0:07 Okay. We're going to have a time of questions and answers. The first question is It's been divided into spiritual growth, personal discipline, family life, and church life, and social life. 0:26 The first question is, what does it mean to receive apostleship along with grace as mentioned in Romans chapter 1 verse 5. Uh Romans 1:5, Paul says, "Through whom 0:50 we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his name's sake." First of all, the word apostle, like baptism, and other words, amen, these are not English words. Hallelujah. 1:07 So, we use them, but sometimes we don't understand the meaning of it. And if you understand, it came from another language. For example, hallelujah. It's a Hebrew word. Hallel is praise. Yah is the short for Jehovah, which is the 1:25 name of the Lord. So, it just means praise the Lord. So, hallelujah means praise the Lord. So, the Lord once said, "You should not take my name in vain." And the the Jewish people were very careful to use the name Jehovah cuz they couldn't 1:42 use it, but I find many people use just say hallelujah without even understanding what it means. It's a expression of praising the Lord. So, baptism, you have questions like can sprinkling be called baptism? See, the word baptism 2:00 is a Greek word, which means immersion. You can When you immerse your hand into bucket of water, the Greek speak Greeks would say they they're baptizing their hand. So, like that, apostle means someone sent with a specific task. That's all it 2:15 means. So, it's a sent one, sent by God for a particular task. And it says here that they received apostleship with along with grace. If you see what their ministry is, it's 2:33 mentioned in Ephesians 4 uh what an apostle is supposed to do. Turn with me to Ephesians in chapter 4 and verse 11. Uh you got to read it along with verse 10. Many people think 2:52 the only apostles were the 12 apostles. And then Paul became an apostle because Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. But here it says in Hebrews 4:10 that he who did that Christ who descended down also ascended far above the 3:11 heavens. And after ascending up to the heavens, he gave some as apostles. So, those are not the apostles he appointed before he went to heaven. Those the before he went to heaven, he appointed certain apostles on the earth, 3:24 but after he ascended up into heaven, he gave some as apostles, and Paul was one of them. And the reason why he gave these people apostles was just like he gave prophets. The next line verse 11, he gave some people as evangelists, some as pastors 3:38 and teachers. And all these together are the their function is to equip the believers to build the body of Christ. Like I said the other day, it's the believers who build the body of Christ, but the believers are equipped with gifted 3:54 servants God has given to the church. You can't decide, "Okay, I want to be a prophet." Or I want to be a teacher. You can decide whether you want to be a believer. You can decide to serve in the church any type of practical earthly jobs, 4:11 but for a spiritual ministry, you can't volunteer and say, "I want to be an elder or I want to be a prophet or shepherd." You can't choose any of these ministries. God has to gift you. It says he gave. Gave means gift. We can read it like this, he gifted some 4:27 people with the ministry of an apostle or the ministry of a prophet. So, if God doesn't choose to gift you, you can't be that. And uh I can't volunteer and say I'd like to be a prophet or like to be an apostle. Now, that's the difference in 4:43 prophesying, which is just anybody can get up and prophesy. We read in 1 Corinthians 14, which is encouraging and sharing things, but for the ministry of a prophet is very different. But we don't come to that now. The ministry of an apostle is one who's sent 4:56 out. Now, the only way we can find out what exactly an apostle did in the new covenant is by looking at the ministry of the apostles. And Paul is a classic example of that, and so from his life we can understand what the ministry of an 5:08 apostle is. And that is what did he do? He went place to place planting churches. He did not just evangelize, bring people to Christ, and say, "Okay, goodbye. I'll see you in a few years." or anything like that. He was like a a mother giving birth to a 5:26 child and then caring for that child by putting that child in a home and bringing up that child in a home. That's what a real mother does. And God is like a father and a mother. So, that spirit of a parent is what an apostle has. 5:41 Like a father. And you see that in uh 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 where Paul writes to these Corinthian Corinth was a place where he planted the church as an apostle. And he says to them in 1 Corinthians 4:15, 6:00 "You can have countless or 10,000 teachers, but you don't have many fathers. In Christ Jesus, I became your father through the gospel." So, that's what a minis- an apostle is. He's a father, spiritual father, who brings people to Christ. And then 6:18 what did Paul do after that? He wrote letters to them to correct them when they went wrong, to encourage them, to all the churches. And if he were living in this day, he would do video conferences with them or send emails to them. 6:36 He'd be constantly in touch with all the elders, all the churches he planted. And the other thing that the apostles did, you read in Acts 14, is uh he we read in Acts 14 that they appointed elders in each place. Acts 14 6:55 and verse 23, "When they had appointed elders in every church, they commended them to the Lord in whom they believed." So, that's the other thing the apostle does. He appoints leaders in each church. He discerns. He doesn't immediately 7:12 appoint. Very often they plant a church, go around, come back after a couple of years. By the time they know who is grown spiritually, who's got maturity, who's earned the confidence of people, and they appoint at least usually two. Elders means 7:26 plural. They never appointed pastors. The word pastor is not at all found in the New Testament as a it's a gift like apostle. It's not a title. Not that I go around saying I'm pastor so-and-so or apostle so-and-so. It's not meant to be a title, 7:40 and unfortunately, a lot of people use it today for honor. That's completely against God's word. Uh but elders are even elders, they don't take it as a title. I'm elder so-and-so. They're brother so-and-so. But elders are the ones who lead the 7:55 church. And there was never one. You never have a church with one pastor, one elder. Never. Minimum of two. Because then only there's a balance. You know, Jesus sent people two by two. This one by one is only in the Old 8:09 Testament. Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah. But once soon as you come into the New Testament, Jesus sends his people two by two. And you see immediately after the day of Pentecost, you see Peter and John. Never alone. Paul and Silas or Paul and Barnabas. 8:26 So, this business of a one-man ministry is never found in the New Testament. They're all He's always working with others in in that ministry. And then as he plants churches, he works along with the elders. So, the elders are always plural. Never 8:43 one man leads any church. This is all completely disobeyed by God. I'm by Sorry, dis- made by Christians throughout the centuries. They made bishops, archbishops, popes, and all that type of stuff, and they also appointed single leaders of a church, 8:56 and to control him, they make a board. And this poor guy who's a pastor has to keep on pleasing the board, otherwise he loses salary. It's all It's like a worldly system, you know, where a board appoints a CEO of a company. 9:08 And then when they want a new CEO, they ask all these hiring people who uh pro- provide possible CEOs, and they come and test them out, and interview them, and appoint one. It's exactly like that pastors are appointed. There are people 9:22 who supply different people who want to be pastors, and they go to a church, preach a sermon. They test out four five people, and say, "Okay, you'll be the pastor." That's not at all how they did it here. Here it was in a family. From the group 9:34 of children who were converted to Christ, from them they selected, said, "These are the most mature. They are the elders of this church." And that's exactly how we've done it for 50 years in every church. Where from the local elders, we select 9:48 No, sorry, the local children of God in a church, we select two people, and that's how the apostles did it. And then the apostles Lord correcting anything wrong and encouraging people and they disciplined people also. For example, the apostles had such 10:03 authority that in one place we read in Corinthians, I hand over that person to Satan because he's sleeping with his stepmother committing a sin. I hand him over to Satan and then you read that in 1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians he 10:22 since the guy has repented he says, "Okay, you can come back to the church." So, the apostles had authority to do that. Now, you cannot make yourself an apostle. Only God can appoint you, but then how do we know? Well, I say the only way we 10:34 can discover today is not by somebody calling himself apostle. There are lots of people in America going around saying, "I'm apostle so-and-so, apostle so." And most of them that I've heard of, they never planted a single church. 10:46 And a And a man who plants one church is not an apostle. He's an elder of that church. An apostle is one who plants many churches and oversees all of them and appoints elders. And it's by his ministry that today we can discern an apostle. 