0:00 [Music] I'd like to turn to 2 Corinthians in chapter 12. There's a precious 0:23 lesson in this chapter which we all need to learn. First of all, we read of Paul's testifying 14 years 0:45 ago. He does not know. He says in verse 12:2, he says, "I don't know whether it is in my body or out of the body. I was caught up to the third heaven." And in terms if you count it 14 years 1:04 back from when he wrote this book uh letter to the Corinthians it's possibly the time when he was in Lydia stoned uh not in Lydia in he was stoned to death and they cast him 1:23 out and uh they left him for dead. just possibly at that time and he had gone there to preach the gospel. You read about in Acts 16 and the Lord when he lay there perhaps 1:46 the Lord took him up in spirit to heaven to encourage him because you know in those days they he didn't have other Christians to encourage him. There was no type of singing like we have here that encourages us. There were 2:02 no conferences. There were no meetings. He was a lone man fighting for the Lord. I really appreciate such a man. And so the Lord encouraged him by taking him up to the third heaven and probably telling him that you 2:20 can't stay here. You got to go back. I got a lot of work for you to do. But it says here when he was caught up to paradise verse four he heard inexpressable words I don't know what exactly he saw 2:39 there because he doesn't tell us but he heard some words which he understood in a language he understood but he says I cannot speak about inexpressable. I'm not permitted to 2:59 speak. That means he knew what he heard. He could have spoken, but I'm not permitted to speak. I mean, if you were taken to heaven, just think of it. If you had an experience like that and you came back to earth, you'd 3:16 be itching to tell everybody to show what a spiritual man you are. But he kept quiet even about the fact that he was taken up for 14 years. And even after that, he says, 3:34 "I'm sorry, I can't tell you what I saw there." Now, if you go to Google and search for people who have gone to heaven, I'll tell you that lots and lots and lots of people who give a testimony. 3:50 How do I know it's all fake? 100% fake. Not 90%, 100% fake. Every last one of them. There are books written on my trip to heaven and back. How do I know it's fake? 4:08 Because I believe the word of God. that if a man is really taken up to heaven, it says here verse four, he's not permitted by God to tell anyone of what he heard there. So all these guys who say they 4:27 heard this and that, they're telling lies. Now I'm not saying they're dishonest. Maybe they had a dream. Have you had dreams where you really thought you were in that place and you could explain clearly what all you experienced? Sure, I've had some dreams 4:46 like that. I mean, most of our dreams are pretty silly, but occasionally there's a dream which is very vivid. Haven't you had that experience like that where you could tell exactly what you saw? And it's possible that these people 5:01 who are writing these books had a dream. they read so much about it and maybe they had a lust also to become famous. So if you're a very imaginative type of person, some people are very imaginative that's why they have more dreams. I 5:15 hardly get any dreams. But in the early days, I remember when CFC started 50 years ago, the Lord really gave me one or two dreams to encourage me. I have not I'm many years since I've got such dreams because now I have many brothers 5:31 to encourage me many many brothers in churches but in the early days I was sort of battling alone with just one brother with me and I needed to lead the church forward and I was not taken to heaven I saw only dreams and dreams we are 5:46 permitted to speak so I'm not telling you something false I had one dream where I was coming back from a it was not a CFC conference. Those days there was no CFC but I used to be in invited to some different 6:04 conferences around the world to speak you know deeper life conferences. So it was one of these deeper life conferences I saw in my dream. I had gone and uh I was walking back in my dream to my room where I was staying at 6:22 night and I I really felt I had great liberty that day to speak and as I was coming back I heard a voice behind me saying that was not good enough. It was not good enough what you spoke today. I was 6:42 discouraged and then I said, "Lord, it's all in my dream." I said, "Lord, why is it when you speak to me face to face, you're always encouraging me, but when you speak to me from behind my back, you're discouraging me?" And I heard the 6:56 Lord saying to me in my dream, "Look back and see who that is." And I looked back and I saw a dark figure running away. And I learned something that day. a voice that discourages you even as if 7:15 it's challenging you some to something higher by saying that was not good enough. It looks as if you're challenging you to something higher but it's discouraging you. Sometime parents speak like that to children. Do you 7:26 parents ever tell your children that was not good enough? Have you ever thought that could be the voice of the devil? For me that day it was and I've discovered God is a God of encouragement. He never never 7:43 discourages. He