn't do the job, you have to do what Timothy's mother did. Do the job. Bring up your children in the fear of God. 42:57 instruct them in God's word. And what a fantastic servant of God Timothy became. And Paul tells him, it's because of what you got from your mother. You got something from your mother. Many of you have heard of the great servant of God, 43:11 John Wesley. Mighty man of God who brought revival to England and protected England from a during the time of the industrial revolution. Protected England people from calamity. He protected that country. his his brother Charles Wesley wrote 43:28 about 8,000 hymns and unlike today's songwriters, he never made any money from it. Today's songwriters write two, three line songs which are repeated about 20 times and they get a million dollars for it. Charles Wesley wrote 7,000 hymns. He 43:46 didn't get a scent for it. He wrote it for the glory of God. That's the That's why I like to sing those old hymns. I'll tell you why. Supposing you had a choice to listen to two preachers. You know that one of them is not at all 43:58 never takes money for his preaching and the other one takes money for his preaching. Whom would you rather listen to? Who do you think is more likely to have the word of God? I say definitely the guy who's not interested in taking money. Okay. Now 44:10 here's a person who wrote hymns, never wanted any money for it and another person is collecting thousands of dollars for the hymns which are all copyrighted and all that type of stuff. Which type of song would I know which 44:20 song I would like to sing? I know which song is inspired by God. I have no respect for a lot of today's songwriters who write two and a half lines that are sung 20 times to call it a hymn and then they want to keep on collecting money for 44:35 it. Dear brothers, let's teach our children God's word. Mothers and fathers, build a Christian home. Take time to build your home. That is the second story, the second floor of the 44:54 house, you cannot go to the third floor, which is building the church. If you don't get the second floor right, because it says in 1 Timothy 3, it's talking about an elder in a church, an overseer. Verse 45:11 two, he must be one 1 Timothy 3:4, who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with dignity. Because here's the reason, verse 5, if a man can't manage his own household, how will he take care of the 45:29 church of God? He can't bring up three children in a god-fearing way, and he's trying to preach to 300 people in the church. He's got to be off his head. He can't bring up three children at home in a godly way and he's trying to be a pastor 45:48 of 300 people or 10,000 people. It's ridiculous. Now, if you don't believe me, go and do a little research on the children of the pastors of many mega churches today. Many, many pastors, their children are 46:07 wavered. absolutely wavered. But there they are as pastors because God's people don't bother about this word. They, oh, it says that in scripture, who cares for what Paul wrote in Timothy? And they think they're doing a 46:22 great job because this man is a very gifted speaker. I couldn't care less if he's the most gifted speaker in the world. If he's not brought up his children, I'd say, "Sorry, brother. You will never be a elder in any CFC church. 46:32 I have removed elders in CFC churches whose children are going astray." I say, "You got no right to be an elder. Sorry, you may be very gifted. Go and show you. There are other churches that will accept you. Go and join that Methodist 46:44 or Baptist church over there or some Pentecostal church. They'll accept you. But not here. Sorry. We believe in obeying scripture. The second floor is your family life. And don't dare to think of building the church or being a preacher 47:01 there or sharing things over there when your your home life is a mess. You don't know how to live with your wife. If you don't know how to bring up your children, you're trying to serve the Lord. Forget it. Which crazy construction person will 47:13 build the third floor before he's built the second floor. He's going to build it on air. I've never seen such a thing. You always build the second floor, the structure at least, the the beams and the pillars of the second floor before. 47:28 You can never go to the third floor and they complete the second floor, then go to the third floor. Have you ever seen a building where they build the first floor and then the third floor, leave out the second floor blank? There a lot of preachers and 47:41 Christians who try to do that. They want to serve the church. They want to serve the Lord. Check whether you're serving the Lord in your home first. God will help you, brother, if you take scripture seriously. If you cannot bring up your own family 47:59 properly, 1 Timothy 3:4 and 5, how in the world can you serve the church in any way? You can go and clean the toilets in the church. That's fine. But you can't preach there. Yeah, that's the standard we have preached. You know, and Jesus washed 48:18 people's feet and u he said you must wash one another's feet. But today we all wear shoes and socks. There's no need to take off the socks and shoes like the Pope does on Good Friday. Take off everybody's shoes and socks and get 48:32 a few people and wash their feet and get everybody get people to take a video. We're not in that type of exhibitionism. We say it means serve people. When people come to our church in CFC, I say we don't want anybody to wash 48:49 feet here. But the equivalent of it today is clean the toilets. When you come to this building, volunteer to clean the toilets. That's the condition for being a member of CFC Bangalore. Are you willing to do that? You don't do 49:04 that. Forget it. Treat this place like your own home. Do you clean the toilets in your own home? Then clean the church in the church as