0:00 [Music] Praise the Lord, dear brothers. I'm so glad that so many of you have taken the trouble to come long distances over 0:18 here. And I thought of this word in Luke's gospel to begin with. Luke chapter 6 and verse 21. This is a principle 0:41 that always applies. Blessed are you who hunger for you shall be [Music] satisfied. And that is a promise of God that can never be broken. And I have proved it for many many 0:59 years that if you are really hungry for all that God has to give you and you say Lord I don't want to miss any of it. It's not just that you will get something but you'll be satisfied. That means you will have more than enough and 1:18 you'll never it will not go away empty. So if we keep that attitude throughout this weekend, Lord, I'm hungry for more. Not more knowledge. That's a great danger in the Christian churches. Many people come to a conference to acquire 1:36 knowledge. Knowledge has never made anybody spiritual. Remember in the Old Testament, the scribes were the people who had knowledge. They spent many years studying the scriptures and they were they had a special office in the temple. They were 1:56 the scribes and if people wanted clarify something from the old testament which is a book of the law they go to the scribes. The scribes would have an answer but it was all intellectual. Those scribes were the ones who crucified Christ, who shouted 2:12 out that he should be crucified when even the Roman Pilate governor. He wanted to let Jesus go. But the scribes said, "No, no, no. Get rid of him." So that is a warning to us from scripture. You can know so much of the Bible 2:32 intellectually and be completely not just a weak Christian but against Christ. Antichrist. There are a lot of antichrists sitting in churches today. I don't know whether you believe that. There were there in the first century 2:51 too. If you turn to one John in chapter 2, it's important for us to know these things. See, many churches don't speak the truth plainly. They most preachers want to please the people because they want their money. or they want the money for the church or 3:10 whatever it is. So they don't tell them the truth. In 1 John chapter 2 it says chap uh chapter 1 John chapter 2:18 children it is the last hour and 3:27 remember this is written in 95 AD 1900 years ago it was the last hour. Where are we today? Not just in the last minute but in the last few seconds before Christ is coming again. And as you heard that the antichrist is [Music] 3:47 coming. There are many now antichrist. That means many with the same spirit of the antichrist. What is the definition of antichrist? It's a simple English word. Anti means against. So it's there are people who are against 4:05 Jesus Christ. Even now many people against Jesus Christ have appeared and from this we know it is the last hour. So if they were there even then and the proof of the last hour is that there are going to be many people against 4:21 Christ. And you can imagine how it is today. There are a lot more people against Christ today than we imagine. And many of them are sitting in churches. It says here in verse 19, where were these antichrists? They were in our 4:37 midst. They were in the midst of the churches in the first century. And these antichrist went out from us. There are people who are looking for the antichrist in some other religion. Well, leave those other religions alone. We've got nothing to do 4:54 with them. These antichrists, the apostle John says, went out from our midst. They were not really of us. They sat in our church, but they didn't really belong to us. Because if they had belonged to us, 5:13 they would never have gone out. They would have remained with us. I see a lot of people coming into a church and then getting getting offended and leaving. offended with what? If they are offended with the truth and the standard of God's 5:28 word, that proves they are against Christ. And I've seen that happen. You see, CFC churches have been going on for 50 years. And I've experienced this many times. I've seen it with my own eyes. I don't ever just read it in 5:44 scripture. They're not um the world will not consider them evil. They are probably religious people. Do you think uh the scribes and Pharisees were considered evil by the other Jews? No. They were religious people and highly 5:58 respected. But they are the people who crucified Christ. And that has been true throughout the centuries. True Christianity is a very rare thing even in so-called churches. And I find that any movement that continues over a period of time 6:18 gradually decay sets in because you know people come in initially because it's a popular movement or something and they want something seriously but when they get in there they find they're not willing to pay the price. I've seen this in India through 6:36 the years. people who are unhappy with whatever church they're in or they feel that the church is not really preaching the whole truth and they hear about CFC and they hear our messages on the internet and they come and I believe they are sincere 6:50 but they don't realize that if you want to follow you have to pay a price and they come to CFC CFC church and they dis hear about the price they have to pay and uh then for some time they pretend that they are also paying the 7:06 price till gradually God exposes their hypocrisy and they fall away. I've seen that happen again and again again. And let no one sitting here think that it won't happen to you. The one who thinks he stands is going to be 7:19 the first one who falls. Is the one who is constantly aware of his own need and say, "Lord, I can fall away, but I will not because I'm going to cling to you. I'm determined to cling to you." So here it says they went out from 7:36 among us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us. How do you know that a person does not have the spirit of the antichrist? When he hears the whole truth of God, he says, "Whatever the cost is, I'm going to stick with this 7:52 church till the end of my life. I don't care how much I'm rebuked, how much I'm corrected. I will not get offended. I will never leave because I've found the truth." Now, if you find something in a church is contrary to the word of God, 8:08 that's different. But