challenges, sure, rebukes, corrects, but always his ultimate goal is encouragement. He's a god of encouragement. I learned a lesson that day and I'm very 8:02 thankful. And I learned that day how the devil will sometimes not harass you but apparently challenge you to something higher. That was not good enough. Doesn't that sound like a challenge to preach better next 8:19 time? Don't listen to that voice. Don't listen to voices that discourage you and make you feel glum ever. And don't speak like that to your children either. Don't tell your children that was not good 8:37 enough. They're not perfect. You're not perfect either. But so often we can discourage our children by the way we speak to them and we think we are challenging them. You have to be very very careful those tender feeble minds young children whom God has 8:55 entrusted into your hand to bring up to be witnesses for Christ in their generation. How are you doing it? God when he created man he said it's not good for man to be alone. He must 9:14 have a family. And for that, he must have a wife. And it is only when Adam got a wife, he was complete. And it's very interesting how God gave him his wife. You know how God brought all the 9:34 animals. And it's quite amusing. And would you like any of these? Maybe the lions are strong or some pretty animals. Said Adam said, "No, no, no, no, no, no." I learned something from that that 9:52 God sometimes when he wants to give us his best in any area, not just wife, but in any area when he wants to give us his best. So for you to take you to he wants you to get the best church, he will offer you something less 10:08 than the best. He'll allow you to see it. Are you happy with this one? I've been to many churches. To me, it was like Adam seeing all the animals. Some of them very, very good. But I said, "No, Lord. No Lord, no 10:25 Lord." And finally, God gave Adam the best. He got this woman. And you know what he actually said there? He said, "This is it." Those are his words. "This is it. And I found that in when we first 10:44 started the CFC church and started I said Lord this is it. I've been around 16 years in so many churches. It's like looking at different animals. Many of them are very good very clever. Some animals are far clever than men. Very smart and capable and powerful 11:03 like lions and all types of things. But Adam said, "No, they don't fit me." God has a particular fit. When he he had planned for Adam, he planned a partner for him. I know it was like that when God 11:21 chose a wife for me. Such an exact fit that I knew this was it. And 57 years later is only confirmed this is the right person. It's the same thing when you find I wandered through many churches and finally now when I look 11:41 back over 50 years after we've experienced in CFC I say Lord this is it. This is what you came to earth to build. You said I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. Now you may say brother 11:59 Zank it's normal for everybody but to boast about his church. Okay and leave it take it like that if you like. But I I'm just giving my testimony of what God did. And I praise the Lord for it. And what I want to say is that after Paul had this wonderful 12:18 experience when God wanted to lead him higher, I mean, what is higher than being lifted up to third heaven and hearing those wonderful things over there and seeing all those wonderful things? You'd say, "Boy, you're really 12:32 qualified now to Come out and serve the Lord mightily. Just go around giving this testimony and you can build the church everywhere. People will be drawn to you. Just give a testimony. You actually went to heaven. They will trust 12:48 you and you confirm it with you Paul. You raised the dead and you all types of things. You really be do a miracle on the earth. And God said no this is not enough for you Paul. I have to give you another experience. And you say another 13:06 experience superior to being taken to the third heaven. Yes. Superior to being taken to the third heaven. And he'll tell you in the next verse. Verse seven in the middle. He gave me a thorn in the 13:24 flesh. What a contrast. being taken to the third heaven and you get a promotion from there and what does the promotion take you to from the third heaven is there a fourth heaven or a seventh heaven is like some people say the thorn in the flesh some intense 13:44 physical problem it was a messenger of Satan after being taken to heaven Lord you're going to promote me by letting a messenger of Satan torment me. A messenger of Satan tormented me. 14:01 Lord, is this a promotion or a demotion? God always leads you from one step to the next step higher. Now, I say this for some of you who may need this message. You're seeking God for something higher and greater. And you've 14:19 already experienced some wonderful things in your life so far. Maybe some of you have found a local church where you are and a good experience where some of you have heard these messages and brought into come to a wonderful life. 14:29 Do you really want to go higher than the third heaven? Be serious. I'll show you. It'll be painful, but it'll be glorious. It'll be more glorious than being caught up to the third heaven. God never takes a person up and