11:00 Not by somebody calling himself that or claiming to be one or putting that as a title. That's all garbage. We discern a person by his ministry. How do you discern that somebody's an evangelist? If he just says, "I'm evangelist." It 11:14 doesn't mean or if you see in his ministry is everywhere he goes he brings people to Christ. And he's brought many people to Christ. The guy's an evangelist. Or a person who's got a shepherd heart. Maybe somebody in the church in your 11:24 local church who may not have any title or any, but he's one of the ordinary members, but he's got a such a shepherd heart to speak to different people and encourage them and bring people together. And like a shepherd looks after the sheep, that's 11:37 a That's a pastor. That's a shepherd. He may not have any official title. He may not even be an elder. But he's a shepherd in that church. And then there's a great need for shepherds. You remember Jesus once said, it says he 11:49 looked out over the congregation, they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he says, "Pray that God will send out shepherds into the field." I believe that's one of the greatest needs in all of our churches. People who have 12:01 a heart for the sheep. To encourage them. There so many discouraged people in the church who want to guide them. So, that's the other ministry of shepherds. And an apostle is one who can discern that and say, "Brother, I think you 12:15 should I think you have the gift of being a shepherd. Please encourage these people." Or encourages the other evangelists. Okay. So, for that, in order to fulfill that ministry they need grace from God. Because you cannot do any ministry 12:30 without grace from God. So, that's what he means by saying we received apostleship with grace and ministry. Okay, the next question is many Christians teach deliverance that a born-again Christian can have demons inside them which can cause them to sin 12:43 and which need to be cast out. There's not a single evidence in the Bible that a Christian can have a demon. Because there's only one heart. There's only one dwelling place. The heart and ourself has ruled that from the time we 12:59 were born. Now, we can invite another person to come in. You can have a demon come in there. Or Christ can come in. But you can't have Christ sitting there with a demon. That is impossible. It's ridiculous to think that think that 13:16 you invited Christ to come in and he shared his throne with a demon. It's ridiculous how people teach that. Some very well-known Bible teachers have taught that a Christian can have a demon and it's put so many Christians into 13:28 bondage. And that's because many Chris people who call themselves Christians are not really born again. And they behave in a bad way and then people say, "This guy's got a demon. He's born again, but he's got a demon." No, the problem was he was not properly 13:41 born again. People had a shallow understanding of salvation and they gave this idea that this guy the idea that he was born again when he was not. So, it's impossible for Christ and the demon to sit on the same throne in our 13:56 heart. And that is the clearest proof that no Christian can ever have a demon. See 2 Corinthians chapter 6. It's a very important verse. Please look at this verse. 2 Corinthians in chapter 6. And verse 14:19 15. What fellowship harmony has Christ got with a demon? Belialism word for demons. What harmony has Christ with a demon? How can they all sit together in the same throne of a person's heart? 14:37 A Christian cannot have a demon. He's got a demon, the guy's never really born again. I mean, 90% of so-called Christians are not are not born again. They're nominal Christians. And now unfortunately, we have nominal born-again people who are not really 14:52 born again. They went through saying some repeat somebody said, "Say after me, Lord Jesus come into my heart." You say, "Lord Jesus come to my heart." Okay, Christ has come. How do you know whether Christ has really come? The guy may have just 15:03 repeated a formula. He's not really had a sense of need, not really repented. No one can receive Christ without repenting. And repentance is the one thing which is not preached in today's evangelism. You know, there was a song used to sing, 15:16 "The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives." I said, "Nonsense." The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. A well-known song. But we changed it. When we sing it, we 15:32 say the vilest offender who repents and believes. Otherwise, he's not truly believes. You can't receive Christ by believing. You have to repent and believe. So, some of these songs you got to be careful about what we are singing. 15:46 So, a born-again Christian cannot have a demon. And if they sin, it's because of the flesh. Even born-again Christians can sin. So, not because they have a demon. They need to turn from their sin and repent. What they need is repentance, 16:00 not deliverance. The test for a demon, I mean, I've seen in many cases there are a number of demons I've cast out in my life, many, many of them. And every single time they've gone out with one word, "In the name of Jesus, 16:13 get out of here." You demon, they go. And the way I test them is now say, "Jesus Christ is my Lord." No demon will ever say, "Jesus Christ is my Lord." Secondly, I say, "Satan was defeated on the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ." No demon will 16:31 say that. So, we can easily find out whether a person I tell people, "Can you say from your heart, 'Jesus Christ is my Lord?'" Mm. A demon-possessed person can never say that. "Satan was defeated on the cross." It actually happened once in a 16:47 uh somebody brought a lady to my house one day. One One of our sisters in the church brought a lady and told her to told me to give her the gospel. So, when I told her the gospel I said, "Now, ask Jesus to come into your heart." Then 17:02 always I tell new believers, "Now speak to the devil and say you were defeated on the cross." I wanted them to say that so that they know that not only their sins are forgiven, but they're also that Satan was defeated on the 17:13 cross. Many people don't realize that at least two things happened on the cross. One, their sin was forgiven and Satan was defeated. You must know both. But most people preach the gospel only one things, "Your sins are forgiven on the 17:24 cross." And they don't tell them anything about the fact that Satan was defeated on the cross. So, I tell them to say, "Now you You're just like I tell them you say how your sins are forgiven and tell Satan you were defeated on the cross." And this 17:35 woman looked at me and said, "I was not defeated on the cross." It was a demon speaking to me. So, I said, "You're a liar. You were defeated on the cross. Get out of her right now in Jesus' name." The demon left. And then I said, there's no 17:49 evidence sign or anything. Then I said to her, "Now tell the demon, now say, 'Satan, you were defeated on the cross.'" She said it. That is the proof that Satan had gone. I remember another demon-possessed person I encountered 18:03 here in Loveland. In the old RLCF church, not I It wasn't RLCF those days. It was another church here. The old Charity Fellowship Church that was having special meetings here. And I came here to speak. It was in 2000 or 2001 or something right here in 18:18 Loveland in a public hall. And the brother who was leading it asked me to speak to some sister some lady and said, "I've been counseling her, but I I can't help her." So, I found her dressed in pajamas. Nobody comes to church in pajamas. She 18:33 was dressed in pajamas. It was a young lady about 23 or so. And I said, "Okay." I said, "Now, will you ask" I told her about the forgiveness of sin. She heard it all that. Then I says, "Now say, 'Lord Jesus, say come into my heart.'" She says, "I can't 18:47 say that word." "I can't say that word. I can't say Lord Jesus." I said, "You can." "No, I can't." I said, "You demon, get out of her right now." "Now say, 'Lord Jesus, come into my heart.'" She began to move her mouth. "I can't 19:00 say." I said, "You can say it. Say, 'Lord Jesus.'" She said it. See, she had been used to the habit of saying, "I cannot say it. I cannot say it. I cannot say it. I can't say it." That even after the demon had gone, she 19:10 still had the old habit. So, you got to recognize that. So, I said, "Now say it." So, she said it. "Lord Jesus come into my heart." Now I say I said, "Say, 'Thank you, Lord Jesus.'" "No, I can't say it." Old habit again. I said, "You 19:21 can. Say, 'Thank you, Lord Jesus.'" She said, "Thank you, Lord Jesus." She went away happy. Next morning I see this very well-dressed young lady coming up to me and said, "Brother Zach, you recognize me?" I said, "No. Are you the same person who accepted 19:36 Christ yesterday?" "Yes." She was in some cult group here in Loveland. And it was amazing how uh people are being fooled. She's being fooled that she was a Christian. She was not a Christian. But she had a demon inside her and Chris 19:51 Something She had gone somewhere where she was told, "Yeah, you're a Christian, but you got a demon inside." So, a Christian can never have a demon. Impossible. If they have a demon, they're not born again. Um I seem obsessively to be affected by the 20:06 opinions of people. Can you give me some practical ways in which I have to be free of this bondage? It's a battle all human beings are affected by all normal human beings are affected by the opinions of others. I want to say to every one of you, we are 20:22 all affected much by the opinions of others. If we battle against it, we get free of it. You know, it's just like saying a person who never takes exercise will get fat. It's It'll happen to everybody. But, if he battles against it and battling 20:36 against it by taking constant exercise and running and going to a gym or something, he gets rid of his fat. So, it's like that. The To be free from the opinions of people, we've got to fight against it. Like the man who wants to get rid of the 20:49 excess fat in his body, he does some exercise and goes to a gym and gets rid of the unhealthy fat in his system. In the same way, if we fight against this being enslaved to the opinions of people through the power of the Holy Spirit, 21:02 we can be free from it. And we got to evaluate, you know, I remember when I used to preach in the open air, um and I I In the early days, I was only 23 years old. Uh I I was a little nervous standing out there in front of people and proclaiming 21:19 the Christ the Lord. And uh I I was always scared, what do these people think about me? And some of my