if there's something that hurt you and offended you, well, you got to judge yourself. There are many customs in our society that can we can take them for granted through 8:27 the years is yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. But if it's against the principle of Jesus Christ, we've got to stand against it in the church. Think of the time when Jesus came into the temple. And for years and years, I mean Jesus was had been going 8:46 to the temple from the age of 12. The age of 12, he went with Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem and often. And when he went in those years, he saw those people making money there on the 9:02 side. They what were they selling? Sheep and goats and doves which were needed for the sacrifice. Instead of going walking many miles to the marketplace and getting it getting a sheep from there and dragging it all through the streets to the 9:21 temple, these said these folks said, "We'll make it easy for you. We we sell it right here just next door just the other side of the wall of the temple. Here it is part of the temple compound. The only thing is when we bring it here you got to pay a little 9:36 extra commission cuz we need to make a little profit too. You can't make prof profit in the house of God. If you want to make profit, go to the marketplace. That's a tragedy with so many people doing Christian work today. 9:50 And if you don't have eyes to see it, I'll tell you, you'll never build the church of Jesus Christ in your locality. I speak some things very plainly. People get offended, but it is the truth. If you seek to make profit or 10:03 gain for yourself in any way, whether it is with money or honor or some title, I can guarantee you will not endure till the end. One day or the other you'll fall away because the church is not a place 10:20 for making personal profit. It's a place for making sacrifice. The church is built on sacrifice. And it's only those who are willing to sacrifice everything who will endure till the end. That's why the antichrist fell away. They were not 10:37 willing to sacrifice. They wanted to make profit and gain. Prof. Making profit and gain is the exact opposite of sacrifice. Jesus didn't come to the earth to gain anything. He came here to sacrifice. And these people were so 10:53 completely against that spirit. They were making money for themselves and they were exchanging the money so that they could be it would be converted from the Roman coin to the Hebrew coin which is what they put in the offering box 11:07 etc. All these things and they're making such a lot of profit and it was going on for years. When did Jesus saw it? He saw it when he was 12 years old. He saw it when he was 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. How many years he saw it going 11:19 on? And do you think it bothered him? Sure, it bothered him. It was so completely to foreign to his understanding of the father. 18 years he saw it, never did a thing. That's another thing we can 11:38 learn. He had no leading from the father to correct. Dear brothers, even when you see something wrong, don't be in a rush to correct. Jesus waited 18 years till the father 11:56 told him now do something about it. That's when he took the whip and chased them out of the temple. What do we learn from that? Don't be in a hurry. Maybe it is wrong what you see it. But has God called you to do it? Has God called you to do that 12:12 correction? Learn from this example of Jesus. This is why I say I mean what this thought I'm sharing with you probably most of you are even thinking of it for the first time that Jesus saw it for 18 years. Where does it say that in the 12:31 Bible? It's not written specifically. You learn it when you meditate on the scriptures. If you just read the scriptures, all you'll read is Jesus went to the temple at the age of 12 and Jesus started his ministry age of 30. 12:45 Period. What have you got out of it? Here's one thing I got out of it out of it that he didn't chase out the money changers for 18 years. I'm just giving you one example. There are numerous things like that in scripture which you 12:59 have missed. And don't leave this earth not having discovered those things. There are plenty other things like this that I've discovered in scripture in the last 60 years which I did not know when I started. But if you meditate there's 13:15 nobody to whom God will hide these things. If you're serious. So what I say that was a custom there among the Jews. Nobody objected to it. The high priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, they allowed this to go on. They say, "Well, 13:29 this has been practiced for years." And then Jesus comes along. You see, in John chapter 2, this is one of the first things he did. It's immediately after, you read 13:51 about it immediately after the marriage in Kaa, which is the first miracle that he did in John chapter 2 verse 11. this beginning of his signs that he did in Canaa of Galilee. And after these he went down to Kapern and he stayed there because he 14:07 had moved from Nazareth to Kapern. Jesus moved his house from Nazareth to Kaepernom and he rented a house there and lived there and and then a just a few days and what does he do next? The very next thing the Passover of the Jews 14:22 had come near and Jesus went to Jerusalem. And what does he see in Jerusalem? What he had seen for 18 years. He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves which are all needed for sacrifice. Only thing they were making a 14:39 pretty high profit. And the money changes because there was a rule that you could only put a Hebrew coin into the offering box, not a Roman coin because the Roman coin had an image of Caesar and it's idolatry. So you could 14:53 not put that in the offering box. So they had to ex but that was the coin used in the marketplace. So it's like going to a foreign country and then you have to exchange your currency to the local currency. They came to the temple, 15:04 they had to exchange their currency for the Hebrew coin which they had to put in the box. So that was another way of making profit. with all these money changers sitting there and they were all seated at their tables and Jesus, you 15:16 know, there were many ways Jesus could have corrected