brings them 14:47 down. It's always from glory to glory. Always. The path of the righteous is like like the rising of the sun and shines more and more until the perfect 15:06 day. So you're born again. It's sunrise. The darkness is [Music] gone. And ultimately noonday position is Christ coming back. Till then there's never a time when the sun backslides. Never. Believers backslide. God's plan 15:25 for you is never for a moment to go back higher. Higher. Have you been caught up to the third heaven? The sun is going to go still higher after that not lower. And what is higher? The thorn in the flesh. Do you agree? Now when we read in 15:41 the Bible that God's ways are not our ways, do you agree that his ways are higher than our ways? Definitely. None of us would imagine taking a person to third heaven and then putting a thorn in the flesh after that, a messenger of Satan to 15:57 harass him. If some of you are experiencing that that you've had some amazing supernatural exper not supernatural perhaps some amazing experiences with God in your life and the next thing you face is some terrible trial or suffering 16:14 you say Lord am I backsliding brother sister you're not backsliding it's the next step to glory the sun is rising higher only thing you're not able to understand Paul didn't understand in the beginning. So what did he pray? He 16:32 prayed three. It says in the it's a beautiful word here in verse 8. I implored the Lord. You know the meaning of the word implored in English. Let me put it reverently. He pestered the Lord. Lord, you got to take this away. You got to take this away. 16:46 You got to take this away. You know how some little child pers his daddy or mommy for some snack or some cake or something like that? He pestered the Lord. Lord, take it away. Take it away. Take I implored the Lord. Take it away. 16:57 I don't want this. And the Lord said no. Have you had an experience where you prayed and prayed and prayed for something you really felt was good for you and God said no. You said Lord this is the devil harassing me. How can you 17:11 allow it? God said no. He will keep on harassing you. But I won't leave you alone. I'll never forsake you. Paul, you're my faithful servant. And I believe the Lord is saying that to a number of people here. You are my faithful servant. 17:27 Listen to it. It's God's voice to you. Don't have an artificial humility to say, "No, no, no, no, no. I'm a failure." No, don't say that. Good to have low thoughts about yourself to say, "Lord, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I will say that 17:43 till the end of my life. But I will have a I'll never have a false humility saying I'm a useless person. God cannot use me. He never used me." That's all a lie. Don't tell lies. If God has used you, don't tell a lie that he 18:00 hasn't. God wants to lead you higher. Always remember God's plan for you, the sun, is to go brighter and brighter and brighter. And so, how is this going to be a higher way? I pleaded. I mean, Paul was human. He implored. Implored means he pestered 18:19 the Lord. Take it away. And the Lord said, "No, but I'm teaching you something, Paul, which will not only help you, but when you testify about it, it's going to help people around the world for 2,000 years more than if you told people that 18:39 you were taken up to heaven." If Paul had described his entire one full chapter of what he heard in heaven, how would it help me? I'm not going I'm not I'm not being taken up to heaven. How will it help me? It make me admire Paul greatly. Wow. What he saw 18:57 there. Amazing. It won't help me at all. But when I see that Paul went had a thorn in the flesh with Satan harassing him, I said, "Boy, that really has helped me." Believe me, that has helped me more than any testimony Paul could 19:10 have given me about his experience in the third heaven. Because I got this wonderful word which is not found anywhere else in scripture. The Lord said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you." It's an amazing promise to me. It's one of the most 19:27 wonderful promises in the Bible that whatever your problem, remember this, my brother and sister. God's grace is more than enough to help you in that situation. Not just enough, but more than 19:44 enough. He always gives in abundance. I don't know what trial you're facing through right now. I don't know what thorn there is in your flesh. I don't know how Satan is harassing you. It says, "Satan tormented me." You know the 19:57 meaning of torment. Torment is how they he treat people in these prisons when they persecuted. When Christians were in communist countries, they beat them, harassed them, poked them, starved them, tormented them, and says, "Satan 20:11 tormented me." It was a terrible trial. I don't know what the thorn in the flesh was. Paul had a problem in his eyes. I don't know whether you know that he had a problem with 20:30 uh let me turn to that passage and I'll show you. It's the next book Galatians and chapter 4. Do you know that Paul was not supposed to go to Galatia? I don't have time to show you all those passages. In Acts 20:49 chapter 16, we read that he wanted to go somewhere else. And when he came to Galatia, he stopped. He could not go further. But