well. Then you're a servant. You don't you want to get up and preach here. That's the 49:17 qualification. That's how we start. And so then we can build the church. We've taken care of our home. Then the next step is to build the church. And building the church is by finding your place in it. God is if God's called you to be an is invisible 49:35 member. Be an invisible member. Like invisible members are very valuable. Like the liver, the kidney. Have you ever seen your liver and kidneys? You see your hands. There's such a lot of work. You see in your mirror, you see your eyes and tongue and 49:52 face and all that. They're all very important parts. But they're all the visible parts of your body. They're all important. You see your hands, legs, all very important. But the invisible parts of your body, your heart, your liver, 50:04 your kidneys, your pancreas, and so many other things, the blood vessels inside, they are a million times more important than these visible things. You can have your hand cut off, leg cut off, and you'll still live. But some of those 50:19 internal organs, they get called off if you died immediately. So if God has called you to be a not so visible member of the church, fulfill your function faithfully. Everyone has got a function and the visible members are and the 50:36 invisible members are as important as the visible ones. This is how we build the church on the foundation of Christ. the clear conscience, build our family life and then we build a church. And if we follow 50:54 this procedure, we'll have wonderful churches everywhere. where every brother, it's not just the pastor or the elder, where every brother and sister in the church lays a good foundation, a foundation on Christ and the father, keeps his conscience with 51:12 God and men clear at all times. And if they are married, they have a family, seek to build that family in a godly way. And don't even dream of trying to have a ministry in the church before they have built the second floor. and then say Lord I don't want to 51:29 stop with the second floor every one of us has got a part to play in the third floor even if it is just to carry the equipment or material to help somebody else build. See some people don't have the skill of building. Okay, leave that 51:47 to the pastors and elders and leaders and prophets and apostles and all that who do that. But you can carry the material, carry the boards of wood up there, carry the equipment, something we can do. All of us can do something to 52:02 build that third floor and then I believe we will experience what the Bible says that we can grow from one degree of glory to another. Now some of what you heard today may you may think the standard is so high. We want to keep the standard of 52:21 high. If you aim for 100% at least you'll get about 80%. But if you say well pass marks are only 40%. You'll never get anything more than that. When my children used to go to school in India pass marks are 40%. In some schools 52:35 33%. So I never told my children hey listen aim for 33% somehow pass and get to the next class. I say aim for 100%. you may not get it. But if you aim for 100%, maybe you'll get 70 or 75 or something like that. If you aim for 33%, 52:52 you may even fail. So that's what we say in the church. Aim for the highest. Exactly. Why do we want our children to be clean and dress neatly and um get a good education and all that, but when you come to the church, we don't want the 53:06 highest standard. We want churches that are built to the highest standard possible. People want to send their children. I often ask people this question. If all schools were free education, which school would you send your children to? The one that offers 53:23 the best education, right? Everything is free. You wouldn't say, "Well, any school matters in some school that the teachers don't come most of the time." Would you send them there? Okay. Another question. If all the treatment in all the 53:39 hospitals were free and some hospitals are top class with the best equipment and the best doctors and that's also free and then there are other third third rate hospitals. When you're sick, which hospital would you go to? It's all free. You go to the best 53:56 hospital. Okay. Now, there are many churches in your town. Which one do you go to? Oh, the one that my dad used to go to. But the school your dad studied in, is that where you send your children? If there are better schools 54:13 today, the hospital that your grandfather went for treatment, which is probably dilapidated today. Would you send your your children there? They don't even have the up-to-date equipment. Or would you go to the latest hospital? It's all free, by the way. 54:27 Which hospital would you choose if everything is free? Which church school would you choose for educating your children if everything is free? Always the best. Why don't you have the same attitude to choosing the church in your 54:40 town? The best. I'll tell you why. God is not as important to you as education and as your physical health. Take my word. That is the truth. I believe in speaking the truth. If it hurts you, it was meant to hurt. So that 54:57 you wake up and say you have dishonored God by valuing education and health more than Almighty God himself. No wonder your Christian life is so shallow and empty where you should have been a spiritual giant by now and you're a 55:14 baby. I'm trying to challenge you, not rebuke you. Please bear with me. This is the way I speak because I want I wanted the best for my children. I want the best for all of you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that we will take the 55:36 challenge to be the men of God and the women of God that you need in this country, so desperately needed in this time. Help everyone, Lord. We pray every one of us here. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. 55:52 [Music]