them. He says, "You folks, gentlemen, will you please move out of here?" Isn't that the decent way to say it? The thing is this business of being decent and all is very human when 15:29 it comes to the house of God. I'll tell you that true prophets are not decent. You go and read the Old Testament prophets and see how they preach to Israel. This is the great lack today in Christendom. We have people who speak 15:43 courteously and decently from the pulpit and leave people in their sin. The great lack is for prophets, who tell people the truth. It's like a surgeon who takes his knife and cuts people open. Isn't that painful? Sure, 16:02 but it's going to take the cancer out of the body. But if he just gives him a massage and gives him some medicines, the cancer will remain the guy will die. This is exactly a picture of what's happening in Christendom. And you know Jesus could 16:15 have done this many ways. He could have told them get out of here all of you or but he made a scourge of cords. And that's another thing interesting for me. I can imagine Jesus he didn't have a whip ready. He sees all this and he goes and sits 16:30 somewhere in somewhere and tells the disciples, "Can you better get a whole lot of string and thin rope and he they bring it and he's wondering what's it for?" And he sits there. He says, "He made it." Can you picture this? Read scripture slowly. Picture 16:46 Jesus in your mind twisting twisting twisting twisting all these bits of rope that the because they were not strong enough and making a scourge. It says he made a scourge of cords. I read scripture 17:03 slowly. My aim is not to finish the Bible in one year. In the beginning, I did it. The first time I was converted 66 years ago, I said I haven't read through the whole Bible and I read through it full speed. In 8 months, I 17:16 finished the whole Bible. But after that, I started reading slowly. So, I have two Bible reading methods now. One is when I read many many chapters every day and the other is sometimes reading one or two three four verses a day. Both 17:34 one is throughout the Bible and the other is mostly from the New Testament in the gospels and epistles. So I see here he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen. He chased those people out. Get 17:52 out of here, he said. And he poured the coins of the money changers and overturned their table. I can imagine the children's laughing and they're seeing all this. See what did this is how Jesus began his ministry. What do people 18:11 think when they see some preacher doing this something so violent? And what would you think if somebody did that and acted like that in your church when he was so furious at the house of God being defiled and dishonored? You think this guy doesn't 18:28 know how how to conduct himself decently. You know, all decent people never build the church of God. It's the people who are violent against sin. And this was a sin to do this in the house of God. And he told those who are selling Dows, take 18:47 these things away. Stop making my father's house a place of business. Do you know in how many churches we have to say that today? Stop making my father's house a place of business. A place where you're making 19:04 profit. A place where pastors are making profit. A place where pastors are lining their pockets and purchasing jet aircraft at the expense of poor people or giving them money. Where are the prophets who stand up against all this and denounce 19:23 it? That is the tragedy today. And the disciples remembered, the Holy Spirit reminded the disciples of this word from Psalm 69 and verse 9. Zeal for your house will consume me. Not just make me 19:43 say something. You know that word consume. You know what consume is? It burns me up something. There's nothing left inside. This is how Jesus began his ministry. Many people you ask them how did Jesus begin his ministry? Jesus, you 19:57 know, when there was the lack of wine, he produced wine. How good the Lord is. Yeah, that was an act of grace. But the Bible says the glory of God was seen in Jesus Christ. You remember the word full 20:13 of grace and truth. John 1:14. And you see that here there was grace in the first 12 verses of his going to Kaa and multiplying the wine when it was lack. And then you see truth is the second part that people don't realize is the 20:30 beginning of Jesus ministry and then they realize zeal for your house will consume me. I want to encourage you, my dear brothers, to seek God for zeal, for a passionate 20:46 zeal, for purity in the house of God. Now, you may not be called to a prophetic ministry, but you can start with your own inner life and have a zeal that'll consume everything contrary to the spirit of Christ in you. any any of 21:02 the spirit of the business world in your heart. You know the Bible speaks in the end of Babylon and Jerusalem and uh Jerusalem is the place where the house of God was place of prayer and worship and all that and Babylon if you read Revelation chapter 21:19 18 it's all about business minister the merchants of the world money profit profit profit and the church is completely against that Jesus said there are only two masters in the God and money. Now, but before going 21:39 there, I want to turn to another passage of scripture and that is in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 19, we read about Jesus entering 22:04 Jerusalem, riding on a colt, a donkeys colt. And you read about that in verse 28 onwards all to on towards 40. They were throwing the coats on the 22:21 road. in verse 36, Luke 19, Luke 19:36, and the crowd praising him in verse 37. And now I want you to see something. As he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept. Said, "If you had known even now 22:41 the things which make for peace, but they're hidden from your eyes." He was concerned about all the evil going on in Jerusalem. And he wept. It's very important to see that he wept. And then what did he do after weeping? Verse 45, he entered the temple 23:00 and began to drive out those who were selling. And he said, "My house shall be a house of prayer. You made it a robber's den." He chased them out a second time. He did that the first time. immediately as he began his ministry in John chapter 23:20 2 and then he