it does not tell us in Acts 16 why he stopped. He says the spirit of God stopped 21:08 him. How did the spirit of God stop him? Was it with some another vision? No. It says here in Galatians 4, he's writing to these people in Galatia where he stopped. You know, verse 13, it was because of a bodily illness that I 21:25 preached the gospel to you the first time. How did God stop Paul and Galatia? Not with a vision. He made him sick. So, does God speak through sickness as well? Okay, let me turn you to Acts 16 and then you see how it is written, how the 21:42 Holy Spirit records it in Acts 16. He says, I was go uh Galatians, sorry, Acts chapter 16, Paul was traveling. He verse one, he came to Derby and Lististra and he took 22:00 Timothy with him from there and they were passing verse four through all the cities. Beautiful verse verse four through all the cities where they had preached they gave them the decrees preaching the word of God and the 22:14 churches verse five were being strengthened in the faith and not the number of believers the number of churches were increasing in number daily this is the type of ministry Paul was having number of churches were increasing 22:31 daily one church the next day there were two the next day there were three revive revival the number of churches are increasing daily and then from there they went through the Galatian fijian Galat here's Galatia again Galatian 22:45 region and they did not go to Asia because the Holy Spirit stopped them from going to Asia being forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go to Asia they got stuck in Galatia verse six now it doesn't tell us in verse six how the Holy Spirit 23:05 forbad that how the Holy Spirit stopped him. When I read that, I think it's by some supernatural vision at night the Holy Spirit says, "Don't go to Asia. Stay here in Galatia." It's only when I turn to Galatians chapter 4 that I discovered. 23:19 It was not through some supernatural vision. God just made Paul sick. Are you willing to pay that price to plant a church? He may take you at your word. Be careful. I'm willing. I say, Lord, to me, building the church somewhere is the 23:38 most valuable important thing I can ever do in my life. I'm willing to pay any price for it. I told that to the Lord long ago. And he's thrilled my heart with the churches he's planted. And I said, Lord, even today, I'm willing to pay any 23:51 price. If your church is planted, I'm willing to pay any price. I'm willing to be stopped anywhere. I'm planning to go somewhere. you stop me somewhere by any means possible build a church. And he says at that time and while he was 24:10 there he had he had a bodily illness which stopped him. They looked at him and they say, "Oh, what was it?" A bodily condition which could have made people despise Paul when they looked at him and loathed 24:27 him. Loath is a very strong word to loathe a person to uh the margin says to spit out at the person. Something if bad comes into your mouth you spit it out. That is the actual word used in the Greek. It says in my margin to lo the person but you 24:47 receive me in spite of this infirmity as an angel of God. And he says here in the next verse what it was. I bear you witness at that time when you saw my infirmity you would have 25:04 pl out your eyes and given them to me. Ah that was the problem with Paul. He had a problem with his eyes and I believe sort of pus or something was coming out. I've seen sometimes people get an infection in their eyes and it 25:22 gets infected and pus comes out and it's it's horrible. It's first of all it's ugly. You see a man with pus coming out and particularly if he's standing up and preaching. I mean imagine if I'm sitting here and all the time bus is coming out of my eyes and 25:40 I've got to keep wiping it. I mean I myself am embarrassed but it's a it's it's terrible to look at a person like that and that's what it says here. Your my bodily condition you could have loathed me but you did not. When you saw me in 25:58 this condition you were willing to take out your eyes and give them to me. Paul was like that. That was his thorn in the flesh. When you compare scripture with scripture, we discover some amazing things. So, I've come to see that when 26:16 we have bodily infirmity, some believers have bodily infirmity. Some very godly men are limited in some way by bodily infirmity. And if any of you have some bodily limitation, infirmity, God can use that for your glory. And here's a 26:33 word from Paul's experience for you. Now we come back to 2 Corinthians 12. Now we understand what this thorn in his flesh was. It was a eye disease that was making him pus coming out all the time and you keep wiping it out. It's a 26:49 terrific nuisance to keep on wiping out. I mean I sometimes sniff I to take out a handkerchief. That itself bothers me. I mean imagine if it was ice dripping and people loathing. Here's a man who's supposed to be a man of 27:07 God. He's gone to the third heaven and all, but this guy can't his eyes are not healed. Can't God heal it? He could have. But I'll tell you something. When God uses a man mightily, he has to give him some type 27:23 of weakness to keep him humble. It's true. He says that verse seven to middle of