0:18 Dear brothers and sisters, it's such a joy for us to see you all and to be there in spirit. Looking back over the years, Bangalore conference was a highlight of our lives, of our church lives, even for 0:38 my children. Every year we used to look forward to the Bangalore conference and every moment was precious for me. I felt like it's a special time to spend with the Lord and stop all my busy activity and 0:56 housework and everything and sit at the Lord's feet and listen to his word and sing his praises and meditate on him. And every session was so such a blessing to me and it was it was a sad day when 1:14 the conference was over and we would look forward to the next conference but we were so challenged those days to follow the lord and be true and faithful to him and I'm happy that my children also grew up with that atmosphere in their hearts and now I can 1:32 see how my grand uh they are bringing up their children to to uh look forward to conferences and to listen to God's word. Even today right now we are staying in Santosh's house. The all of the children were talking 1:52 about their visit to India and almost as if their relatives are in India and cousins are there and they want to wait to come back and visit everyone. So I praise and thank God for this lovely time. I only wish that I was sitting on one of those 2:11 chairs there and but this is second best. I praise and thank God for that. Um my theme is enduring in love till the end. And many times that word has often 2:27 challenged me because I think of how a mother endures in love. When even those of us who are not married, we think of our mothers. Those of us who are married and have children, 2:45 we think of how we love our children when they are small and we carry them. The weight of the child becomes more and more as the child grows. But in our hearts their weight is not a burden at 3:03 all. They never become a burden to us. We carry them and we do their work. We carry we never get tired of carrying them and that not a burden. And even as they grow older and they become adults, when they face trials or 3:22 sickness, we endure in love, we can never forget that love which as a mother we had for them from the childhood and when they do things when things go wrong in their lives or they are backsliding 3:39 or going away from the Lord even then it's not a burden for us because we uphold them in prayer and lift them up to the Lord and we have faith for them that everything will go uh well for them 3:57 for them in their spiritual life. We never give up that love. We never give up that faith and trust in God that God will see them through. And when I think of enduring love, I think of the second best we have on earth is a mother's 4:15 love. We endure till the end. And in 1 Corinthians 13, we read some wonderful verses about love. One of the verses I think of is uh when we have true godly love in our heart, we don't rejoice at 4:34 any bad thing which happens to them. It says doesn't love doesn't rejoice in evil. So when anything bad happens to our loved one, we don't rejoice but we grieve and we share that burden. And the 4:51 same way in the church if anything sad or unhappy happens to any brother or sister when there is true godly love in our heart we don't rejoice but we feel with them. We share their sorrows. We rejoice in the truth. We 5:10 rejoice in being faithful and loving, upholding them in prayer. And that's what we I want to do to not only in my family but all the brothers and sisters whom God brings across my path to endure in love to share their 5:29 burden. Not to rejoice in any calamity which they face but to uphold them in prayer and rejoice when good things happen to them. I praise and thank God for the church where we can hear such wonderful things and be reminded. 5:48 Otherwise, if we didn't hear these words, we were backsliden and allowed the devil to put so seeds of hatred and doubt, unloving thoughts in our heart. But we constantly hear God's word in the church and we are challenged to love our 6:07 brothers and sisters to love our families, to love our husbands, to love our children and whatever may happen endure and love till the end. So I praise and thank God dear brothers and sisters for the church. Thank God for 6:23 the elders he has given us. Thank God for all the provision he has given us. May we endure till the end. Amen. So I would like to continue from 6:41 that you know our love for the Lord. One aspect of it is how much we love one another. And we can sometimes 7:00 evaluate our love for Jesus by how much we love difficult brothers and sisters in the church because they are part of the same family. I want you to turn to John chapter 7:19 17. We read yesterday that we love Jesus because he first loved us. And it's because Jesus loved us first that we also love one another. So you cannot separate our love for Christ from our love for one another as 7:37 believers. Sometimes we concentrate on that vertical aspect only. I want to endure in love for my lord. But I have found from my life that uh sometimes it can be deceptive. You 7:55 know there are two arms to the cross. Loving the lord with all our heart and loving one another. You can't have a cross without two arms. So one way all of you brothers and sisters can check your love for the Lord right 8:15 now is by asking yourself how much do you love the brothers and sisters sitting here particularly some of the difficult ones and give yourself some marks for 8:34 that and then you will know how much you love Jesus Christ. It's a very good test because we can very easily deceive ourselves by saying, "Oh, I love Jesus with all my heart, but is this brother living in in this church whom I cannot 8:52 stand the sight of him?" That is a deception because then it is a a very selfish attitude we take and we are deceiving ourselves. So it's good for us to wake up from that and ask 9:11 ourselves whether a love is only vertical. It must be vertical and the two arms of the cross remember because once when before I come to John 17 I wanted you to turn to Matthew's 9:28 gospel