does it at the end of his ministry again. So if you were to ask me what is the one thing Jesus did at the beginning and the end of his ministry purifying the house of God, chasing out the people who are out interested in 23:33 money. That is how Jesus began and ended his ministry. And the reason is because Jesus said in Luke chapter 16, one of the most important verses in 23:52 what he taught, Luke 16 and verse 13, no servant can serve two masters. Everybody understands that. All of you are working in some office. You cannot at the same time work in another office. How can you be at 9:00 in the morning in 24:09 this office and in the other office? You know that if you try to switch like that, go every 15 minutes to the other office, you'll lose your job pretty soon. But people don't realize that when it comes to spiritual things that you 24:23 cannot work in two places. You have to choose whom are you going to serve? And he said there are two masters and it's not God and the devil. Nobody makes the mistake of thinking they can serve God and the devil. He said very clearly the last part of 24:40 verse 13, Luke 16:13, it's God and money, God and wealth. And if you don't see that clearly, there are two masters in the world and the two masters are not God and 24:59 Satan. No child of God will ever even dream of serving Satan. But do you think there are believers who are serving wealth? Sure. And trying to serve God at the same time. So many. I don't have to look 25:16 around at anybody else. Judge yourself. God and wealth. God and mammon. Money are the two masters. It's not that you can. Jesus didn't say you can't have money. Do you know there's a lot of money that Jesus got? He never asked 25:35 anybody. He never took a salary. He never asked anybody for money. But people were so blessed that they gave and gave and gave and then Judas's car. Problem was the banker was a crook. But Jesus had a lot of money. And how do we 25:49 know Jesus Judas bag was so full? I'll tell you how. Meditate on scripture. He stole from the bag and nobody could discover it. Now there were only a few coins in that bag. The others would have discovered Judas is stealing. But there 26:05 was such a lot of money in that bag that Judas is taking handfuls of it out of it. And it looks as if that's not decreasing. They didn't have a clue that this guy is stealing. That's how much money there was in Jesus' bag. There's 26:17 nothing wrong in having money. It was a savings account that he kept and used. But he was very faithful in using it. And he said, "These two masters, I believe they 26:35 are vying for our attention, God and money. Please remember this." And he said, "There's only one way to serve God." Read that very slowly. I meditated on it for a long time and battled it and 26:52 sought to to live according to this. He will hate the one and love the other. You devoted to one and despise the other. I said, Lord, I want to obey your scripture. You mean I got to hate money? Only then I can love 27:12 God. If someone were to ask me, "Brother Zach, how can I love Jesus with all my heart?" I'd say, "You got to hate money." They'd say, "Where did you get that?" I thought most people would say, "You got to accept him and go to church 27:29 and be faithful and confess your sins." I say, "No, leave all that alone. First of all, you got to hate money." That's not all. Jesus also said certain other things you got to hate. Then you'll understand what hating money 27:46 means. Turn back to Luke chapter 14. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he even his own life, he cannot be my 28:03 disciple. Again, the word hate, the same word he used in Luke 16:13. Do I have to hate money? Yes. Do you have to hate your wife? Yes. Do you have to hate your father and mother? Yes. Do you have to hate your children? Yes. Otherwise, you can't be a 28:22 disciple. You can add money also there in Luke 14:26. If you don't hate all these things, you cannot be my disciple. I have seriously considered this for many, many years. And I say, Lord, I want to obey your scripture. I don't want to 28:36 just uh run past it and without meditating and understanding what it means. Otherwise, I'm fooling myself that I'll be your disciple. I began to take these things seriously way back when I was baptized. I was baptized when I was 21 years 28:50 old. I was converted when I was 19 and a half. I'm 85 now. So, it's more than 65 years. And I've tried to understand it and I've come to see and I've understood it clearly fairly early in my Christian life. I'm thankful. In other words, I look at it 29:11 like this. I, you know, I find illustrations helps me a lot and Jesus used a lot of illustrations. So, I try to use picture language to understand the Bible. So, I use picture language here and I see my love for my the Bible 29:26 says I must love my parents, honor my parents. The Bible says I must love my wife. How should I love my wife? Like Christ loved the church. That's one scripture. The other scripture here says I got to hate my wife. So putting two together you know 29:42 one then you got a balance. I see that my love for my wife and my parents and my children must be like the stars like the light of the stars very bright. In the night they shine like anything. That's how your love must be 30:00 for your wife in the midst of the darkness of the world. that you'll love your wife and love your family members. But then in the morning, the sun comes up and you look out and you can't see a single star. Father has disappeared. Mother has 30:17 disappeared. Wife has disappeared. Children have disappeared. Christ is everything. They're there. The stars haven't vanished. They're there, but you can't see them. That's how I understood the meaning of this verse or what hatred means. Money 30:36 is there but it disappeared just like wife, children, everybody else. If you take this seriously, you'll be a disciple. Otherwise, you're fooling yourself. You can go to the best church in the world. You can attend this church 30:51 and not be a disciple. It's a personal thing. I remember in 1967 I got engaged to Annie, my wife. Now, but one of the things I told her as 31:10 soon as I be considered marriage was you will always be number two in my life. Always be second. You'll