0:00 [Music] Some time ago, when I first came to the the United States and I got a car, I had to take a driving test in order to get a 0:18 license. So, I practiced for my written test and I I did it well. I passed the the first time I took it. But after that I had to take another test. And for that test it was be they call it behind the wheel test where you go and 0:36 you actually drive and you show the person who's testing you that you can drive safely and you can drive well. And if you do that you'll get your license. And when you go to the driving test, they're going to test you on a few 0:52 things. First they're going to look at the car. Make sure that the lights are all working. And then after everything is fine with the car, they'll ask you to drive. And if you make a mistake on certain things, they might overlook it. 1:08 You you went a little too fast, maybe a few miles over, this few miles over or few miles less. They'll be okay with that. But there are certain things that would disqualify you completely. If there was a stop sign and you decided 1:22 you're just going to go in the stop sign, instant disqualification. If there's a red light, you go through the red light, instant disqualification. If you're parking and you hit the curb, instant disqualification. But with the driving test, 1:41 even if you get disqualified the first time, they're they give you another chance. They give you one more chance. Okay, you can try again. And this time, don't hit the curb. This time, drive safely. And I remember the days before going for the 1:56 driving test, okay, go check all the lights, make sure all the lights are working, all of those things, I'm so careful because I know on that day when I go for my test, they're going to go through all of it and check and make 2:08 sure that everything is fine. So, I go through all of the checklist and make sure everything is fine and then go for my test. There is going to be a final test for each one of us. We're all going to stand before the Lord and the test is there. 2:26 Now, I want to be ready for that test much more than my driving test, which I think I failed a couple of times before I got my license. But this test, we can't afford. There's no other chance, a second chance. This is the 2:43 time we need to understand what we're going to be tested for. We can't say, "Oh, I didn't know. God told us in advance what what that test is going to look like. So if you turn with me to Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 Matthew 7 21 not everyone who says to me 3:08 Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. All of us most of us here I believe call Jesus as Lord. Many of you have accepted him into your life and call him as Lord. But Jesus said, "Not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter into the 3:25 kingdom of heaven. But who are the ones that are going to enter into God's kingdom?" It says there, "But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter." And I take this seriously because this 3:45 is how Jesus said people are going to enter into his kingdom. I don't want to guess. I don't want to make an assumption of what it means to get into God's kingdom. Jesus told me clearly, the one who does his will, the father's will, will enter in. 4:03 What if I don't do the father's will on this life when I'm here on this earth? I did a lot of good things. I helped the poor. I did good to my neighbor. I taught Sunday school. I led praise. I helped in the back. I did all these 4:19 wonderful things. So Lord, let me enter into your kingdom. But it says clearly, it's not the one who does all of those things necessarily, but the one who does the 4:36 will of my father. And it goes on to say verse 22, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In your name, cast out demons in your name pro perform many miracles. 4:54 And I will then will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness or you who lived in sin. And so this is what it's going to be like on that final day for each one of us. There's no exceptions. Everyone else 5:11 has the same test. Either I did the father's will on this side of eternity and I can enter into his kingdom or I did my own will all throughout eternity all throughout this side of eternity. And the Lord will say just like he said to them, "Yes, I know 5:29 you prophesied. Yes, you did this. Yes, you did that. But the most important thing you didn't do, you went and did your will. You prophesied on doing your own will. And that's how I know that I could prophesy. I could do all these 5:46 wonderful things, but yet be doing my own will. Each one of us could be doing our doing wonderful things for each other for the Lord. But at the end of the day, it might have been that we just did our own will. I'm 6:06 sure these people who prophesied must have blessed many people. After the meeting, they would have come and said, "Brother, thank you for sharing. You encouraged me greatly." The people who were demons were cast out of they would come. Thank you. My life 6:23 is completely changed. I was bound by sin and Satan and because you cast out that demon, I'm here free today. And this this is what they're saying. I thought, Lord, by doing all these things in your name, 6:40 I was right with you. They made an assumption and I said, "Lord, I don't want to make any assumptions. Either I'm doing your will today or I'm not doing your will. I want to know what your will is and then I want to do it. 6:59 Then I will enter into God's kingdom." Whether that will includes prophesying, whether that includes teaching Sunday school or helping with the songs, helping in the back, whatever that involves. But I want to make sure I'm 7:10 not doing my own will but the will of my father. However small that is or big that is it doesn't matter. The important thing is if I doing your will and it says 7:28 of Jesus who's our example who said these words in Matthew 7 that we read Jesus even though he had never sinned even once decided he would never do his will and he was our example. Turn with me to John chapter 6. 