read you read that in verse seven to keep me from exalting myself. I thought if there was anyone 27:43 who had understood the importance of humility is Paul but he is honest I am in danger of exalting myself above other believers. Blessed is the man who recognizes that he's in danger of exalting himself over his fellow believers in his church. Do you 28:01 recognize that? Or do you feel you're so humble you'll never have that problem? You are in the greatest danger, my brother, sister. I constantly feel that I'm in danger of exalting myself. I had to fight it and God helps me to fight it with his 28:17 grace. The apostle Paul was in danger of exalting himself but he never exalted himself till the end of his life. He was faithful and we know he received the grace of God till the end of his life. And he could not have got that grace if 28:32 he had not remained humble because God gives his grace only to the humble. And sometimes a man needs help to be humble. And Paul needed help. And that help was with a sickness. Are you willing to receive a sickness in order to get grace from God? If you get 28:52 grace from God as a result, I'd say any day. If that's the price for grace, I'm willing to pay it. How much will you pay for grace? I'd say any any price. Because there's nothing more valuable on this earth than the grace of 29:07 God. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The grace of God is the greatest gift that God can ever give me. and I say, "Lord, I'm willing to pay any price for it." I'll tell you this. You go to God like that with that earnestness even today or tonight and 29:23 say, "Lord, I am willing to pay any price to have your grace upon me all the time." And if God sees you're serious and you mean it, he'll do it for you. And the grace of God will do such amazing miracles through your life, 29:37 you'll see a ministry in the days to come that you cannot even imagine. Don't look for the ministry that'll make you proud. Look for the grace of God. And so he said, "My grace is sufficient for 29:54 you because my grace is power." You know, grace is power. This is the one verse that teaches us that grace is power. My grace is sufficient for you because my power, which is my grace, will be made perfect only when you're 30:09 weak. If you're strong, my grace cannot work through you. Do you know why the grace of God works more powerfully in some believers and not in others? Is because those believers are weaker than you. They recognize their 30:28 weakness. You think you're very clever. You think you're strong. You're capable. You're smart. Uh-huh. You'll be miles away from the grace of God. That's why nothing happens through your life with all your knowledge. You come 30:43 to conference after conference and you accumulate knowledge and knowledge and knowledge and knowledge. Nothing happens in your life. Why is that? You're not weak, brother. God gives us grace to the humble and he knows 31:00 exactly who are humble and who are not. And he's not fooled by the appearance of humility or the language of humility or hanging our head down or all this garbage. All the human ways of acting humble is a lot of nonsense. God is not 31:14 fooled by that. He knows who in deep down in their heart recognize Lord I am nothing. Like we saw in that video this morning I am a zero and I will always remain a zero but I want you to be as a one in front of me. That'll give me value. I don't want 31:31 to make the zero into one. I have no interest in making the zero into one. This zero will always be zero. But I want Jesus to be a one in front of me. I have a value. And when I have one in front of me, there'll be many more zeros 31:42 added to me and it'll become 1 million, 1 trillion, 1 billion. That is God's way. So he said, "My grace is sufficient for you because my power is perfected only in weak people." Because the living 31:58 Bible says, "My power shows up best in weak people." And that's why Paul, I gave you this eye disease, dripping puss. And so he doesn't want people to sorry feel sorry for himself. I boast about my 32:18 weakness. Paul, is there something you can boast about? You expect him tell him to tell you the number of churches he planted and the number of miracles he did. I'll boast about the fact that my the pus comes out of my eyes and not they are not yet 32:35 healed. Isn't this crazy? This is true Christianity. Sometimes we see brothers who are struck down with some infirmity in their life or their family or their children. and you feel sorry for 32:58 them. God can accomplish a mighty purpose through such people that he'll never do through clever, healthy people like you. We need infirmity. We need weakness. That is how God, the grace of God is fulfilled. It's not by clever, 33:17 smart, capable people. He did not choose cleav smart pe capable people. He chose fishermen. You know I've been to the coasts of India and seen actual fishermen. The type of fishermen that Peter James and John were. They are 33:36 uncultured, uneducated. They've never finished high school. All they know is how to fish. And it's the last type of person you'd expect to be a prophet or a pastor as they he's not a reverend so and so. The guy's a useless 33:55 fisherman. God says, "I want