never be first in my life and I never want to be first in your life. Christ must be first 31:30 always. And today after nearly 57 years of marriage, I tell her the same thing. You will always be number two in my life. And I always want to be number two in my life. I never want to be first in your life. Never, never, 31:48 never. I tell you, we have a very happy marriage. All these people who say you must make your husband, wife first in your life. Go and ask them if they have a happy marriage. No, they yell and scream and yell at each other. In the early days, it was like 32:03 that because they didn't have victory over sin. My life too, but it's disappeared more and more as we put Christ first and each other second. I'll honestly say our home, my home is a foretaste of heaven. Never a raised voice, never an angry 32:22 word, never a getting upset with each other. It didn't happen overnight, but we got there because we decided to put each other second. I recommend that. Make your wife second, put Christ first. Make your children second, make 32:42 Christ first. Make money second, Christ first. That's the meaning of hate money. Like you hate your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, and love 32:58 God. Turn back to Luke 16 and 13. To be devoted one and despise the other. And it's the same way. one disappears in the light of the sun and you cannot serve 33:16 God and mammon. When I took baptism in January 1961, I understood a little bit, but I knew I had to be a disciple of Jesus Christ because I read in Matthew 28, 33:35 make them disciples and then baptize them. And a disciple is a follower. Not just somebody who wants to go to heaven, I accept Christ and get baptized. It says make them disciples. Matthew 28:1 19 is very clear. Make them 33:48 disciples and baptize them. So in other words, we can tell people this is what it means to be a disciple. And this is up to them to decide. But I wanted to be a disciple. And right then I said Lord 34:06 um I'm working as a naval officer here has a large salary but I want to put you first. Money will not be first in my life. Right from that time I decided that money will not be first in my life. And I would spend very little on 34:25 myself and give away a lot to help the poor people and buy Bibles for people who could not afford that. and um and I earned a lot of money and I said, "Lord, if a time comes when you wanted me to leave my job and serve you 34:42 full-time, because I found out for a couple of years, God was gifting me to preach God's word when I was 23 years old." Because he baptized me in the Holy Spirit. That's how it all started. I didn't have a natural gift to speak. I 34:57 was a very shy, reserved type of person. I read in the scriptures there was something called a baptism in the Holy Spirit and I began to seek God for it. And I'll tell you honestly my testimony. I was in a brethren assembly where they 35:10 never spoke about it. They never spoke about baptism Holy Spirit. They just said you got everything when you were born again. I said okay yeah I know the spirit comes in but I was not filled with the spirits. You know you can have in a 10 35:23 room house the light is one room is lighted. You can say there's light in the house but it's not filled with light. It's something like that. When you're born again, the Holy Spirit comes in, but you're not filled with the Holy 35:34 Spirit. One room in the 10 room house is lit. And it was like that in my house in my life. And u so I said, I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit because that's what changed those timid 35:47 disciples into fiery witnesses for Christ. And I wanted to be a witness for Christ. And I was very shy and reserved and ashamed to stand in the streets and proclaim his name. and I wanted to do it. And I went to the Pentecostal church 36:03 because somebody told me the Pentecostals are the ones who preach baptism in the Holy Spirit. So I went there and somebody took me there. I had never been in a Pentecostal church my life. So they took me to a pastor and I 36:15 went to his house first and he said, "Okay, we'll pray for you." And we knelt down to pray and he said, "Keep saying hallelujah." I said, "Just say it once, or no." He said, "Keep on saying it. Keep on saying it and finally your tongue will trip and then 36:33 you will suddenly mumble something and you'll be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I said, "Thank you very much. Goodbye." And uh I left. He cursed me and I went away. And then as I observed some of those Pentecostal pastors how they were 36:51 crazy after money, I said, "How do I know that?" because I was a rich naval officer and they would come they wouldn't let me uh they even though I according to them I was not baptized in the Holy Spirit and I wasn't but they would allow me to 37:08 speak because I would give them large gifts I said these are full-time workers pastors I must support them I'd give them money and I saw what type of preachers are these they know I'm not baptized in the Holy Spirit they preach baptism in the 37:22 Holy Spirit but they want me to speak because I give them large sums of I turned away from the Pentecostals for my life and never joined them for the rest of my life. Now I'm not against any church. I'm not against there are 37:32 believers even in the Roman Catholic Church. I love individual people who love Jesus Christ but I don't want to be in a church which is not following the Lord completely. So I began to seek the Lord on my own and I went to my room and I in my 37:48 naval base and I said, "Lord, I want the real baptism of the Holy Spirit that changed those frightened, timid disciples on the day of Pentecost to a fiery bunch of people who were not afraid of anybody and who had such a 38:01 powerful anointing that brought people to the Lord. I want that." And I sought the Lord on my own. I said, I don't have to go to some church to get it. The disciples waited on the Lord and the Lord met with them. Why can't the Lord do that for me 38:14 today? So I would do that pray many times in my room and the Lord opened my eyes to see something. I had never heard this anywhere. No, no preacher preached it like this to me. But God opened my eyes from the scriptures to see. And 38:29 it's as it as if God asked me when was Jesus baptized, anointed with the Holy Spirit, and how? And I saw that he was born of the Holy Spirit right from the beginning. He was filled with the spirit. But I was seeking for an 38:44 anointing to preach. And Jesus did not have that anointing to preach for 30 years. Even though he was filled with the spirit from day one, he was filled with the spirit and his entire being was filled with the spirit and he was he could live a godly 39:02 life right from the time he was a child. Never sinning even once. Never despising Joseph and Mary pro. I can imagine Jesus seeing seeing Joseph and Mary fighting with each other and he would not despised them. He would have sinned if 39:16 he despised them. He obeyed them. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. But he was not anointed for service. That's quite another thing. And then you see him at the age of 30 going for the 39:36 baptism and I can imagine the devil telling him don't go and stand in line with all those sinners who are standing in line to be baptized. People will think you also got some secret sin in your life. He was not bothered. He was standing in the line 39:52 with other sinners who were getting baptized in John the Baptist. Even though he had never sinned, he identified himself with sinners. Even though he hadn't sinned, he says, "I'm not bothered what people think about me. 40:03 Let them think that there was some secret sin in my life. I'm confessing there wasn't." He was not at all disturbed by what other people thought of him. And that's the first thing the Lord told me. Don't be disturbed with 40:18 other people think of think of you. Identify with sinners even if there's you're free from sin yourself. That's the first lesson I learned. Stand in line. And when he came to the river and John said, "I need to be baptized by 40:32 you." He said, "No, you baptized me." And John pushed him into the water and pulled him up. And I read later on in Romans 6 what it was. It's more than u dying to sin. It's allowing the way picture I was seeking for the 40:51 anointing of the Holy Spirit. remember. And how was Jesus anointed? Is allowing other people to kill me, bury me, make me disappear under the water. And I meditated on that. allow 41:10 other people to put my inner self-life to death by insulting me, telling lies about me, spreading false stories about me, hurting me, slapping me, whatever it is, some way in which I'm insulted, hurt, 41:26 injured, and um spoken evil of don't argue. Let them push you right down underneath till you Zachin disappears under the surface of the water. And God says, "I will raise you 41:45 up from there." And then the spirit came upon Jesus, anointed him, and he went out into a ministry such as he never had for 30 years. That's how I began to seek God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 42:04 I didn't read that in any book. I was passionate because I wanted the real thing. And this is how the Lord revealed it to me. And that day, the Lord opened my eyes to see the closed connection between the way of death to self and the 42:20 anointing of the Holy Spirit. And that's what I preached in CFC for 50 years. the close connection between the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the way of the cross, way of death to self. And I preached that for 50 years. Death to 42:38 self, death to self, death to self disappear. Zachman must disappear. Don't look for any person to come and help you or support you or anything. Others will kill you. Even your fellow believers may push you down in some way. Go down. Don't don't 42:57 resist. And the picture I got was Jesus not resisting. You know, it's a tremendous temptation when you somebody pushing the water to resist. You got to die to that. And let that fellow push you right into the water and be willing to 43:16 die. And I said, "Yes, Lord, I am willing." And that is a act of faith because you believe that God will raise you up. And what the Lord said to me that day was, this is more than 60 years ago, as long as you walk this 43:35 way where you allow others to push you down and put you to death and you're willing to go the way of death to self, my anointing will rest upon you. And the day you decide that you don't want to go this way, my anointing will depart from you. 43:55 I don't have a verse of scripture to show you that. But I saw it in the life of Jesus that that's how he was anointed because I was seeking. I did not hear it in the Brethren assembly. So I went to the Pentecostals. I was disappointed with 44:10 what I heard there. So I went to scripture. It's always the best thing to do. Go back to scripture. If there's something you heard in a CFC church and you couldn't understand it, don't criticize the preacher. Go to scripture. There's an 44:23 answer there. So, I didn't waste my time criticizing the Pentecostals. I don't even do that today. I see I disagree with them. But I see I find the answer in scripture. There's an answer to everything in God's word. God's word is 44:36 completely sufficient for everything we need in our spiritual life. I have never found a spiritual question in my life till today for which I've not found an answer in scripture. That's why every single day I begin with reading God's word, 44:52 meditating on it. And many times during the day and that's what's preserved me. So that became clear to me that day. If you want the anointing of the Holy Spirit, choose this way of death to self every day. The day you move out of that 45:09 to think you've graduated from it or is it a little too hard? My anointing will depart. And I'm scared. I'll tell you, I'm not scared of going to hell as much as I'm scared of losing the anointing. I don't live in fear of going 45:25 to hell. The Lord saved me from that ages ago. What I'm scared of today is of losing the anointing of the spirit of God even for one day or one one meeting. I go into a meeting and say, "Lord, I don't want to be dry and 45:43 dead. I want to be anointed. I'm not interested in impressing anybody. But you've called me to proclaim your word. I want to take that seriously. And I wouldn't dare to do it without the anointing." I remember when I was when one of my when my children 46:01 were young and