sailors who worked under me in the Navy would be there and be laughing and all that. And it It was a battle to stand 21:32 there and preach. And then the Lord showed me one thing in the scripture. Man is made from the dust of the ground. I knew that. And when he dies, he becomes dust again. For a short period, he's got a little breath that God's given him. But, he is 21:49 only dust. When the breath is taken away, he becomes dust again. So, the Lord said, "Look at these people like a pile of dust." So, I would go there and stand before the people, all these people. I said, "There's a big pile of dust here. Can I 22:00 preach to a pile of dust?" Yes, I can. So, I sort of convinced myself like that and I became free. And I could speak boldly. It doesn't matter how many people were there. But, this being afraid of the opinions of men is a very, very common 22:15 thing. And you have to battle it. I had to battle it, battle it, and I became free from it. The same thing when you begin to preach in the beginning, you first time you get out to preach, you're very nervous. You want to impress people. It's exactly 22:26 like that me. First time I got up in a church when I was 21 years old, I wanted to share something and maybe 2-3 minutes, and I was a bit nervous and then I sit down. I sit down and then I begin to think, not did I glorify God, 22:39 but what did people think of what I shared? It's normal. Absolutely normal. That's how I started and that's how you'll start, too. But, you keep battling against it and say, "Lord, I don't want to be worried about what people think 22:49 about me. I want to glorify you." You gradually come to the place where you'll overcome something. It's getting like you get rid of that extra fat in your body. So, you get rid of all the fear in your system as well. You got to battle 23:00 against it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay, next question is, "My mind is constantly wandering throughout the day and I'm unable to focus on the task at hand. How can I practically take every thought captive?" Ask the Lord to help you with the power 23:13 of his Holy Spirit. And read the word and try to meditate, try to fix your mind on something something you memorize in God's word, and take a scripture and read it. If you don't have I mean, you have it on your phone. Look up say a passage of 23:28 scripture and try to memorize scripture during the day. It's a very, very useful habit to memorize scripture. And so, if you try to do that, you can get your mind away from uh wandering. But, if you've got a job to do, it's very important that you 23:45 concentrate on that work and it's a battle. Ask God to help you. God is there to help you even in your earthly tasks. If you're working in a factory or working on your office job, say, "Lord, help me to concentrate on this and do a 23:58 good job as a Christian." God can help you in any situation that you have faced yourself. But, wandering thoughts come to us over a period of time. You just battle it and battle it and it comes back. And it still come and it comes to me, too. When 24:12 my mind is relaxed and not doing anything, you begin to think of so many things. So long as not going to something impure, then you have to immediately pull it back. No, I don't want that. I don't want anything impure or dirty. I don't want 24:24 something critical or judgmental. That's all polluting. To have a judgmental critical thought about somebody is as bad as an adulterous thought. I don't know whether you realize that. That you have an adulterous thought 24:35 towards a woman. Do you have a critical judgmental thought towards a brother is just as bad. And when you see it is just as bad, you'll want to get rid of it. And you'll see this is just as bad as an adulterous thought. But, some people 24:48 don't put the same in the same category and that's why they pollute their so much of their minds they pollute with critical judgmental thoughts of various people in the church. They have absolutely zero responsibility for those 24:58 brothers and sisters, but they criticize them. Why? They're not your children. God has not given you any responsibility. Be a brother to them and encourage them. So, if you take those attitudes seriously, we'll be able to control our 25:12 thoughts more. Okay, I understand asking and seeking as Jesus said in Matthew 7, seek and you shall find and ask and you shall receive. Can you share a few examples how doors are opened by knocking? Jesus said, "Ask, seek, knock." 25:29 Now, I don't think Jesus is speaking about asking as one thing and seeking as another thing and knocking as another thing. I think he was just using three expressions. That's my understanding of the same thing. When I ask God for something, I'm 25:41 seeking him for something and I'm knocking at the door In the same way, I'm When I knock at the door, I say, "Please open." I'm asking for something. So, I don't see much of a difference. I've never thought of it as a different 25:52 thing. If I want to go somewhere, I'm asking for an opening in there. So, I'm asking. And I'm seeking for that and I'm knocking, also. Or if I'm asking for healing in some situation, I'm asking, seeking, and knocking. There's a door is closed by 26:07 sickness. I want to open it by healing. So, I see asking and seeking and knocking as exactly the same. I don't see a difference between those three. You know, there are different ways of expressing the need for prayer. Okay, when I take up my cross, it seems 26:23 heavy. I think Jesus found it heavy, too. In fact, it was so heavy, he stumbled and fell down. So, if you find If you don't find it heavy, it's probably not the cross at all. It's not fun carrying the cross. It's It's a heavy thing, definitely. And um 26:39 Yeah, Jesus said his yoke is easy. No, yoke Jesus' yoke is easy means he was not talking about the cross. He was talking about partnership with him in laboring. You know, see the place where he used it. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. 26:56 Matthew chapter 11 is where he wrote that and he said that. Verse 28, "Come to me, all who are weary 11:28, and heavy laden." The world is full of 27:15 weary, heavy laden people, even in the church. There's so many weary, heavy laden people. And Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you. You're taking a whole lot of burdens upon your heart which I never gave you." The Lord said, "Take my burdens 27:33 because my burdens are easy." Verse 30. "My burdens are light and easy. I don't put heavy burdens on anyone." Verse 30. And "learn from me." "Take my yoke" means the yoke is a wooden piece which is put 27:53 between two bullocks and they plow the field together. So, that is very common for everybody in Israel to understand because they were full of There were a lot of farmers. Most of them were farmers. They had bullocks with a yoke 28:07 on them. And when you have a yoke, you know, think of a senior bullock training a younger bullock to plow a field. You put the yoke on both of them. And then the young bullock has to be a little disciplined to not rush forward or lag behind. You 28:26 have to keep pace with the older bullock because the yoke is on both your necks. You can't rush forward and you can't hold back cuz the older older bullock is holding that strong and say, "Hang on. You can't go ahead. You can't lag 28:37 behind." That's the meaning of the yoke upon you. And so, when the Lord says, "Take my yoke upon you," you say, "Lord, I want to walk with you. I don't want to rush ahead. I don't want to lag behind. When you tell me to go, I want to move. When 28:48 you tell me to stop, I'll stop. And when you tell me to move forward, I move forward quickly." "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." It's the older bullock telling the junior bullock who's being trained, "See which way I'm going. 29:01 Walk in the same way. Don't go here and there. Stay under the yoke. Don't turn left or right. When I turn left, you'll turn. When I walk slowly, you walk slowly. When I move forward quicker, move quicker." That's taking 29:12 the yoke. Moving at the pace of Jesus. Always listening, listening, listening, listening. That's how we take the yoke and go. Senior bullock training the junior bullock how to plow the field. And he says, "I won't be harsh on you. 29:27 I'll be gentle and humble in the way I treat you. And you will find rest in your heart. It will not be a strain to serve me. I can tell you honestly, after 60 years of serving the Lord, it's not a strain. It's enjoyable. 29:42 Uh I kind of It's truly enjoyable and it brings rest into my life to serve the Lord. So, take your That's the meaning there of taking the yoke. Um the cross is saying The cross is not a yoke. The cross is saying no to myself. 