you." Peter, Andrew, they were fishermen. James and John, another two fishermen. Come, come and be my greatest apostles. And I've seen some of these fishermen, you know, in the coasts of 34:13 India, ordinary people. No, it was very simple dress. No, very very ordinary clothes, very ordinary people, not very educated. And these are the people who write letters which people try to get a PhD in a Bible college now to 34:31 understand. Well, God's ways are amazing, but those people in the Bible college don't understand it because they haven't understood this truth that God's power is made perfect in weakness. That's why I told you God took Paul to 34:44 the wilderness for 3 years to take out of his head all that garbage he got in the Bible college for 3 years. So if some of you didn't go to Bible college, thank God. My power is made perfect in weakness. He says, "Therefore, what will 34:58 I boast about? I will not boast about the victories I got in my life. I will not boast about the churches I planted. I will boast about my weaknesses." Well, the last part of verse n and since I because then the power of 35:12 Christ will dull in me and this is the way my brothers I found it through the years the power of Christ to dwell in me I have to be weak otherwise I will take the credit and I will take the glory and I have found through many 35:30 years that I'm able to preach most powerfully when I'm most weak and helpless this cuz then I'm leaning upon God exactly like the branch in the tree. If you pulled out that branch and say, "Hey, how do you get so much fruit?" I don't know. I'm just a 35:49 helpless a helpless stuck to the tree. As long as I'm connected to the tree and I don't let any obstruction come for the p for that sap to come through, fruits keeps on coming. Don't ask me how. I tell you that is exactly the 36:05 experience of any man of God whom God has used in any type of way. He said I don't know how it happened. I was just a helpless person leaning upon the Lord. His holy spirit just came and flowed through me. I don't know what happened and some people got 36:20 converted or a church was planted. I don't know it is this is God's way because no man can get the glory. And so he says, I'm not only happy with the pus flowing down from my eyes. I will be I'm perfectly happy 36:37 verse 10 with weakness in my body with the insults that other people give me. They can call me all types of names and call me a heretic and a false teacher and all types of things. I'm quite happy. I'm content. I'm content 36:54 with distresses and people persecuting me and I'm content with the difficulties I face for all for Christ's sake because I have learned one thing in my life. What is it? Learn it. All of you learn it please. When I am weak then I am 37:12 strong. My dear brothers and sisters, this is a truth that the vast majority of Christian preachers have not understood. The vast majority of Christians have not understood. We have proclaimed it in CFC for years because CFC has been built through 37:30 weak brothers, not very clever brothers. We have some PhDs in CFC. PhDs, professors, head of the department in universities in Bangalore. They are not the ones God has used. They are not the ones God has used. God has used people 37:49 without a degree. God has used people in our Tamil Nad churches who can't speak one sentence of English properly. God uses the weak. And I hope all of you will understand it. And when Paul was not a weak man, he 38:07 was extremely capable qualified man. He's he's qualified to get PhD from any university in in the world. Such a smart clever capable man. Then God has to make him weak in some other way. And so God has to make him weak by giving him uh 38:21 pus in his eyes. But since most of us are dumb, we don't need pus in the eyes. I think God God can use us as we are. Praise God. So if you're a bit dumb person, praise God. He can use you as you are, brother. Don't don't look to be smart or 38:37 capable. Don't admit the other person who is clever and a PhD and all. If you're weak and helpless, you are the ideal person to build the body of Christ. and is the person who thinks he's very capable, who thinks he's understood all 38:52 the truths. I heard brother Zach and I got it all in my notes. Now I can go and start build a church. You will not build a church. You'll be a total failure. I guarantee that because you got such a lot of head knowledge. When I'm 39:08 weak, then I am strong. And that is always God's way. So I hope all of us will be gripped by this truth and understand it and in a way that transforms our life. Don't despise your children who are not so smart and capable. We want all of our children to 39:26 be intelligent, hardworking, educated, do the best. But if one of your children among all your intelligent children, one of your children is not so smart, not so capable, a bit backward in 39:42 the studies, perhaps that is the one God is going to use more than anyone else. That is God's way. I'm not saying he cannot use the intelligent. Paul was highly intelligent. He was far more intelligent than Peter. Paul God used a 39:57 Paul. He used a Peter. But I say it was more difficult for Paul. Peter did not need to get a puss in his eyes to be used. He was a pretty dumb