and Matthew's gospel chapter 22 somebody asked the Lord a test Matthew 22 a lawyer a lawyer means a Bible scholar in those is Matthew 9:47 22:35. He asked him a question to test the Lord. Imagine they were testing Jesus, these scholars, the Jewish scholars. So we read here, they asked him, "Teacher, Matthew 22:36, which is the great commandment in the 10:06 law?" And he said the greatest commandment in the entire law is love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. There are so many commandments in the law, 613 commandments in the law of 10:26 Moses, but all of them can be summed up in love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. and everything else. If those 613 commandments don't come out of that love for the Lord God, then it is worth nothing. Jesus said, 10:42 "If you love me, keep my commandments." So we keep a good conscience out of love for the Lord. But then in answering, he asked only for one question. What is the one great commandment of the law? Verse 36, "And Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all 11:01 your heart, soul, and mind." That is the great commandment. But it's as it were he was saying I'll tell you what's written on the other side of the coin. You know every coin has got two sides. Every currency note has got two sides. So you can't just 11:15 look at one side. If it's only one side is a counterfeit counterfeit coin counterfeit currency note. Please remember this. If it is only love for the Lord and the other side there's no love for one another. It is a deception. It's a 11:31 counterfeit love. you're fooling yourselves. So that's why Jesus said here, you ask me for one commandment, but I want to tell you that that one commandment has got two parts. One is love the Lord your God with all your 11:43 heart and the second verse 39, you love your neighbor as yourself. Why did Jesus give two answers when he asked only for one? What is the great commandment? Because it's like you can't give half a coin to somebody with only 11:57 one side. When you give a coin to somebody, both sides are there. When you give a currency note to somebody is printed on both sides. So remember this always that love for the Lord is tested by our love for one another. So to endure in love for 12:16 the Lord means to endure in love for one another. And it's very good that the Lord has given us this practical test by which we can find out because God in heaven is invisible and is very easy for us to fool ourselves that we love Jesus 12:33 because that can be a very emotional thing. Oh Lord, I love you so much you died for me. But the test is, can you love that brother who's sitting next to you or that sister whom you see so often in the church? Are there some sisters you like 12:51 to avoid because you think they're not so spiritual? Well, we were not very spiritual when Jesus loved us. Jesus did not love us because we were spiritual. I know he certainly did not love me because I was spiritual. 13:09 I I had sort of worldly ambitions and all before I was converted. I wanted to become a big person in the world but he loved me at that stage and taught me that I got to love other people like that too. So that's very very 13:26 important that we test our love by our love for one another and see that the two commandments which Jesus spoke are like the two sides of a coin. So in John 17, Jesus says here, John's gospel chapter 17 verse 6, I have manifested your name 13:51 to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. And verse eight, the words you have given me, I have given them. See Jesus is trying to show how he loved his 14:05 father. He loved his father by serving these disciples and praying for them. I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world but those you may have given me. And you have given me all things are 14:25 mine are yours and all things are yours are mine. And now he says, "I'm no longer in the world, but I want I'm praying for these people who are here and my great burden." This is John 14:42 17:1. Father, please keep them in your name that they may be one even as we are one. If I love the Lord with all my 15:01 heart, I will have a similar desire as Jesus has. You know, if Jesus is my bridegroom and I'm the part of be a part of the bride, a a wife must have the same desire as the husband. She must be wanting to go in the same direction, 15:19 hand in hand with her husband. God put Adam and Eve together in the Garden of Eden. He said to Adam, "I want to give you a helper suitable for you." And that's the picture of the Christ and the bride. 15:37 We And you know which was the first sin that was committed in the Garden of Eden. Most people do not know. I think many of you also will be surprised when I tell you what is the 15:56 first sin that was committed in the garden of Eden. It was not eating from the fruit of the tree of knowledge. That was a second sin. The first sin committed in the Garden of Eden 16:15 was that when the devil came to Eve, she did not submit to her husband who was standing next to her and ask him, "Adam, what should I do?" The story would have been very 16:38 different if she had asked her husband. The Lord had said to her, "This is your head. You must submit to him." And he was standing just next to her. You read that in Genesis 3, standing right there. And the devil came brought a 16:58 division between them. So the first sin in the garden of Eden was a lack of submission to authority to God appointed authority. Have you ever thought of that? What is the first sin committed in the 17:17 universe when the highest of the angels did not want to submit to the authority of God and God cast him down and he became the devil? That's the first sin among the angels. Lack of submission to authority. What is the first sin 17:35 committed by man in the Garden of Eden? Lack of submission to authority that God has placed over Eve. And because of that, she fell into the trap of the devil. If she had submitted to Adam, I believe the story would have been very 17:54 different because they'd have been together against the devil. And the devil knew that. He said, "The same sin I committed, I'm going to make this woman commit because she's the weaker one." So please remember that our love 18:12 for Christ is shown by submission to [Music] him is shown by obedience to his commandments. And wives will show their love for their for the Lord by submitting to their 18:31 husbands. That's what we teach in CFC. It's what the Bible teaches. Wives, submit to your husbands. Eve, submit to Adam. She didn't do that. And sin came into the world. Let all wives learn a 18:50 lesson. And the Bible says that just like the man is the head of the woman. Please turn with me to one Corinthians and chapter 11. 