30:01 This here it's talking about serving the Lord. The cross is where I'm saying no to my flesh. My flesh is tempting me to do this something and I put it to death. That's the cross. Telling me to go this way or do that thing and I say no. 30:16 I'm not going to listen to you. That's the cross where I put it to death. How can I always remain humble? Here it is, same passage, Matthew 11. Take my yoke and learn from me for I am humble. It's like you a teacher teaching you how 30:34 to play the piano. And say See See how I put my fingers and see how I play. Watch me and learn. Now, you put your right hand there and I'll do the you follow play the same note. That's how the Lord is teaching us 30:51 to be humble. Learn from me and you will learn gentleness and humility. Both are two great needs that all of us need to have. Gentleness and humility. He says learn it from me. I cannot become humble if I'm not willing to learn humility from Jesus. In 31:09 other words, I look at the life of Jesus in different circumstances as it is in the gospels. And I say that's I ask the Holy Spirit to help me to walk that way. That's how I practice humility and gentleness. How do I discern the prompting of the 31:26 Holy Spirit from my own thoughts or deception from Satan? Again, only by knowing the word and by the witness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in my conscience. Conscience is a great guide there. When I'm going in a wrong direction, it 31:45 will say no. You know that verse in Isaiah chapter 30? Are you familiar with that verse all of you? Isaiah, please turn to that chapter. Isaiah 30 verse 21. He's talking about your 32:04 teacher. Verse 20, the last part. Your eyes will see your teacher. The Holy Spirit. And your ears and Jesus. And your ears will hear a word behind you, the Holy Spirit saying, "This is the way when you When you turn to the 32:23 right or turn to the left." Meaning is, when you're missing the way, the Holy Spirit will say, "No, don't turn there. Turn right or turn left." So, that witness in our spirit is how we know the Holy Spirit. And how do we know that's 32:37 the Holy Spirit, not your own thoughts? Only if you know the word of God and if you have studied the life of Jesus in God's word. Study the life of Jesus in the gospels and read the New Testament especially and gradually you'll come to learn from him. 32:55 It's like learning the ABC or learning how to spell different words. You first learn b a t and c a t cat. But then you learn bigger words. So, the Christian life is like that. It's a learning process where the Holy Spirit constantly 33:11 teaches you more and more and you learn to distinguish between what are your thoughts and the Holy Spirit's thought. But if you never read the word of God, you never read the Bible and you don't listen to godly men's sharing the word with you, you'll never 33:25 become spiritual. No. Because you need some type of guidance. That's why God has given us his word. That's why Jesus said you cannot live by bread alone. You need to receive God's word every day. If you eat food every day, you need God's word 33:38 every day. If you don't miss a day you uh you don't skip a day avoiding food. You should not skip a day in reading the word of God. What is the difference between not wanting to sin after we are born again in the new covenant and what old 33:56 covenant godly men like Joseph, David, Daniel and even Paul before his conversion had of not wanting to sin according to Psalm 119 and verse 11? What's that word What does that word say? Psalm 119 verse 11. You see, there's a certain desire to 34:24 avoid inconvenient things even everybody has, even unbelievers. But their conscience is not sensitive. You know, there are many unconverted people who will not tell lies, who will not steal because they feel convicted in their 34:37 conscience. It's not the same as the Holy Spirit bringing conviction. Psalm 119 verse 11 says, "Your word have I treasured in my heart not that might not may not sin against you." Okay, but their understanding of sin was 34:49 very, very low. It was not a very sensitive understanding of sin. It's a very low level. This is what they thought sin was. Sin is a huge mountain, but they'd seen only very little of it in the old covenant. The Holy Spirit 35:03 came and suddenly we discover sin is much bigger than that. So, at that level they were avoiding sin. It was all almost all external. They knew nothing about sinful thoughts in the Old Testament or motives and attitudes and 35:14 all. It didn't occur to them. It was all sinful actions. Murder and uh like adultery, external things. So, their understanding of sin was very different and they were godly at that level. But in the new covenant, God shows us sin in the inner inner part 35:34 of our being, in the inner man. And that's how we become more sensitive. And we are when we are born again. In fact, that is one of the evidences you are born again. If you only avoid external sins, you're not much different from the 35:46 average unbeliever. I mean, how many For example, in the town where you live, how many murderers are there? How many people are there who are committing adultery every day? Very small number, perhaps. The multitudes of atheists who never 35:59 kill anybody or never commit adultery. Because there's a certain moral thing that God has put into man. All human beings have it. A moral sensitivity and a conscience. Only thing is not much It's not very sensitive. When you're born again, the conscience 36:16 suddenly becomes very sensitive to sin. And the more you read God's word, the more and more it becomes sensitive to sin. That's how we are different. The next question is, what does it practically mean for us to be a friend 36:27 of sinners like Jesus was? That means by being That means being friendly with unbelievers without being polluted by them. Jesus mingled with sinners and he influenced them rather than they influencing him. So, in our place of work, we are 36:43 surrounded by sinners. Relatives, uh many of them are sinners. They're not born again. So, we must be friends with them, definitely. Otherwise, how will we bring them to Christ? If you stay away from all unconverted people, you'll never be a witness for 36:56 Christ. The light is needed in dark places, not where there are already plenty of lights. And so, it's in the dark places that God places you as a witness. And um you will say, "Lord, please help me to shine as a light here for you." 37:13 And so, that's that's how we are to be friendly without letting them influence us. I mean, think of a picture of a tug-of-war. You're you're friendly with this person and he's trying to pull you that way and you're trying to pull him this way. 37:28 And if you find the rope is slipping and you're being pulled in that direction, you know what you should do. Drop the rope. Let him go with the rope. Don't hang on to it. If you find he is pulling you in his direction, you're not strong enough to pull then 37:42 avoid that friendship. Break with that friendship and keep friends with sinners whom you can influence to Christ and whom they will not influence you towards in that direction. Those are the friendships we should keep. So, the stronger we become, the more we 37:57 can move around with sinners and not be influenced by them at all. So, otherwise, we will not be able to lead any of them to Christ. A lot of our relatives are sinners. We must mingle with them and love them. Otherwise, how will we draw them to 38:11 Christ? You have a big responsibility towards all the sinners in your family who are unconverted. There's a brother in our one of our churches in India. He hardly speaks any English. He's from villages. He was once demon-possessed. 38:30 He's now one of our elders. Very fine young brother. I remember in one meeting years ago, he said this. I've never forgotten it till today. At the end of the conference, we asked different people give their testimony in 38:42 brief few words. And he says, "This is my testimony. I learned something in this conference. And what I learned was from John 3:16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but I have 38:54 everlasting life. I I accepted Christ a long time ago, but what I learned from this verse now is that I have a group of relatives and friends whom nobody else in this church knows. And for all of us, that is true. You know a certain number of group of 39:10 relatives and friends whom nobody else in this church knows. So, this brother said there are I have relatives and friends that nobody else in this church knows and that is a world. And into that world, God has sent his son. That's me. 39:24 God sent his son into that world of people who only I know that I might lead them to eternal life. So, that's what he got from John 3:16. It was like a revelation. It was a revelation for me to get that out of John 3:16 that God sent me as a son into 39:40 this unconverted world that I know so that they might have eternal life. So you see how God speaks to people. That's how we have to be a light in the midst of sinners. And uh how can I be sure each day that I'm fulfilling God's plan for my life? I 39:57 shouldn't be pre-occupied with each day. Generally speaking, I must say, "Lord, I want to fulfill your plan for my life." It's not that God says, "Okay, today you got to do this, this, and the other." We live our normal life. 40:11 And as God gives us opportunities to serve him, we serve. As God gives us an opportunity to witness sometimes, maybe once a month or once or sometimes you get a chance to put in a word for him or stand up for something, 40:23 and that becomes a witness to others. We live a normal life. It's like a light that's shining all the time. That's how our life must be. We don't have to do anything spectacular or anything. But little by little people will be 40:39 drawn to that light. That is the Christian life. And I don't have to be in a you know over concerned am I fulfilling God's plan for today. I live a normal life. And generally speaking, God will work my circumstances in such a way. God's plan 40:55 for my life is basically what? It's not the job I have or the place I live in. God's plan for my life is in one sentence that you must become like Jesus Christ. So everything that happens in your life, if you're becoming more and more 41:10 Christ-like, you're fulfilling God's plan for your life. We're so taken up with God's plan. Is it this job or that job? Is it I have to live in this town or that town? Those are all utterly secondary. The main purpose of God's plan for my 41:23 life is he wants me to become Christ-like in my conduct and my behavior. Concentrate on that. And these other things will are minor things which will fit into place. God will take care of which job you get and which place you 41:37 have to live in through circumstances. God is a God who controls circumstances. Should I be rebaptized if I was sprinkled as a teenager? Uh now if you were in Greece, he'd understand baptism is immersion. So he says, "You were not immersed as a 41:56 teenager. That means you were not baptized at all." Even though Christians call it baptism, you were not immersed. Baptism means immersion. You were not immersed. Somebody sprinkled some water on your head. It accomplished nothing. So it You can't 42:10 even call that a baptism. It's just some sprinkling. Does the devil know the future and does he know our thoughts? The devil knows the future as much as written in God's word. Christ is coming back. The world is going to get more and more 42:24 dangerous. Anything that's predicted in God's word, the devil knows better than you because and me because he knows the Bible so well. And the other thing is he knows the future, what we call the future. For example, if God if the devil 42:38 knows that somewhere some guy over there is planning to kill somebody here. It's not yet happened. The devil can then he devil knows all the possibilities and the high possibility. The devil knows, "Yeah, this guy's going 42:50 to be killed this evening." How did he know that? Because he knows what's happening there with that guy planning it. And he knows the circumstances that are it's makes it pretty easy. So here's a prediction. This guy will be killed 43:01 today. And somebody says that and he says, "Oh, that guy's a prophet." No, he's not a prophet. The devil told him because the devil knows all these facts over here. That's how the devil knows the future. But he doesn't know what's going to 43:10 happen where he doesn't know the circumstances that are going to lead to that. He doesn't know that. The only future that he knows is what we can know from the scriptures. He doesn't know the future. What about our thoughts? 