one of my sons was 10 years old and I asked him to go and get the loaf of bread from the store way back in my hometown in Bangalore and good boy that he was he rushed and ran and couple of minutes later later a few 46:16 minutes later he came back said dad give me the money I said what do you think I did I expect you to go and work somewhere and earn the money and buy the bread when I told you to go and buy the bread you should have immediately and asked the 46:27 money and not [Music] rushed. And the Lord taught me from that when I call you to go and serve me, when I call you to go and give bread to people, you know what I want you to do? I want you to come back to me and ask me 46:45 for the resource for that, the anointing. Some of you preach God's word. Praise the Lord. Do you go back to the Lord and ask him for the anointing? or do you think you can manage on your own? I'll tell you honestly, after more 47:02 than 60 years of preaching God's word, I first started preaching when I was 22 and it's 63 years, I'm scared to lose the anointing. I'll tell you even in this last few days as I was thinking of this conference I say 47:21 Lord I don't want to just preach from all the head knowledge I've accumulated through the years I want an anointing on my life otherwise all these people who spent so much money taken so much trouble to come here I don't want them to go away 47:36 disappointed it's like trying to arrange a a meal a grand meal for a great function it's not Easy. I hope all of you who are called to preach God's word in your churches will take this seriously. Don't love 47:56 money. Love God. Don't love your wife or children or anyone else more than God. Let God fill your vision. and then you'll be a much better husband and a much better father and you'll always have enough for your 48:15 needs. I found as I've tried to uh you know this matter of loving Christ is not something we we grow in it. I want to love Jesus more today than I loved him 65 years ago. And I still I don't believe I'm perfect. I don't 48:34 believe I'll be perfect till Christ comes back again. Which means despite all the sacrifices I think I've made I must be still attached to money somewhere in my life because I'll be completely otherwise I have to say I become like Jesus already. I 48:53 haven't. If I acknowledge that I've not yet become like Christ 100%. Thereby I'm also acknowledging that I'm not totally pure sexually in my thought life even though to the best of my knowledge I've 49:12 been free from dirty thoughts for years consciously when I say Lord there must be some little strain somewhere some little speck somewhere which I can't see I want to be totally pure do you have that passion in the same way Lord I try 49:28 to be free from love of money. I never uh never bought luxurious things for my in my entire Christian life. I never bought any luxurious things. Not even after marriage. I tried to live very simply. Most of my money when I earned 49:43 from the Navy, I gave away when I left my job 60 years ago. I took my entire life savings in the Navy and gave it for God's work and started with zero in my bank account. But I say, Lord, that didn't mean I'm free from the love of money. to 49:57 say I'm completely free in the love of money. It's like saying I become like Christ. So I decided that I'm going to keep on praying. And so if there's some little lurking speck of love of money somewhere, get rid of it, Lord. I want 50:09 to get rid of it because I know that I'll lose the anointing otherwise. And I'm desperate. And I tell you, I keep on praying for that. I say, "Lord, I don't want to ever love you any less by loving my wife or my parents or 50:24 my children or anybody else more than you. I will not love my wife. I will not love my children more than you. You and your work and your church is primary in my life." And all those people are next below that. I'm trying to tell you this is how 50:42 if you're really serious about being a Christian and disciple, this is the way to do it. Otherwise, you'll never make it. I'll tell you that. If your only aim in is to go to heaven when you die, brother, you might as well go home right 50:54 now. Don't waste the rest of the time at this conference. I'm not teaching you how to go to heaven when you die. I'm trying to teach you how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and especially as a man, how to be an effective leader in 51:08 your church. Even if your church has only four or five people, how to be a leader in your home, even if you've just got a wife and couple of [Music] children, this is how it how it is to be. Let me show [Music] 51:26 you Jeremiah. The theme for this conference is a tree firmly planted. Sometimes when there's a tornado or I'm turning to Jeremiah 17. Sometimes when there's a 51:43 tornado, you see some trees uprooted and other trees not uprooted. How how is that? A tornado is so powerful that it even uproots buildings. I've seen this in my hometown in Bangalore. We don't have tornadoes 52:02 with some severe storms and then you find a tree falling on the road. There are so many other trees down that street that didn't fall. What happened? They're on the same [Music] ground. Yeah. Read Jeremiah 17. You got to begin at verse 5. 52:26 Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, in himself, and makes his own flesh, his own ability, his strength. Because such a man's heart is turning away from the Lord. He'll be like a bush in the desert. He'll not see when spiritual 52:44 prosperity comes. He'll be like the stony waste in the wilderness, like a land of salt without inhabitant. But in contrast, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He will be like a tree. This is 53:00 the theme of our conference. Planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream, firmly planted and will not fear when the heat comes or the tornado comes or anything comes. Its leaves will always be green and it will not be anxious or 53:19 afraid in a year of drought and it will never cease to yield fruit. That's been my desire. I from the time I was a serious Christian, I said I want to be anointed with the Holy Spirit to produce fruit for the glory of God to show my 53:37 gratitude to the Lord for dying for me on the cross. I want