19:08 1 Corinthians 11 it says in verse three Christ is the head of every man and man is the head of a woman like in the military they'll have a 19:25 general underneath him will be a say a colonel underneath him will be a captain so there are many other ranks but let's Think of a general, a colonel, and a captain. It's like 19:42 that. And each submits to the one above them. So the man has to submit to Christ and the woman submits to the man. Just like the captain will submit to the colonel and the colonel submits to the general. So it's there's 20:01 headship. Christ is the head of the man. The man is the head of a woman. So when a man tells his wife, you got to submit to me, that's absolutely right. But then he himself must submit to his head. That is the that is 20:19 Christ. It's not that the man is without a head. So this matter of submission is a very important law in God's kingdom. And Jesus demonstrated that throughout his life. If we could submit, if he could 20:40 describe the life of Jesus in one sentence, we can see it in John chapter 6 and verse 38. I've never forgotten this. John chapter 6 and verse 38. 21:00 Jesus description of his own 33 and a half years on earth in one sentence. If you ask the Lord, Lord, why did you come down from heaven to earth? Most people will say he came to die for the sins of the world. That is part of the 21:20 answer. The full answer is in John 6:38. I have come from heaven not to die for the sins of the world. Read it. Jesus own words. I came from heaven. John 6:38. Not to die for the sins of 21:36 the world. I came from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, my father. In other words, I submit to my father as my head. Jesus said, I am on earth as a 21:52 man. My heavenly father is my head. I submit to him throughout my life. 33 and a2 years he submitted to his father. And among all the items he did in submitting to the father, one item was dying on the cross. You got it? Like if a man is 22:12 given a job in an office, I have to submit to my boss and everything a 100 things and one of them is item number 95 or something. So in Jesus life also item number 95 was dying on the cross. What about all the other 100 22:29 things? Never doing his own will right from day one. In the beginning he wasn't dying on the cross. He was just submitting to Joseph and Mary. How did he show his love for his father? By submitting to Joseph and Mary. Because they were appointed by 22:49 God to be over him. so that he can be an example. How do I show my love for the Lord? By submitting to those whom he places over me. You children, if you obey your parents, that's how you prove your love for the Lord. Not just by singing hymns 23:08 in the church. Wives, how do you show your love for the Lord? By submitting to your husband. Husbands, how do you show your love for the Lord in a church? You submit to the elders. In your life, you submit to Christ. He is your 23:26 head. So this principle of submission is found throughout. You see that that is how Satan became Satan. That is how Eve fell into sin by lack of submission to her husband. And that is to correct that and overcome that. Jesus came and his entire 23:45 life from day one was a life of submission to the father. Whatever the father said, he lived in constant submission to the father. So I want to say dear brothers and sisters that when we think of enduring in love for the 24:02 lord, this is the proof that I love the lord that I submit to him in everything. And how do I know what he's saying to me? People say I don't know God's will. I'll tell you what, there's one area where all of us can know what God's will 24:19 is. What your conscience tells you. Every human being has got a conscience. Even a 2-year-old child has got a conscience. He when he disobys his father or mother, he knows it's wrong. 24:38 And there's no child that is not convicted in the heart when they do something wrong. If it's a little baby lying in the cradle, their conscience is not developed. But conscience develops very quickly and they know they've done 24:53 something wrong. And that's what we've got to teach our children. All of your parents, you got to teach your children. When you feel in your heart that you've done something wrong, you told a lie, you must ask Jesus to forgive 25:08 you. When you somebody fights with you, hits you, and you hit him back, forget about what wrong he did. He may not be a Christian, but you have to tell your children, "You're a Christian. You can't fight back. You just got to forgive him 25:24 and leave him. Go somewhere else. Stay away from these troublesome children." So if we teach our children to keep a conscience clear, that is how from a young time, young life, from their young age onwards, they can show their love 25:41 for Jesus. That is how we can endure in love until the end. And it is going to be more and more difficult as time goes on because temptations are increasing. The temptations for young people in the world today, it's amazing. Is nothing 26:00 like it was a 100 years ago. Tremendous evil. How shall we overcome these big strong temptations in the world if they start by the little things? Teach your children to obey your 26:17 par obey their parents. Honor your father and mother. Turn with me to Ephesians in chapter 6 verse 1 and 2. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and 26:37 mother, which is the first commandment which has a promise. You know, in the ten commandments that God gave Moses, only one commandment had a promise. All the other commandments, don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery, had 26:52 no promise attached to it. Did you know that? That out of all the ten commandments, one commandment had a promise attached to it. Honor your father and mother. Verse three, so that it'll go well with you and that you will 27:07 live long on the earth. Live long doesn't mean you live up to 100 years. Jesus obeyed Joseph and Mary 100%. But he lived for 33 and a2 years. But he completed the work God gave him to. A long life is not 100 27:26 years or 200 years. It can be 33 years. The long life is a life which has completed the work God planned for you to do on this earth. I want to say to all of you, my dear brothers and 27:44 sisters, before you were born, God made a plan for your life. And you must seek with all your heart to fulfill it. You say, "How shall I know that plan?" I'll tell you. You keep listening 28:03 to your conscience. As soon as your conscience tells you something is wrong, don't do it. And if you already did it, go and set it right. Ask forgiveness and set it right. Keep your conscience clear and you will fulfill God's plan for your 28:18 life. And I want to tell you that is the best way that is the only way actually by which you can prove your love for the Lord. And if you teach teach your children, if you want it to go well with your children, Ephesians 6:3, if you 28:33 want your children to live long and fulfill their plan God has for them, what shall parents teach their children to do? Obey your parents. Honor your father and mother. Nowadays, a lot of children grow up, they don't honor their father and 28:52 mother. And don't and don't be lenient with them. Parents, please don't be lenient with your children when they disobey you. You're not helping them that way. You're ruining them. Don't say, "Oh, I'm going to be merciful. I'm 29:05 going to be kind." That is a foolish type of kindness where you tolerate disobedience in your parents, in your children rather. If you tolerate disobedience in your children, I would say to you, you don't love your children. You don't prove your love for 29:20 your children by getting them food, clothing, and education. The best way you prove your love for your children is by teaching them to obey their parents. Obey their teachers. Submit to authority. It will go well with them. 29:34 They will live long means they will live as long as God wants them to live on the earth. It may be 33 years like Jesus. It may be 120 years like Moses. That's up to God. So that's very important because I found this area of loving the Lord. I'm 29:54 talking about myself that I found in the early days I didn't have anybody to teach me. I never had a spiritual father. You guys are all so lucky you have a spiritual father. Many spiritual fathers to help you. But I never had 30:10 one. And so I made a lot of foolish mistakes in my life. not serious things but I didn't take little little things seriously in to keep my conscience very sensitive to 30:27 submit to authority never to speak evil of any authority over me do you speak evil of the elders by God's grace he kept me from speaking evil of elders but I remember once when I was u long before I had light on all these things when I 30:45 As a young man, I I foolishly criticized one of the godly elders. And boy, God taught me such a lesson by punishing me for that in a physical way 31:04 that I had to humble myself. I said, "Lord, I'll never forget in my life. I will never again criticize an elder brother, a godly elder brother. I mean there are lot of useless elders in the world. But u I God says who are you to think that 31:23 you can criticize my servant. But I was so foolish that I as a young man I didn't nobody taught me you must never speak evil about God's servants. It'll go badly with you. Nobody taught me that. And I regretted it. And from my failure, I can teach 31:42 other people. Learn to respect your elders. Learn to respect the servants of God who are serving him who are been appointed by God. That is how I prove my love for the Lord. See, unless we put it all down to some practical things, we can think love 32:01 is an emotion. Oh, I feel so much love for him when I speak to him, when I sing for him. I felt like that sometimes when I sing a sing a hymn. Oh, I feel so much love for the Lord. But it's a deception. It's tested out in daily life 32:16 in practical things where I submit to authority, respect the elders, don't speak evil of others, and love my fellow believers and bear with the weaknesses of others. That's how it is. So when Jesus 32:31 was praying, let's get back to John 17. John 17 is a great prayer because it tells us how much he cared for us. The whole prayer is concerning us. 32:49 Lord, he father, he says, I pray, I've given them your word. Verse 14, John 17:14, they are not of the world and I am not of the world. The world has hated them. I'm not asking you, verse 15, to take them out of the world, but keep 33:02 them from the evil one. If you can see the burden in Jesus' heart, oh father, please keep these ones from evil. And I want to tell all of you elders, if you want to know how to pray for your flock, go to John 17. Then you know how to pray for the 33:19 people in your church. Fathers and mothers, you know want to know how to pray for your children, go to John 17. This is how Jesus prayed. Father, verse 14, they are not of the world. I'm not of the world. I'm not asking you to take them out of the 33:34 world. Father, verse 15, please keep them from the evil one. Can you see the burden there? That is a proof of Jesus loved his father and by the love he had for the disciples. And I prove my love for for 33:53 Jesus by the love I have for my wife and my children and my fellow believers. When I have a burden, oh father, please keep others from evil. You don't see the connection of that between that and my love for God. That is the proof that I love God. Jesus 34:08 loved God is seen love for God is seen in the fact