43:21 I don't believe the devil knows our thoughts. That's one area. For example, I find great comfort in it that when I pray to when I pray to the Lord, the devil doesn't know what I'm praying. But if I if a thought comes into my mind, it's from my 43:38 flesh. And I reject it. And uh usually if I if I'm having a bad thought in my mind, I can reject it. If it is from Satan, I resist it. I don't think we need to analyze whether I can resist Satan in my thoughts or not. I do resist. Whether it's Satan or my 43:58 flesh, I resist the whole lot. See, if an enemy is coming at the gate to enter into my compound, I don't need to know whether it's enemy A, enemy B, or enemy C. I resist him. I won't come let him come in. Whether it's the flesh or the world 44:10 or the devil, I don't want you to come in. So I don't want to analyze which enemy it is. He's not going to come into my heart. So don't waste your time analyzing whether the devil know if it's against your conscience, it could be 44:23 your flesh, it could be the devil. You just resist it. We don't have to analyze. So we live so much in our try to understand and analyze. We're not That is our mind. We must live in our spirit. In our heart, we resist sin wherever 44:38 it's the temptation comes from. Okay. What does seeking the kingdom God first mean in practical terms at all stages in life while pursuing a college degree or while seeking to excel in a job? I think you know we shouldn't 44:56 misunderstand common sense with the leading of God. Common sense is also a gift of God. To we must use our common sense, a gift God has given us, intelligence, to know I have to work in order to earn a living. I go to study hard to get a 45:11 job. Just like everybody else in the world. And there's nothing wrong in that. It's just common sense and uh God wants us to use our common sense for so many things. To keep ourselves clean, to take a shower, or to take medicine when we are 45:25 sick. It's all common sense. I don't need a leading from God for that. So um in these different stages of life, pursuing a college degree. Why do I pursue a college degree? Because otherwise I can't get a job. Now you didn't need to pursue the college degree 45:39 2,000 years ago. So people didn't pursue that because you could Most people were farmers. You didn't have to be a college graduate to get a farmer to get a job. But in the world in which we live, if you go to the villages in India, you 45:51 don't need a college degree to get a job there. So it depends where you are. And even some places you need a college degree is not enough. You need to get a post-graduate degree. So in situation is different in each place. 46:03 And it's common sense that tells us what we should do in each place. Or while you're studying and working in a particular job, you realize that in that field things are progressing so fast so fast that you got to study more and privately 46:16 or otherwise on in that subject if you want to progress and get a promotion or even to survive without being fired. So you work hard to study in that field so that you can excel. This is normal common sense. And that is not against God's will. 46:32 Okay, I'm not walking 100% in victory in my private life, but I'm continuing to seek it. And sometimes I asked him to share the word briefly in the church. Should I not speak at all until I come to complete victory? No. 46:45 You can. See, over the overcoming life is like climbing a mountain. I say Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. And so let's say 30,000 ft nearly. Jesus has reached the top. The his footsteps in the snow are 47:03 visible. All looks at those footsteps and follows it. I look at Paul's footsteps and put my feet in Jesus' footsteps and Paul's footsteps. All of us are at different heights. Only Jesus reached the top. Even Paul never reached the top. He died. 47:18 So all of us have seen the footsteps of godly men and of Christ in the gospels. And say, "I want to put my feet in those footsteps." I'm So I cannot teach the people who are ahead of me because well they don't have to look at 47:32 my footsteps. But there are a lot of people behind me. I can tell them, "Hey, look at my footsteps. I'm going the same direction." So whom can you teach? You can teach the ones who have not come as far in the Christian life as you have. 47:44 Simple common sense. Just like climbing a mountain. So you can definitely speak. You don't have to reach the top of the mountain before you begin to teach. It'll never happen otherwise. You can teach at every level. I used to 47:56 tell my older son, "See, you're three standards ahead of your younger brother. You can teach him. You're in fourth standard, he's in first standard. You can teach him. Next year you'll again be able to teach him because you're in fifth and he's in 48:08 the second." So it's like that. An older brother can teach a younger brother. It doesn't have to be the teacher always teaching. So you as an older person who's just three years older than the other person who was born again yesterday, you can teach 48:20 him something. It doesn't have to be the elder alone who teaches. Okay. A brother's another question. A brother's young wife recently passed away and it has it has been very hard for him and his children. He's struggling to know how to be 48:37 thankful and rejoice in those circumstances. Can you provide any encouragement that I can share with him? I mean, we can only go and sympathize with that person and pray that God will comfort him because in some of those situations 48:51 which we have never experienced ourselves, I cannot give him any comfort because I never went through that situation. Someone who's gone through that situation will be able to encourage that person more. But even otherwise, if I have not 49:03 gone through it, I can still tell him that God understands your situation. And if you give your life completely to Christ, you can be absolutely sure that he who knows the hair that falls from your head and the sparrow that falls from the 49:17 ground, he will definitely understand your situation and give you necessary grace to face the situation without a wife and with small children. And I cannot advise him unless I'm mature enough, you know, a experienced 49:35 shepherd in the church can advise him in his circumstances what he should do whether he should get married again, etc. So, so long as you don't go into realms where you have no experience, you can definitely encourage him 49:49 with the truths of scripture that he the Lord understands your situation and he'll encourage you and comfort you. Sometimes all that such a person may need is a friend to just stand by and help him with a few things in the house. That'll 50:01 be the greatest encouragement instead of preaching. Preaching is not always the encouragement. You go to somebody's house and help him in a prac- practical way. That's far better than preaching. Okay, another question. Uh A close 50:13 relative of mine was divorced and is about to remarry. Is it wrong or unwise for me to attend that wedding? I would not attend it. Because I believe that if a person is divorced, he should not marry again. Because to me it's clear. He should 50:32 either be reconciled to his wife who's divorced or stay single. But I'll make this provision not for believers, but if it's someone who's a uh unconverted person and is asking you for advice, I'll say, "Well, 50:52 if you can't if you're constantly being tempted, maybe you're tempted to go to prostitutes because of the sexual urge, okay. Second best is get married. The ideal would be stay single, but if you don't have grace I remember asking a 51:05 young believer this question when he was divorced and said, "Can I marry this other sister who is divorced and attending the same church?" I asked him the first question, "Can you" He was only about 30 or 30 early 30s. "Can you stay single?" 51:23 He said, "No, brother. I'm constantly tempted." I said, "Well, I must pray about it." So, I prayed about it and I said, "Boy, this guy's in danger of going to prostitutes or falling into sin and getting some sexually transmitted disease. 51:38 And if I tell him stay single, stay single and he falls into that sin, I'll feel terribly guilty. So, I will not tell him "Don't get married." I'd say, "Brother, if you can't do it, okay. It's like a permission I'm giving 51:56 which is God's second best, I would say, to put it like that. To save you from some greater calamity. But I said, "I'll never conduct that marriage in the church. And I will not come to it. Go to a secular court, get married over there. 