to offer to him a life of sacrifice and fruitfulness. I can't produce that fruit myself, but I want to be planted by the rivers of water. And that's the picture 53:51 of the Holy Spirit extending its roots by a stream. You know, you can't see the roots of a tree. That's why some we wonder why some trees are uprooted in a storm and some trees are not. It's all depends on the roots. It doesn't depend on the number 54:08 of branches or the height of the tree or of how many leaves or how big it looks. Everything depends on the roots. It's like a building. The strength of this building in a tornado does not depend on the walls or the 54:26 beauty of the outside. It depends on the foundation. It's exactly the same. Firmly founded. What does it mean to be firmly founded? It means there's a hidden part in your life and mine. Just like the foundation of a building, like the roots of a tree which 54:46 nobody can see, not even your [Music] wife. For example, your wife does not know whether you have dirty thoughts. You can be married to her for 50 years and she doesn't have a clue. And you could be living lusting all the 55:04 time. and she doesn't have a clue. Outwardly you may be faithful to her. Never go to another woman. But your mind is flickering here and there and I hope not. Occasionally watching 55:22 pornography. Dear me, that's terrible. Nobody knows it. You think God doesn't know it. And more than that, you think the devil doesn't know 55:39 it. And when the devil sees you like that, looking at something to satisfy your sexual lust, you think the devil is quiet. He's called the accuser of the brothers, the accuser of believers. 55:59 That very moment, he's got all his demons, millions of them, looking out, looking at all the believers in the world, saying, "God, look at this guy. He says he's your child." And not only your child, he says he's going to a 56:14 good church. Do you see what he's doing now? You see what he's looking at? You see what he's reading? The roots See where your thought life is 56:33 going. See what your your attitudes are. See, there are five areas of sin that can be in our life. First of all, in our actions. We sin in our [Music] actions. And then we sin in words by what we 56:52 speak. Those are the only two visible things. Then the invisible things which even your wife doesn't know or your closest co-workers don't know. Thoughts, 57:10 motives, the motives with which you do something good. The motive maybe your own honor, money, something. And attitudes to people. You can have an attitude toward someone which is you detest the guy and yet you can behave so nicely to him. God sees 57:29 these are the hidden areas of your life. Your thoughts and your attitudes and your motives. If you're not serious about sin in those areas, but careful about your actions and words, there's a word for that. Hypocrite. A hypocrite Christian. 57:49 Hypocritical Christian. Hypocritical believer, a hypocritical born again believer is one who's very careful about his actions and his words. Some people only the actions a little 58:06 better people actions plus words. But they are careless in their thought [Music] life. Careless about the wrong attitudes they have towards others even in the church and careless about the motives 58:24 with which they don't judge themselves when they have a wrong motive with which they did something. They're not quick to immediately say, "Lord, cleanse me from that. Yeah. The roots of the 58:42 tree Jeremiah 17:8 goes into that stream. What are the roots? Your thoughts, attitudes, motives. Where are your roots going, my brother? Is it going to the Holy Spirit? 59:00 Hidden the surface. You can't see the roots. going underneath always. Neither roots are searching for water, water, water, water, water. It's amazing how God has created the trees. You know, the roots have some, it's almost as if they're 59:15 human, searching for what, but I'm thirsty, thirsty, thirsty for water and finds it and then sticks onto that stream, keeps on drawing, and this tree remains green. That is how a Christian can be constantly 59:33 pure. Always remain in love. No matter how other people treat him, always be pure. That's the tree. It's firmly planted. And in a year of drought, all the other trees are drying up. This tree 59:51 yields fruit. It's a wonderful life to live. I believe that is how God wants every one of you my dear brothers to live. Don't think this is as a hard message you heard today. It may be 1:00:11 challenging when God's purpose is to lift you to a level that you have never experienced in your life till now. I often think of this word when I preach God's word. Revelation chapter 4. I see this is the purpose of all my 1:00:33 preaching. In Revelation chapter 4, we read John saying, "After these things, I looked and a door standing open in heaven, and the voice which I heard sound like a trumpet saying, come up 1:00:51 higher. Come up here, higher from where you are down there, John. Come up higher." Like the sound of a trumpet. I hope you hear that voice this 1:01:12 weekend. The Lord challenging you saying, "My dear son, you are my son, but I want you much higher than you are right now. Come up higher. Respond to my voice." Let's bow our heads in prayer. 1:01:39 So while our heads are about in prayer, I want you to think about whatever the Lord spoke to you. There could be many things. Pray a simple prayer and say, "Lord, please don't let me forget what I heard today. Let me remember it always. 1:02:04 And you can always go back to listen to this message again to remind yourself maybe again and again so that your roots go deep into the Holy Spirit. May God help all of us. I pray 1:02:24 that for myself as well. Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, you're here. Where two or three are gathered in my name, we are gathered in your name. You are here, risen Lord Jesus. We want to be aware of your presence 1:02:42 here. That it is you who spoke to our hearts to all the needy ones who are looking up to you. You spoke to them. I pray that we shall seek to send the roots of our life deep into the Holy 1:03:00 Spirit and be the type of men that we should be. We humbly ask heavenly father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1:03:14 [Music]