7:48 If anyone could have pro thought they could do the will of the father perfectly, it would have been Jesus. He'd never sinned. He could have done it. But it says in John 6:38, John 6:38, "For I have come down from 8:05 heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." And so Jesus went ahead of us and said, "I came here from heaven and I never did my will even once." And you see that in his life. There was 8:23 one place where he healed many people and the disciples came and said, "Please stay here longer. So many people are blessed." Do you remember what Jesus said? No, we won't stay here longer. there's 8:42 many other places I need to go. Why did he do that? Because staying there in that place even though many people were blessed was not a part of the father's will. He had it says that he got up early that morning to go and 8:56 be with the Lord. The father and the father told him nope, it's time to move on. Yet when he went to Samaria and they asked him to stay two days longer to stay longer he said he stayed there long two days longer why because he heard 9:13 from the father the father said this time I want you to stay longer he always was led by the father whatever the father said big or small it didn't matter even if other people got offended when Mary and Martha said please come 9:29 Lazarus is is sick and he's dying what did Jesus He stayed there two days longer. Mary was puzzled. M Martha was puzzled. Everybody was puzzled. Why didn't you come? But he listened to the father. He would 9:46 only act as the father told him to do. I do nothing out of my own initiative. This is in John 5 19. I don't do anything out of my own initiative. As the father shows me, so I do it in in a like manner exactly as the father shows 10:04 me. That's how I do. And so how did Jesus know what the father's will for his life was? If you turn with me to Isaiah verse 50, because I want to know how did Jesus find out the father's will and do it so that I can also do it in like in a like 10:23 manner. Isaiah verse 50:4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with the word. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear 10:40 to listen as a disciple. The Lord has opened my ear and I was not disobedient nor did I turn back. So the Lord told him something in the morning. Jesus, I want you to go to the next city. Okay, father. I'm going to go to the next. 10:57 Jesus, I want you to stay here two more days. Okay, I'll stay here two more days. That's how Jesus lived. He listened to the father and then did exactly as the father commanded. It's there's a beautiful verse when it speaks about how the angels served the 11:13 Lord. If you turn with me to Psalm chapter 103, even those these angels stand in the very presence of God and they're very powerful, yet they don't go around doing their own will. They wait there. 11:31 It says here Psalm 103:20, "Bless the Lord all you his angels, mighty and strength, who perform his word, obeying the voice of his word." And I was thinking of one of the angels. I was thinking of one of the angels, 11:51 Gabriel. It's it says uh about him a couple of times. He was waiting in front of the throne. I picture this waiting in front of the throne and then the father says okay I want you to go and speak to Daniel you you need to explain the vision to him. 12:11 So Gabriel goes there explains the vision to Daniel and then he comes back. This is in Daniel chapter 8. Then after 12 years go by, he's waiting and then he tells Gabriel, "Gabriel, I want you to go back to Daniel, there's another vision I want 12:31 you to explain." So he goes after 12 years, he goes explains the vision to Daniel. Then he goes back to heaven. He's waiting before the father. Father, what's what do you want me to do next? 533 years passed by 12:48 and he tells Gabriel, I want you to go back this time. Where do you know where he's going? He's going to the temple. He's going to tell Zachchariah. You're going to have a your your prayers have been heard. You're going to have a 13:04 son. The son's name is going to be called John. He goes and he delivers the message and then he comes back up, waits on the Lord. What's What next? Six months go by. Gabriel, I have a task for you. I want you to go back. 13:23 Tell another girl, lady, young lady, Mary. She's going to have a baby. His name is going to be called Jesus. Come back. So I see these angels in heaven waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. And then soon as God tells them to do something, they go and 13:43 do it. For me also, for each one of us, at the end of it, it's not going to be what you did for the Lord or what you thought you should do for the Lord. It's going to be, did the Lord command it? Was it God's the father's will? And did you do 13:59 it? There's a beautiful verse. And if if you think about this, you know, maybe you don't you can't do many things for the Lord. Like it says in uh in about Mary, the sister of Jesus, she did what 14:16 she could. She did what she could. It wasn't much, but she did what she could. And this verse blesses me. Matthew 8:14. When Jesus came to Peter's home, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with 14:34 a fever. Verse 15, he touched her hand and the fever left her. And she got up and waited on him. That's all she did. She just came. Jesus, I'm going to just stand here. What do you want? Do you want something to eat? Do you 14:53 want