person any case and so he could use him as he is. It's the clever people who need to 40:14 be humbled a bit. So God can use your clever children and your dumb children. That's what I mean to say. But it's easier for your dumb children to be used by God than the clever ones. The clever ones need to I hope they don't get 40:26 passed in the eyes. God has to humble us all in some way or the other. Now, I'm not I'm not telling you stories. I'm telling you that even this man who was caught up to the third heaven, that did not qualify him to serve 40:41 God. All your fantastic experiences, even if you're caught up, what greater experience can you have than be caught up to the third heaven? All your so-called spiritual experience are nothing compared to being caught up to 40:54 the third heaven. And even that man had to get puss in his eyes in order to serve God. So don't think that all these experiences you've had and all the Bible knowledge you've acquired and all the conferences you've gone to and you've 41:04 understood so much and your book is full of notes. Praise God for all that. But he doesn't qualify you to serve God. You have to become weak and not just for a moment. You have to be permanently weak. I don't know if Paul ever got 41:17 cured of that. If you want to be used by God and I want all of you to be used by God, not just a few here and there, my dear brothers and sisters, every one of you. I want God to use you. That's why I long to come for these 41:31 conferences because I want to encourage you to be used by God and I want to show you the right way because this is not being taught in most churches. You tell me, have you ever heard a message like this that you got to get puss in your 41:43 eyes in order to be used by God? Is there any preacher who tells you that or some equivalent of that? Something that you got to be made weak and some of you who think you're not so smart. Maybe you're the one whom God will use. If you humble 42:01 yourself, I have become weak so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And I want to say that this is God's way always because he gives his grace to the humble. And we are in such tremendous danger of becoming proud. You 42:16 know just like gravity. You know gravity is you can't hold anything up without it anywhere in the world. You see this? This is exactly how we are. Always in danger of falling into pride. Always anywhere in the 42:36 world. How can God lift us up? This is why we fall into sin so often. Sin is like this. You can't help it. It's always pulling you down. That's why you fall into dirty thoughts and anger and all the time. Think of this falling 42:51 down. That's how we fall into anger. That's why we lust with the eyes. Once he was boasting about Bible knowledge then ask God to make you weak. Because when you're weak, you'll say I you know this friend thing I can stand by myself. 43:07 False. But when it's humble enough to say, "I can't stand by myself." The Lord has to hold me up. And even if he's held me up for 25 years, I've never fallen. If he takes away his hanger, I fall 43:27 immediately. Understand that and you will have understood the greatest truth in the Christian life. God is to hold you up from the beginning till the day he comes. He will do it. Do you know one of the last 43:44 verses in the in the New Testament in the Bible before the book of Revelation? What is the last verse in the Bible before the book of Revelation? You never seen it? See it today. It's in the book of Jude. Jude verse 24. 44:06 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. You see this this pen doesn't fall. Now to him who's able to keep you from falling till the very 44:24 end and to make you stand one day in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy to the only God our savior through Jesus Christ be Lord be all the glory. No glory for you. No glory for 44:44 this pen. No glory for you. All the glory to God, majesty, dominion now, now and forever more. If you want that to be your experience. It's the last verse in the New Testament, the Bible, before the book of Revelation. Very appropriate 45:01 verse unto him be all the glory. See, when you're like that, when you're a weak person, always held upheld and you've been a Christian for 45 years and you're still as weak as that pen to be held up. Lord, I'm just as weak as I was 50 years ago 45:18 when we started the work in me. I feel that definitely. I'm just as weak as I was 50 years ago. I want you to I want to remain like this, Lord. Constantly aware of my weakness. And I know if I remain like that, you will one day present me 45:37 faultless with great joy for the glory of God. Yeah, brother, you will not get any glory. Those of you are looking glory for yourself, I'm sorry to disappoint you. You won't get any not even in heaven. You won't get an award. You 45:56 won't get a crown. All the glory will go to God. Are you happy for that? Yes. All the glory goes to God. Zero for yourself. Yes. Praise God. I pray that there will be an army of such brothers and sisters who say, "Lord, I don't want any glory 46:15 on this earth and I don't want glory in eternity. I don't want any reward in eternity. I want all the glory to go to God [Music] alone." I'm often pictured in eternity. I use my imagination as I've said, you know, all of us have used our 46:31 imagination for a lot of useless, filthy things in the past. Why not use our imagination for some good things now? And here's one good thing that I've used it for. I imagine that Christ has come and I'm in heaven. Everybody's praising. 