that he had a burden praying father keep these disciples from evil and sanctify them father verse [Music] 17. And then he goes on to say in this wonderful verse which to me is most most 34:27 wonderful verse in the whole Bible. John 17:23 I have loved them. I want them to know where the last part of verse 23. Heavenly father Jesus is praying. I 34:45 want these disciples to know that you love them as much as you love me. That is the most fantastic truth in the whole Bible. For many people, John 3:16 is the great truth. God so loved the world that he 35:03 gave his son to that whoever believes in him should not perish. But to me, John 17:23 is the great truth that God the Father, believe it or not, loves a person like me as much as he loved 35:21 Jesus. Now, if you just say God loves me, that's one thing. But if you say God loves me as much as he loved Jesus, you say, "How can that be?" It's one of the most amazing truths. It's not a If you ask me, do I 35:40 deserve to be loved as much as Jesus loved? Definitely not. Which of us deserves God's love? And is that's why God's love for us is called unconditional love. Unconditional means there's no reason for 35:57 it. He just loves you. What is the reason? No reason. He loves you because that's his nature. And to go from there and to say 36:13 that he loves me as much as he loved Jesus, it's absolutely amazing. So I thought about that, you know, how can I find let me I always look for illustrations because Jesus is always using examples and illustrations. 36:32 So I found the proof of it here. If you turn with me to Romans and chapter 8, this is an amazing truth which is very many many of you may not have even heard about it. For some of you, this may be a new truth. Please listen to it. Romans 36:51 chapter 8. We must read verse 28 and 29 together. Don't read it by itself. Romans 8:28. We know. That's very important. We must 37:10 know this definitely 100%. We know. Now, there was no need to put that we know. It could have just said God makes everything work together for good. But when it says we know, the emphasis this is a truth that we must 37:26 know. All of you must know this truth. very important truth. What is it? That if you love the Lord, God will make every single thing that happens in your life to work for your 37:43 good. The evil things that happen will work for your good. The good things will work for your good. God will make everything work for your good if you love God. and I'll prove it to 38:00 you. I often ask people this question. You can answer this question to yourself. Simple question. Think about it. What is the most evil thing that anybody ever did on this 38:18 earth? The most evil thing that ever happened in the history of the earth of this world, it is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Killing the son of 38:36 God, that was the greatest evil that is ever done in the history of the world. I'm sure you all agree. Okay, my next question is what is the best thing that ever happened on this in this in this earth? 38:56 The very best thing that happened on this earth, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Isn't that right? That's how our sins are forgiven. That's how we can go to heaven. That's how we become children of God. 39:13 So what do we see? The worst thing that man did, God turned it to be the best thing of all. Teaching us one lesson that every evil that people do to you, God can turn it for good. And the greater the evil that 39:33 people do to you, the greater good will come out of it. The greatest evil was the crucifixion of Christ. And the greatest good came out of the crucifixion of Christ that we become children of God. So God makes everything work 39:48 together for good. Romans 8:28 if you love God. And what that good is is described in the next verse. The next verse is that we can be the middle of the next verse. We can be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. 40:07 Do you know what is the greatest good that God can do for you and me? Dear brothers and sisters, is to make you like Christ. To make us like Christ. To cleanse away our sin. The greatest good can God can do for you is not to make you a 40:27 millionaire, not to make you a lackure or a kurpati. The greatest good God can do for you is not to give you a good job or a beautiful wife or a good home. You can ask for all those things but the greatest good God can do for 40:44 you is to make you like Jesus Christ. If you believe that you will say I want that Lord the greatest good I want in my life. Teach your children. Pray Lord Jesus make God make me like Jesus. Heavenly father make me 41:02 like Jesus. Holy Spirit of God make me like Jesus. That is the great most best prayer you can pray for yourself. And why does he want to make us like Jesus? It says here see the second part of verse 29 so that Jesus can be the 41:21 firstborn among many brothers. meaning so that Jesus can be the eldest brother in heaven. Jesus is going to be our elder brother and he's going to be the eldest son of the 41:38 father in heaven and we are the younger sons and daughters and Jesus is the eldest. From there I learned one lesson. I have four sons and everything that I did for my 41:57 first son, I did for the other three. I would never do anything for my first which I would not do for the other three. I did not have any love son that I loved more than the others. Not even today and 42:14 never. And it has got nothing to do with how those sons behave. It makes no difference. It's only got to do with my heart. My heart is the same towards son number one, son number two, son number three, son number four. Exactly the 42:34 same. Otherwise, I'm not Christlike. God loves us as he love Jesus. Are we all so spiritual that God should love us as he loved Jesus? Jesus was so perfect. God loves him. I can understand. But that John 42:53 17:23 that the world may know that God loves you and me as he loved Jesus. Where are we compared to Jesus? If you love only those children of yours who are obedient to you and you don't love the children who are disobedient, you're