52:12 We'll never announce it in the church. There'll be no wedding reception. There'll be nothing. But but since you're already a member in this church, you can continue to be that." So, what should we do with such people in relation to church? If a divorced 52:24 person comes to our church, he's broken in probably in unconverted days he divorced and remarry and he's come. He's a sinner. Jesus is the friend of sinners. If he's really bo- He can be born again. Can such a person be born again who's 52:42 divorced and remarried? Of course, he can. Anybody Criminals can be born again. A person who's divorced and married 10 times can be born again. God doesn't condemn anybody to hell. There's no person on living on earth who to whom 52:55 we can say it's impossible for you to be born again. Nobody. Anybody can be. So, I would say to anyone, you can be born again, sure. And if he's born again means God has accepted him. So, I can't tell him in the church he 53:07 can't come to the church. Where else will he go if he's born again? Maybe he's married divorced three times. Years ago as an unbeliever he did 101 wrong things. I would accept him into the church. But I would not give him any spiritual 53:20 responsibility. I would not ask him because the Bible says uh a man who's an elder must be must have only one wife. And this guy's got three. And 1 Timothy 3 says that. So, what I understand from 1 Timothy 3 is that you 53:37 can't give spiritual responsibility to a person who's been unfaithful in marriage in that area. But I would say there are many other jobs that you can do, some practical things in the church like, you know, looking after the internet or 53:51 uh keeping the building clean or so many things like that you can do, many many practical things, arranging food, so many things which have not got to do with spiritual responsibility from the pulpit. If you have a big you're a rich person, 54:03 you've got a home, you can have a meeting in your home, but you cannot lead that meeting. Somebody else has to lead that meeting. I would not give him spiritual responsibility. But I would as a sinner, I would welcome any sinner who's really converted, 54:17 particularly if I see their circumstances are such he cannot go back. His previous wife has married somebody else. What what is he Is he doomed to a forever to live without church fellowship? No. I would accept him. So, 54:28 that's my view on that. But I would not attend his wedding. If he's just going to get remarried, I'd say, "Sorry, I can't because I believe it's against God's word." Okay, on church life. I 54:48 I attend a very small fellowship. How can I know what my calling is there? It's the same thing I mentioned before. If you're in third grade, can you help people who are in the first grade and in the kindergarten? You can't teach people who are in the 55:04 sixth grade because you're only in the third grade. So, in that small fellowship there'll be people who are younger than you spiritually. Please help them one-on-one. And if the leader of the fellowship asks you occasionally to share a word, share 55:18 at your level. Don't share on things which are you read somewhere, but you haven't experienced. Okay, we know that Jesus stood against the traditions of that Sorry, traditions of the Pharisees. What does it mean then to hold on to 55:37 traditions that we've been taught in the new covenant? Yeah, 2 Thessalonians 2:15. Now, when in the Bible when when it speaks about the traditions we have learned, it's the New Testament New Testament scriptures as opposed to the Old 55:53 Testament scriptures. The traditions of the Pharisees were the Old Testament scriptures, but when it speaks in 2 Thessalonians, he's quoted here 2 Thessalonians 2:15, which says, "Brethren, stand firm, hold to the traditions which you were taught 56:09 whether by word or mouth or letter from us." In other words, before the New Testament was written, everything that the apostles were taught was a New Testament tradition. There was no written scripture. So, what he means is what today we have 56:26 it here in the Bible. Today you don't have to say about traditions. Today we say it's written in the New Testament. But in the days before the New Testament was written, they were called the traditions taught by the apostles or which he taught by 56:38 word or by mouth. So, today we have it as a New Testament, of course. We we teach that. It's It's exactly what we teach. Just like in the old covenant they taught what was written down in the Old Testament. Second Next question. Is there a reason 56:54 that typically at CFC conferences you only invite speakers from CFC churches? For example, we have a conviction that those who lead a church should not receive a salary. Now, here's a guy who's a paid pastor somewhere. What's he going to come and teach me 57:13 about how to live by faith and trust God for my spirit- and financial needs? He'd be a hypocrite if he tries to teach that. That's just one example. So, we're not saying we're better than him, but we have certain convictions. For 57:27 example, here's a person who's born again person, really born again, good man, but he's pre- he's never taken adult baptism. There are people like that. I met some very fine people who are born again, never taken adult baptism, sprinkled. 57:42 Can I come here and ask him to speak here? Will he teach it on baptism? I don't know what he'll teach. I will not invite him. Now, I'm just giving you two examples. There could be other areas like that where some believers say it's 57:53 okay to watch all types of Christian movies on television. Okay, that's up to him. I don't believe that. So, I cannot allow such a person to come here. I don't know what he'll teach. That's why we are very careful about whom we allow 58:06 in the pulpit or whom we invite to speak in a conference. And I mean, if it's an extremely godly man who's we've known for years and who's very mature, someone like if there was some person like I One of the few people I respected in this country was 58:20 David Wilkerson. Really godly man. I met him and I saw he was a very very humble man when I met him. I would invite him to speak because he's got a basic godliness even though he was a paid pastor, but I would overlook that because I know he 58:34 has the maturity not to come and speak on that subject over here if you tell him we don't have paid pastors. So, if a man is really godly, I would definitely ask him to speak, but uh there are very very few people like that. I mean, I can hardly think of any 58:50 of Some of these famous preachers in America, I don't have much respect for them. That's my personal conviction. You're welcome to have respect for them. There are very few people I really respect because I I've listened to some of them and I 59:03 see that things I don't agree with in that in their emphasis. I don't know whether they'll come here and say that and confuse some of our believers. That's the reason why I don't invite them. I'd rather have a less mature 59:15 person who comes here and does not bring confusion into our church. That is the reason. You see, doctrine is a very important thing for us, particularly in a time like this where there are so many doctrines among Protestants. 59:27 I don't know what this person will come and teach. And once he comes and teaches something, I don't have after he goes away to get up and say, "Hey, by the way, what that guy taught was wrong." I don't want to cause confusion. And 59:39 that is the reason why we are very careful who we invite into the pulpit. It's not because we are exclusive, but we don't want to cause confusion. Now, if it is a bunch of mature believers sitting there, anybody can come and 59:52 preach. I know they have discernment to discern the good from the bad. But we have a church of babies and spiritual babies, and I don't want them to be confused by this person I invited, and they think, "Oh, brother Zac invited him 1:00:02 to come and speak. Everything he says must be all right." No. They have confidence in me that or I'll invite only reliable people to speak, and they'll accept what he says. So, I won't make that mistake. That's the reason. 1:00:16 How should a church deal with divorce and remarriage and those who are already in that situation? I think I already answered that question. How do I encourage or discourage And sometimes I want to tell you if there's a complicated situation, better to go to 1:00:28 a mature elder and say, "In this particular situation, there are certain complications like this. What should we do?" We must always act with mercy. But the mercy must not be at the cost of compromising God's truth. What Jesus has said is absolute the 1:00:44 truth. But I must be merciful to people who have messed up their life. And I believe in such situations, we must look for discernment from God. How do I encourage a discouraged person without enabling self-pity? I have to tell him that discouragement 1:01:00 is because he's looking into himself and expecting something from himself. But if he can recognize one thing, uh what the apostle says, "I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells nothing good." Have you read that statement? 1:01:18 Uh isn't it in Romans 7? In my flesh, there's dwells nothing good. So, if so long as you know that, you know that You know where that verse comes? 