46:47 Worthy is the lamb and the glory. And I'm there. And I I see heads heads heads heads heads all over. Millions of them. I'm looking for Peter. Can't see him. Paul can't see him. John, you look for Zakun and he's not anywhere on earth. He 47:01 was in the pulpit. But here you can't see anybody. All you see is Jesus. Glory. If you want that type of life and you rejoice in it, I tell you, God will do amazing things through you. Say, Lord, that's all I want. That's all 47:16 I want in heaven. That's all I want on earth. That's been my greatest longing. You know, when the Lord asked me, "What type of sermon do you want to preach?" I said, "Lord, this is it. I'll tell you. This is the type of sermon I 47:34 always want to preach. And if I can achieve it one day, it'll be great. 1 Corinthians 14. This is my desire to preach like this. It's the honest truth. I want to 47:53 put my name here. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 24. If Zach Punan preaches, prophesies, preach, and an unbeliever or a Christian without any gift or with a gift, doesn't matter, 48:11 enters, the word of God convicts him. And he's convicted by everything he hears. And the hidden things in his heart, the secret desires in his heart for sin or for fame or for honor or for glory are revealed to him. He's not 48:31 publicly exposed before the others. But to his heart, God says, "You are seeking your own honor. You're seeking to become an important person in the church. It's all gets exposed." and he falls on his face and worships God and says 48:48 surely God is here. That is my greatest God is my witness. That is my longing that when I preach people should say I met with Jesus. He was here in the meeting today. My dear brother, sister, long for 49:06 that that you you brothers will when you speak God's word anywhere will be like this that people will forget about you and be conscious of Jesus being in the meeting. Let that be your greatest longing. And you sisters that your 49:19 children, your mothers, you will so lead your children that they will see Jesus in you and in your home. That's the type of home we want to build and that's the time we church we want to build everywhere. And it's possible if you're 49:35 willing to be weak. Lord, I don't care what you do with me. Make me weak and dependent upon you, constantly dependent upon you, desiring no glory for myself, but to him who's able to keep me from stumbling and present me one day 49:48 faultless before his presence with exceeding joy. To him be the glory forever and ever. I said that's the last verse in the Bible. And that's the last verse in my life also until the end of my life. That's the verse which is going 49:59 to be true in me forever and ever and ever. Do you want that in your life? Yes or no? Yes. Praise the Lord. Now keep it. Keep that word that you said. You said yes before the Lord. You mean it. Go and re uh renew that vow before God 50:16 regularly. Go to Jude verse 24 and 25. Always go back there every now and then and say, "Lord, this is what I want." It's easy to remember the last verse in the Bible before the book of Revelation. Say, "Lord, I want that to 50:30 be true in my life for till the end of my life till Jesus comes." Jude, last verse in the Bible before Revelation is the one for me. Amen. Let's pray. Dear brothers, we don't want to be 50:50 emotionally moved. Emotional moving is good but the purpose of emotional moving is to make you yield your will. You surrender your will and say Lord this is what I want. I want to bow down and yield my life to you. I want my 51:07 life to be different from today onwards. Not temporarily for one day or two days but from now until Jesus comes back. I believe you can keep me from stumbling. You can keep me from falling. You can make me the type of mother that 51:22 I can that I should be to lead my children to see Jesus in the home. You can make me the type of brother in the church who can lead people to see Jesus in the church. It's open for mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and 51:39 [Music] everyone. Heavenly Father, please have mercy on us. Lord, I cannot express fully what is in 51:58 your heart for your people. But I pray what I could not convey your Holy Spirit will complete the message in some way to everybody's heart here in a way that they will say God is here. Jesus was here today, spoke to 52:17 me, and I'm going to respond to him. Help us, Lord, that our life will never be the same from today onwards. It'll change for your glory. I want it, Lord. I want to rise to a higher height tomorrow than I was today. And I want it 52:33 like that every day of my life till you come again. Exactly like the sun. It never stops. It's always rising in the sky. And I never want to stop. I want to rise and rise and rise till one day we are exactly like you. Help us 52:50 Lord Jesus. Help each one of us here we pray. Father in Jesus name. Amen. [Music]