not like God. 43:13 You're not like God. God loved Jesus who was totally obedient to him and he loves me who's not so obedient to him. And he loves some of his other children who are more disobedient than 43:30 me. Nobody is perfect. Only Jesus was perfect. And to think that God loved an imperfect people like you and me just like he loved the perfect Jesus. That is an example for a father and mother that you must love all your 43:49 children equally. Even if some of them are disobedient and rebellious and some other child is totally obedient and submissive in the world is not like that. Fathers and mothers will love the obedient child 44:06 and be very rude to the disobedient one. God is not like that. Here is the proof. John 17:23. He loves me, an imperfect person like me. He loves as much as he loves the perfect Jesus. And he so Jesus is going to be my 44:24 elder brother. And I said, I told you from my own experience that whatever I did for my elder son, I would do for all my sons. God is much better than that. Whatever he did for his elder son, Jesus, he will do for you and me. This is one of the 44:43 most revolutionary truths that changed my life nearly 50 years ago. At the beginning of CFC, there was that song that I wrote which sometimes you sing in CFC called What he did for Jesus, he will do for 44:59 you. This is the good news. What God can do. What he did for Jesus, he will do for you. I got that truth from John 17:23. From the fact that what I did for my eldest son, I will do for my youngest son 45:18 also. What I do for my perfectly obedient son, I will do for my imperfect, disobedient son also. There I see the love of God and I have if I want to be like God I got to be like that and that's the thing that makes us love the Lord 45:38 more and that's what helps us to love other people who are not so spiritual. Sometimes we say it's easy to love those who are love the Lord and who are 45:55 obedient. But God's love is so vast. It loves people who are disobedient. And that's how he wins them. in the history of the world. One day when we get to heaven and we hear the stories of all, you know, one of the things that we'll 46:12 be spending millions of years in heaven will be I know what I'll be doing. I'll be going to all the millions of believers there and say, "Tell me your give me your testimony." And it'll take many hours to listen to one man's testimony. Then I'll 46:27 go to the next person. I've got a job ready for eternity. I'll be talking to all these people one by one cuz I like to hear people's testimonies. How how were you? How did the Lord love you? And and we'll be amazed when we hear those 46:40 testimonies how God loved people and drew them to himself. And we'll discover that some people were criminals and Jesus loved them and brought them into his kingdom. Look at the thief on the cross. He didn't deserve to go to 46:57 heaven, but God loved him. And that is an example that Jesus gave right when he was dying that I'm not looking for perfect people. If there's a slight desire of repentance, I'm sorry for what I did. The Lord says come, you can be with 47:14 me in heaven today. It's it's it's a wonderful gospel. This is what we are to proclaim. Sometimes we can become so rigid with rules and regulations and all that that we become very hard on other people. But God is not hard like that on 47:32 us. God is a very gracious, loving, compassionate God. Think of what he says. I want you to read Isaiah. All of you who are very uncertain and Isaiah 49. Those of you who are a bit uncertain 47:50 whether God loves you or not, let me give you this verse. You please remember it all your life and remember the reference. Isaiah 49 and verse1 15. Sometimes we may say verse 14. Let's start with verse 14. Isaiah 49:14. Zion 48:08 or the child of God may say, "The Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me." Do you ever feel like that brother, sister? some situation in your life. Oh, God is not God has forsaken me. He's not thinking about me. He's forgotten about 48:23 me. I'm praying. Nothing is happening. This is for you. This verse is for you. Zion says verse 14, "The Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me." Here is the Lord's answer. Can a mother forget her nursing child? A mother may forget the grown-up 48:42 child who's gone out to play somewhere, but a nursing child which she has to feed many times a day. A good mother will never forget the child and suddenly the child mother will remember oh it's time to 49:01 feed feed milk to my child and some hours later again the mother will say I have to give milk to the child. How many times a day I've got to change the my baby's diaper? I got to wash his body now. I got to give him some milk. I got to 49:20 embrace him. Can a woman forget her nursing child? And remember, the Lord is trying to tell us how he cares for us. He says, listen, please listen to this all of you. It's as if God is saying to you personally today, my dear son and 49:39 daughter, I love you just like a mother loves his nur her nursing baby, her nursing baby. And then he says, even if that mother forgets, verse 15, I will not forget 49:59 you. So he's saying my love for you is greater than the love that a mother has for her nursing baby. Now you ask yourself but I'm not doing anything for the Lord. You say I'm not very gifted. I can't do I don't know much. I can't do 50:17 much in the church also because I'm not gifted. I don't know I can't preach. I can't sing properly. Okay. Let me ask you what can that nursing baby do for its mother? Can you tell me? Is there a single thing that nursing 50:32 baby can do for the mother? Zero. It just creates so much work for the mother. It can create so many problems. It can get sick. It's always dirtying the diapers so many times a day. That's all the baby does. 50:50 Constantly making work for the mother whole day, 24 hours. Can't even get sleep at night. That's how a nursing mother is. Imagine that God takes that example of a mother who of a child that can do nothing for the 51:08 mother and God says I love you like that. I'm