1:01:39 18? Yeah. Romans 7:18. I know that nothing good dwells in me, in my flesh. So, in all of us, it's the same. I got a flesh, that newly converted person's got a flesh. But I've got a little more light on my flesh than he has. 1:01:58 And I've learned to crucify certain aspects of my flesh. I've not overcome it completely because I don't have light on it completely. I believe in you know, in my life, there's a conscious area and an unconscious area. I can overcome sin only in my conscious 1:02:13 area. With my If I say unconsciously also I'm overcoming everything, then I become like Christ 100%. I'm not like Christ. Why am I not like Christ? Because I recognize there's an unconscious area in my life where I'm doing things which are 1:02:29 un-Christ-like, but I don't know it. I'll give you one example, which I got light on. This is one among many. Um I use this example often. There was a young brother who was with us many years ago. Uh this I'm talking about the days when 1:02:48 we were in Bangalore, newly house church in our house. He used to always sleep in our house and after the meeting because his parents were not believers. And we helped him in many ways, and finally got a job and he uh went to another part 1:03:00 of India, and we never heard from him for a long time. And I was telling my wife, "What an ungrateful guy this is. All the years we took care of him, he stayed in our house, and he doesn't even write a note to us telling us where he is. I 1:03:12 don't want anything from him." Uh And the Lord asked me, "Why are you expecting thanks from him? Haven't you read my word which says, 'Inasmuch as you helped one of these least of my brothers, you have done it unto me.'" The Lord says, "If you've 1:03:31 helped one of the least of my children, you have done it unto me." And so, consider what you did to him as you did to me, not to him. Then who should thank you? I realized it's the Lord who should thank me, not this person. I was It was wrong on my 1:03:47 part to expect thanks from him. I should have done it unto the Lord, not unto him. So, the Lord says, "I'll thank you in the final day. Don't expect thanks from him." That's the day I realized that expecting thanks from somebody for 1:04:00 what I did for him is a sin. Have you got light on it before today? That you do something for him and you expect him to thank you. It's a sin. Now, you may say you're being extreme. Zac, okay, you can say it's extreme. For 1:04:13 me, it is clear that I have done it not as unto him, but as unto the Lord. The Lord will thank me in the final day. I expect zero from him. I don't expect him to do anything for me. I don't expect him to show gratitude. I don't expect him to help me 1:04:26 when I'm in trouble. No, I expect nothing from him. I did it as unto the Lord. But if you look at your own life, examine your life even now. Think of some people you have helped. Don't you expect them to do something for you, at 1:04:39 least to thank you? Do you see that as a wrong attitude? I've seen it as a wrong attitude. That's what I mean by unconscious sin. It's not a sin to expect him to thank you. We teach our children to say thank you. But we gradually get more and more light to 1:04:53 live at a much higher level than the average Christian lives. That is spiritual growth. It's just one example. If you think that's an extreme position, so be it. But I know that for me, it has helped me greatly because it's I mean, if I tell 1:05:08 you some of the other extreme positions I have, you'll be surprised. But I've discovered that my aim in life is to discover the unconscious areas in my life where I'm not Christ-like. The conscious areas has become clear. 1:05:20 But there are unconscious areas in my life where I'm not Christ-like, and I want to get light on that. That is where I want You know, it's like possessing the land of Canaan. When Is it only Israelites got into Canaan, wherever they saw Canaanite, 1:05:33 they could kill him. Occupy that land. But there was a whole lot of Canaanites living up there. They don't even haven't got there yet. How can you kill them till you see them? Right or wrong? Are you understanding me? You can't kill a Canaanite till you see 1:05:46 him. So, I can't kill a a sinful thought till I see it as a sinful thought. It's unconscious to me now. Those are Canaanites in areas I've not yet reached. The Canaanites I see, I kill and I occupy that territory. Christ's nature is taken over in certain 1:06:03 areas of my life. But I recognize there are whole lot of areas in my flesh I don't have light. Little by little, I'm expanding this territory and occupying it more and more. This is Christian growth till one day I'll be completely Christ-like. The 1:06:19 whole land is occupied. So, that's just um a little explanation of how Christian growth is. Okay, next question is concerning social life. How do I balance work prospects 1:06:39 that involve working more and getting more experience to further my career, but which would take away from spending time in the word and fellowshipping with others? Well, you have to, unless you've got an inheritance or something where you don't 1:06:53 have to work, which is very rare. 99.9% of person don't have an inheritance. But even if you have an inheritance, I would still advise you to work. Otherwise, you'll be a very lazy person. Um all of us have to work hard and earn our 1:07:07 living. It's a very good discipline. So, I wish you'll never get an inheritance. It'll keep you keep you disciplined and hard-working. Uh most people are like that. Um but we don't have to read the Bible all the time. I don't read the Bible all the time, 1:07:23 even though I'm in full-time Christian work. I have to a lot of correspondence with different people who write to me and churches and so many things. I've got many things. It's can't be reading the Bible all the time, and you don't have to read the 1:07:35 Bible all the time. And you can't fellowship with people all the time. You got to do your secular job to earn your living, especially if you have a family. You got to feed your children family and educate your children and all that. So, 1:07:45 working is part of your Christian duty. Yeah, the Lord told Adam, "By the sweat of your brow, you will earn your living." So, whether you sweat in a field or in an office, you you That is the way God has appointed that we should earn our 1:08:01 living. And it's perfectly right. And that is not something out of God's will. We shouldn't think that only reading God's word and fellowshipping spiritual working hard Those days as a farmer, you work 8 hours on the field as a 1:08:14 farmer, you're doing God's work cuz God said you sweat and earn your living there. So, there's nothing wrong in working in an office to earn your living or getting some experience to get a better job because cost of living is 1:08:25 going up. Naturally, you need to uh educate your smart Even though you got a degree and you got a job, while you're in your job, you probably need to learn more to keep up with the pace. Otherwise, you lose your job. That is 1:08:35 situation nowadays in many technical fields. So, that's There's nothing wrong in that. You're doing God's will there as much as you're doing when you when you're reading God's word. Can you briefly explain the difference 1:08:48 between not judging, but having discernment? The word judge not is better translated as condemn not. That means don't condemn people as a judge sitting in a Think of a judge sitting in a court. I sentence you to 3 years 1:09:07 in jail because I believe you've committed a crime. You have passed a sentence. That is the type of judgment it says, "Don't do that." Don't pass a judgment on people by saying I'm not saying you put people in jail, but don't pass a sentence on 1:09:23 people saying, "I think you're guilty." It's not your business. Unless you're an elder in a church or you're a father in a home where you have responsibility you have authority. Other than that, you don't have the you don't have a need to 1:09:37 pass judgment on people. But discerning is, "Hey, I believe this guy is wrong. So, I'm going to steer clear of him in this area and I think close fellowship with him is going to pollute me and if you're an elder in a church you got 1:09:52 to discern whether you allow this guy to be a member of your church." There are people I have met I just look into their eyes and I said, "This guy will never be a member of my church. I won't allow him. I can see something 1:10:03 wrong in his eyes." Yeah, it's I believe God will give you discernment. And you know there's a tremendous amount you can see in a person's eyes. You know when they try to disguise a person's identity in a photograph all 1:10:17 you got to do is cover his eyes and then you don't know who he is. They don't cover the whole face. Have you seen that in photographs? They just cover the eyes and you don't know who it is. And even the other day I was coming into 1:10:26 the airport from abroad, from India and I came to this I have a global entry permission and no passport nothing. You go to a place they look into your eyes, "Okay, passed." I was amazed I've never had such an experience in my life. They 1:10:45 no passport nothing. Just from the eyes. They got all the details of my passport and everything already and they look into my eyes and say, "Yeah, this is Zac Poonen. You can go." It's amazing. So, it was interesting for me to experience 1:11:01 that. So, discernment is that that you discern there's something wrong with this guy. You don't know exactly what it is but I can't sense it. I can but I can sense it that there's something wrong so I got to be careful in fellowship with them. Women 1:11:14 particularly we go to if you got daughters you got to really protect your daughters. Tell them, "Be careful when you mingle with men." You'll be able to see in their eyes impurity. Discern that. Tell your girls to discern 1:11:30 impurity in the eyes. Not all men look with impurity. I think many people don't but there are the odd person who's always looking with impurity and you got to advise your daughters, "Steer clear of them." They don't have discernment they'll be in 1:11:45 great danger. So, in the same way in a church you need to have discernment as to whether this person will create confusion in your church or not. So, that's I'm not judging him. I'm not saying consigning him to hell or anything. 