not asking you to do anything for me. You may be creating so many problems for me in your life. I'll still love you. I care for you like a mother cares for a child. And then he says, "Even if that mother 51:27 forsakes her child, forgets her child, I will not forget you." My dear brothers and sisters, how are you going to respond to such a loving father who's like a mother and a father all combined? I know how I 51:48 responded. I said, "Lord, I will never live for myself. I will live 100% for you. I will love my fellow believers because you love them. They are your children. I will love them. Even if some of them are difficult, I will love them because I am difficult 52:08 and you love me. So why can't I love somebody else who's a bit difficult? Sure, I can love them with the same love that you give me. And that also God helps us. He gives us love in our heart for those people. It's like saying, "I want you to go and 52:26 buy something for them." And he gives us the money. He never asks us to do anything without giving us the resources. I'll tell you something. If he asks you, my brother, sister, please listen to me. If God asks you to love a difficult 52:45 husband or a difficult wife, I tell you in Jesus name, he will give you the power to do that. He will never ask you to do that without giving you the power. Will you send your child to the market to buy something without giving 53:04 him the money? How many of you will send your son or daughter to the market to buy something without giving them the money? Do you expect them to go and work somewhere and get money? No. You give them the money and say, "My girl, my 53:19 boy, please go and buy this." And if the Lord says, "I want you to love that difficult brother," he'll give you that love. Have you remember that? Have you thought of that? But you must ask him, Lord, please give me love for this 53:37 difficult person. Maybe your husband is a difficult person or your wife is a difficult person. Don't complain. That doesn't solve the problem. It just makes it worse. Go to Jesus. Go to God and say, "Lord, please give me some love for this 53:53 difficult husband of mine, this difficult wife of mine, or this difficult neighbor who's not even a child of God. They're always harassing me. Please Lord, give me some love for that person so that they see Christ in me. It's the Christian life is such a 54:10 wonderful life because God does not ask us to produce anything. He says I ask you to do something come and take the resources from me. And that is why the best example is John chapter 15 verse 54:34 5. He says I'm the vine. I mean vine is a very common tree in Israel. If it is in India you would have said I'm a mango tree. Whatever fruit, whatever tree is most common in your country. I am a mango 54:51 tree and the branch that is in the tree will produce mangoes. And there it's talking about grapes. If the branch stays in the tree, fruit will automatically come. If the branch does not stay in the tree, 55:09 there'll be no fruit. Even if the branch has produced fruit for 50 years, it produced mangoes. You cut off that branch, it will not produce one mango after that. You cannot love the Lord by experience. You cannot serve the Lord by 55:26 experience. I have served the Lord for 60 years. I know that if I get cut off from the Lord, I will not be able to preach even for 5 minutes with any anointing. No, I have to be constantly dependent on 55:43 the Lord like a branch is in the tree. If you go to a branch and say, "How do you produce such lovely mangoes?" I don't do anything. The branch says, "I just stay in the tree." And the tree sends a thing called sap. It's a liquid. It's a picture of the 56:02 Holy Spirit going through into the branch and producing the fruit. And look at the branch. Is the branch struggling, struggling, struggling to produce a mango? No. And I'll tell you my dear brothers and sisters, in the beginning you may be 56:22 struggling, but a time will come when your life will be a life of rest. The ideal Christian life is a life of rest. Jesus said, "Come to me. I will give you rest." It's a life of peace. It's not a life of constant 56:40 struggle for me. It was struggling in the early years. But I'll tell you today, it is not a struggle for me. It's not a struggle for me to love the Lord at all. It's not a struggle for me to overcome sin. It was once upon a time, 56:55 but not today. It's like you ask a a boy who's riding a bicycle. Was it a str is it a struggle for you to ride a bicycle? Not at all. But was it when you started learning? Yes, it was. Everything is a struggle when you whether you're learning how to swim or 57:13 riding a cycle or driving a car. Everything is a struggle in the beginning. You some studying mathematics is a struggle in the beginning. But a lot of people enjoy it. Finally, it's the same in the Christian life. God will give you the ability 57:28 exactly like the branch gets power. So how shall I love Jesus? The Holy Spirit gives me the power to love Jesus. How shall I love that difficult person? Like the branch gets the sap from the tree. The Holy Spirit will give me love. 57:46 God never asks you to do anything without giving you the resource for it. Please always remember this picture that you send your child to the market to buy something, you will give them the money. So when God tells you to love a 58:02 difficult person, he will give you that love. When God tells you to overcome dirty thoughts, he will give you that power. All of you men, I want to say to all of you men, all men have a struggle with dirty thoughts. Have you ever thought of 58:22 asking God to give you the power to give you a clean thought life? You know, you go into, supposing you go into a room which is all full of muck and dirt and filth. Many people's minds are like that. And God says, "Will you allow me 58:39 to clean up that room so that you can go to a clean room? Isn't it pleasant to go into a room that's not full of muck and dirt, a clean room?" God can make your mind like that, like a clean room. And you sisters, you may not have a problem with 58:58 lust. You can have a problem with bitterness. You can be bitter against your mother-in-law. Can God give you love for your mother-in-law? Yes. I'm not talking about obeying your mother-in-law. You don't have to obey your mother-in-law. You got to obey your 59:14 husband. But you can love everybody. You can love a difficult neighbor. What do you have to do? Go to Jesus and say, "Lord, how does that branch get the liquid sap to produce a mango? Give me love. I will produce love, but you got to give me the power." 