1:12:01 I'm not even telling anything to him. Uh if he comes to membership I say, "No, I don't think we can give you membership." I may not be able to give him the reason but I say we don't feel free about it. There's some situations I say, 1:12:17 "I don't feel free." Sometimes somebody asked me I remember once somebody asked me, "Can you sign this thing as a witness?" And uh I knew him well but I looked through it and I sensed there was something wrong and I said, 1:12:30 "Brother, no excuse me. Go to somebody else." Whenever you feel an uneasiness in your spirit, if you're walking with the Lord it's wonderful. If you walk with the Lord constantly he'll make you feel uneasy when you're going into some 1:12:44 action. And you don't even know the reason sometimes. But I've always found that if I follow that witness in my spirit of uneasiness I'm always protected. Teach your children also that within their friendships discernment. But I'm not passing 1:13:01 judgment on him. No, that is God's business. Okay, another question. I own a business and as a customer a customer has not paid me a large amount of money that they owe me. Thank you for showing me yesterday that I need to forgive him. 1:13:13 Yeah, I hope you didn't misunderstand me. I don't mean don't get your debt back. Don't let your business run in into a loss and say brother Zac taught that I should forgive. No, you must get money from the people who who have bought something from you. 1:13:29 People come to your store you don't just give them gifts. You got to buy you got to run your business you got the money if he doesn't pay your money you will ask him, "Hey, I can't you have you still got debts to clear. How can I give 1:13:39 you anything more? I can't give you anything more on credit. Sorry." People will still cheat you. I've known good Christian businessmen who have been cheated. I think almost all good Christian men have been cheated. I have 1:13:50 therefore a feeling that even Jesus was cheated as a carpenter in Nazareth by some people who didn't pay him. And he didn't didn't go chasing them but he didn't keep on giving things free to people who cheated him. No, he wouldn't 1:14:01 have survived as a carpenter because he had four brothers and sisters to take care of and a widowed mother. He had to provide for them so he couldn't just ignore all the debts that people owed him. So, there's nothing spiritual about 1:14:11 just forgiving a debt. Can you give me some practical guidelines on how to collect the money owed to them in a spirit of forgiveness? Yeah. See, we should not be bitter. That's different. But if somebody owes you money you can respect him and say, "Sir, 1:14:26 you owe me a certain amount of money. Please pay it because I got to run my business." And um if he just refuses and tells, well, whether you're to go to court or not I don't know whether you should do but um I'll tell you what I've learned from 1:14:41 scripture in this area. It's for me. You don't have to take my interpretation but this is my interpretation. Luke chapter 20 two. Uh 1:15:14 Yeah, Luke 22. They were just about to go to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus said in Luke 22:36 "From now onwards you must take a bag with you when you travel for the ministry 1:15:34 and if you don't have a sword, now we're going to Garden of Gethsemane sell your coat and buy one." Imagine Jesus telling him people to buy a sword. It's like saying buy a gun in today's language. "And if you don't have one sell your 1:15:52 coat and buy one." Who's teaching is Jesus. And then they told him "Lord, we've got two swords." He didn't say destroy them. He said, "That's fine. Two swords are enough." Have you ever heard Jesus saying take a 1:16:09 sword we're going to Gethsemane? Now, there are a lot of pacifists in the who there are some Christians who with a good heart are pacifists. Uh we will never fight with anyone etc. Okay, I'm not here to judge them. I'm just telling 1:16:24 you that the Jesus who you worship must be another Jesus. Cuz the Jesus I see here said take a sword. Now, I'll tell you that's not the end of the story. Now, Peter went with that sword and he said Jesus gave me a sword. This 1:16:36 guy is coming to catch Jesus I'm going to swipe and cut off his ear. I actually I think he wanted to cut his throat but he's not a swordsman so he he missed he he missed and just chopped off his ear. Uh surely he was not aiming for his ear. 1:16:52 And the ear fell to the ground. And here Jesus says, "Put back that sword." They could have had an argument there, "Hey, Lord, you're the one who told me to take a sword to defend you and here you're telling me to put it back." 1:17:06 I put both truths together. Sometimes you know that how the devil said, "It is written." And Jesus said, "It is also written." So, it is written take two swords. It is also written put back your sword. So, what do we learn from that? What I learn 1:17:19 from that is take a sword to defend yourself but never to attack. If somebody takes you to court defend yourself but not to attack. So, what I learn from that is if somebody owes you money, yeah, defend yourself and try and get that 1:17:38 money back but don't go chasing after him and try to send him to prison. I I wouldn't do that. I mean I draw a line somewhere. And you have to decide where you draw the line but you're not you won't be able to run a business if you allow 1:17:50 everybody to cheat you cheat you cheat you because that fellow will go and tell somebody, "Hey, this guy doesn't bother you too much if you don't pay him." That'll be the end of your business. So, that's not what we teach in the 1:18:01 church. What we teach in the church is take two swords and but don't use it to attack anybody but defend yourself particularly if you're uh being cheated. So, when if people owe you money there's nothing wrong in asking for it. There's 1:18:17 nothing wrong in sending notice to him. There's nothing even wrong in sending a lawyer's notice. When people really some religious people took me to court I've never in my life hired a lawyer. And at the age of 58 I had to hire a 1:18:31 lawyer to defend myself. Not to attack. I never attacked anybody. And I will not. But these people took me to court I had to defend myself. I'm not I cannot defend myself on my own. The only thing I told that lawyer, "Don't ask me to tell a lie. I will only 1:18:44 speak the truth." So, that's defending I had no I had a clear conscience on that. And because I don't know the rules in a court of law what do you do? You know and then in a country like India where the non-Christians who will take you with 1:18:59 all types of false charges you got to defend yourself. There's nothing wrong in I take it from here take a sword with you but I wouldn't go on attacking. I wouldn't take lawyer to attack somebody. I forgive and say, "Lord, give me 1:19:12 wisdom." So, please be wise in all these things. Is there a place for standing up for our rights by law in the land while remaining humble and often Christians are taken advantage of? Yes, like I told you just now, but you need wisdom in how 1:19:25 much to do in each situation. What do you think about movies like TV shows that show the life of Christ, Passion of Christ, Nativity Story, Chosen? These beneficial for believers? Are these beneficial? Okay, I'll give you my 1:19:37 personal personal testimony. You know, the Bible says to one man this is right and to another man it isn't. Romans This is a Romans 14 area. Where it's not a question of sin or not. If it's a If there's sexual scenes in 1:19:50 it, it's always wrong. I don't care whether you call it Christian or not. But uh I have seen The Passion of Christ. I think it's a very good movie. It moves people and uh people can see how in a realistic way how Christ 1:20:04 suffered. Uh it's very well produced. The Nativity Story, I don't think you can gain much. I've I've seen a lot of those dramas and all that of I don't think you gain much spiritually from seeing the baby Jesus being born and all 1:20:17 that. Um The Chosen, I've seen a few um scenes of The Chosen in the early days. Uh the first series or first or one or two series and I was not too impressed by it. I didn't feel it was presenting Christ in a way that glorifies him and I would not recommend 1:20:37 it personally. If somebody If some people are blessed by it, go ahead and see it. I personally don't I watched it for one or two seasons and I said I didn't want to see it anymore. So, I didn't think I was gaining anything spiritually from it. Whereas 1:20:48 when I saw Passion for Christ, I really challenged. I said, "Lord, you went through all this for me." It helped me. So, any Christian movie I want to say does it help me spiritually to be more devoted to Christ? Then otherwise I 1:20:59 wouldn't recommend it. Okay, the last question. Can a Christian drink alcohol or smoke legal substances if they do not allow those things to control them? Well, I'll tell you this. The Bible says to Timothy, "Take a little wine 1:21:13 for your stomach's infirmities." And uh there are certain medicines by the way that are called a little bit of alcohol in it or not. I don't know whether you know it. There are um but I don't avoid those medical treatments if there's a little bit of 1:21:28 alcohol in it, but I would not drink wine in my home because I looked at it like this. I have never felt I can I've got complete control of myself if I drink. I wouldn't take all these other other things, but if it's grape juice which is very simple wine 1:21:45 made at home, I've no problem drinking it a little bit because I can stop with just a little bit. But, even that I did not do. We never made fermented wine at home. And I'll tell you why. It's my personal conviction. If somebody comes to my house 1:22:02 and sees me drinking a little wine and uh he he doesn't know that I stop with one little peg. That's all. And it is not highly alcoholic wine. It's a very low level uh wine. He doesn't know that. He goes around saying, "Brother Zac thinks it's all 1:22:22 right to drink wine." And he goes on that path and he get becomes a drunkard. And he goes to hell. Who led him on that path first? Me. Whereas if he had come to my house and said, "Brother Zac is a bit of a fanatic and he doesn't drink wine at all." Okay, 1:22:41 let him think I'm a fanatic, but at at least I saved him from hell. So, that is my view. That's why I just don't touch it at all. I don't touch it. I never have it in my house. I never If other people offered me, I say no, thank you in their home. 1:22:55 Because I do not want even in the slightest way to lead a person into a path where he becomes a drunkard. And uh I've seen a lot of people who start with one one little peg of wine and they become drunkards and I don't want to 1:23:09 take that risk with anybody. So, that's my personal conviction on it. And smoking, completely out of the question. Why do I need all these things? God has provided us the healthy foods that I can take. So, that is my conviction on that. 1:23:23 Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your guidance in your word in all these things. And the questions that we don't have answers to, you know your Holy Spirit will guide us. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