59:32 The branch can tell the tree, "Don't ask me to produce mangoes if you don't give me the sap." There's a liquid that goes from the tree to the branch. And you see that when you cut a branch, there's a liquid there. You can 59:47 see that is the thing that flows into the branch all the time. And that's what produce the apples or the mangoes or grapes or anything. And if the branch says you give me the sap, oh tree, I will produce any amount of fruit. That's what Jesus says. Without 1:00:06 me, John 15:5, you can do nothing. Isn't that a good statement? I believe that many of you haven't understood John 15:5. Without me you can do nothing. So you say what is the Lord 1:00:24 expecting you to do? Nothing. Zero. Isn't that a good thing to hear? God is expecting you to do nothing. But he expects you to come to him and ask him for the power, the sap to love people, to love him with all your heart, to love your fellow 1:00:44 believers, to be patient and forgiving and good. The Christian life is a wonderful life because God asks us for nothing. He says, "Come to me. Call upon me, I will show you. Ask and you will receive." He told his disciples once, "You don't have 1:01:02 because you don't ask." You do not have because you do not ask. Why is it you don't have power to overcome sin? You don't ask for it. Why is it you don't have the ability to 1:01:19 love that unloly person? Because you don't ask for it. Why don't you have peace in your home? Because you don't ask for it. You do not have because you do not ask. I want to encourage all of you, my beloved brothers and sisters in 1:01:38 CFC, start asking today. My father in heaven, daddy, please give me some power to overcome the dirty thoughts, to overcome my bad language. I get so angry so quickly. Please give me an inner power to put my foot on the brakes that the 1:01:57 car will stop. The bike will stop. And I'm tempted to say something. Give me the power to press the brakes that no bad words will come out of my mouth. The car will stop right there. The bike will stop right 1:02:15 there. You won't go into a collision with your husband or wife or anybody else. So many collisions when people get angry with each other. They don't know how to press the brakes. Ask God to help you. He will help you. You do not have 1:02:34 because you do not ask. Please remember this one sentence today. God says you do not have because you do not ask. Ask of me and I will give you which father will deny bread or food or chapati or food to a son who 1:02:53 asks saying dad I'm hungry mom I'm hungry give me something. Will you say no? Much more your heavenly father will give you. He does not ask you to love him. He asks you to open your heart so that he will put his love in your heart. I know 1:03:09 in my heart I love Jesus with all my heart but that is a love given to me by by God himself. I did not produce it. I cannot produce it. And even the desire I have to serve the Lord. I have a great desire to serve the Lord. I said, "Lord, I'm willing to 1:03:26 live after 120 years like Moses. I'll never get tired of serving you." But that's a desire he has put into my heart. It's not something I can take credit for. It's not, "Oh, Zakman had a great desire to serve the Lord." 1:03:39 No. I'm a sinner saved by grace, but I ask God to give me, Lord, give me the words to I don't know the need of these people sitting here. Give me the words. Give me a passion to live for you. Give me strength and health to live for you. 1:03:55 Everything you need my brother, sister, teach your children also. Go to Jesus. Go to your daddy in heaven. Give me this Lord. Give me love for this situation. Give me love for that person. Give me love for Jesus so that 1:04:10 I'll never lose my love for you all my life. That is how we will endure in love until the end towards the Lord and towards one another. Let us bow our heads in prayer. I hope you learned something new today. And if you're one of those people 1:04:33 who already know so much, I hope you got a revision and a reminder of what you already know so that you can be challenged to go one step higher to love the Lord a little more than you loved him till now. to love other people a little more 1:04:53 than you love them up till now. Say, "Lord, let your spirit flow into me like the sap flows from the tree to the branch automatically producing fruit. You will do it in me. I believe heavenly 1:05:10 father. So father we pray to you that every one of these dear brothers and sisters who have bowed before you, I believe they are all sincere. They would otherwise they wouldn't have come here. They'd be doing something else this 1:05:25 morning. They'd think it's a waste of time to go to a church. But they don't feel like that. I believe everyone sitting here has come here with seriousness, with a real desire to get something from you. They haven't come here for fun. 1:05:39 They haven't come here to play games. They have come here seeking for your power, for your Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, I pray in Jesus name that every single person who has come to the hall today will go back having received 1:05:55 something from you that will change their life. I can't give it. Nobody else can give it. But you can give it, Lord Jesus. Heavenly Father, you can do it. By the Holy Spirit, move upon every 1:06:11 single person here. answer our prayer. We commit ourselves to you. Don't let anyone go away empty. Thank you for your good gifts. Remind us of all that we heard 1:06:30 today. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