something? Can I go get something for you? That's all she did. She didn't go about doing something. She waited to see what Jesus wanted her to do and then whatever Jesus said, she would do it. 15:10 That's how she knew what God's will was, what Jesus's will was. And for each one of us to wait before the Lord, Lord, I don't want maybe in the past the times of ignorance, God has overlooked. But God is now calling each one to repent. And no 15:29 matter how it's been, maybe we've done our will. All these days, we've done our own will. We thought it was good things. I helped this person. I ministered here. All good things. But Lord, from today onwards, whether it's good or bad, I 15:43 don't want to do my will at all. I want to wait on you. Find out what your will is, whether it's big or small, and I want to do it. Just like Peter's mother-in-law waited on you, Lord. What do you want me to do? 16:00 I'll do it. It's not important me doing something. I need to know that my father is interested in that thing. It's it's what he wants me to do. We were create created for his pleasure. We were not created for ourselves to do 16:19 what we want to do and do our own will. We were created for his will and his pleasure. And so, but it goes on to say there in that verse we read in Matthew 7, depart from me for I never knew you. 16:38 That was the other thing. One, they went and did their own will, whether it was good things, other things, but they never did the will of the father. But the other thing is they never got to know Jesus for themselves. Maybe they came to church meetings, 16:57 maybe they went to special meetings, Wednesday meetings, but they never got an opportunity to know Jesus for themselves. And so at the end of the day, at the end of time, they come and stand before the Lord and he says, "I 17:10 never knew you." in John chapter 4. John chapter 4. And this must be the testimony of every single one of us. Verse 42, 41. Many more believed because 17:31 of his word. Verse 42. And they were saying to the women, that's the women at the well, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe. My relationship with Jesus is not because of what you said but it's because why? 17:47 Because of what? For we have heard him for ourselves and know that this one indeed is the savior of the world. We've heard him for ourselves. And I remember a time in my life where I 18:05 was going meeting to meeting but did not hear the Lord for myself. And when circumstances and situations came in my life, I didn't know what to do. I was tossed about all over because I did not have a personal walk 18:23 with the Lord himself. And it's very easy coming into church meetings because that's what I did. went to church meetings and I was pushed along with the tide and I felt like those fish. Well, not like those fish, but the other fish 18:39 where it says even a dead fish can can go downstream. Even a dead fish can go downstream. It's just going. It looks like it's alive because it's going it's doing all these wonderful things on the outside, but on the inside it does not have a 18:56 relationship with Jesus. It's a person not waiting on the Lord to know what his will is and doing it. We must hear the Lord for ourselves. We must not be carried along with the tide. And I decided the day I found out the 19:12 reason my life was so tossed about was because I didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord. I determined two things. The first thing is I don't want this to ever happen again in my life. I want to hear from the Lord every single day. Not 19:30 just on a Sunday or Wednesday. Every single day of the week, I want to hear from the Lord himself. And young people, if you cannot hear the Lord speaking to you, ask the Lord to speak to you. If you not committed your life to the 19:47 Lord, if you're still doing your own will and living for yourself and you know the Lord is speaking to you, saying, you know what, I yes, I'm doing my own will. I'm not listening to what the Lord has to say and doing his 20:00 will, seek to know the Lord. And if you don't know, if you're having questions, ask your Sunday school teachers, ask your parents. It is important that each one of us from the youngest to the oldest knows the 20:18 Lord for ourselves. And if you don't, this is the day to know the Lord for yourself. What is the time? The time is to seek the Lord. This is the time. The time is now to seek the Lord. Hosea it says there 20:37 the second thing is he said depart from me you never I never knew you that was the first thing and the second thing he said was depart from me you who who practice lawlessness or who 20:55 practicing sin. So in the meetings and in public they were one way because obviously if they were prophesying and all of that they weren't living in sin publicly but there was sin in their life in private that's what Jesus was saying you 21:12 had a good outward testimony of prophesying casting out demons and doing miracles serving in the church doing all of these things in external testimony but in private you did not have a relationship with me a personal walk 21:25 with me you didn't have and the second thing was you had sin in your life. These two things on that final day that when the Lord takes away everything, what you were on Sunday, all is taken away and it'll the Lord will see you and 21:40 everybody will see you as you were. When everything is taken away, how are you going to be? How am I going to be in front of everybody when everything else of our religious appearance on Sundays is taken away? Is it going to be the 21:54 same or is it going to be so different? Oh, I saw him on Sunday. He was so much different than I see him today. He was serving here. She was serving here. They were doing this. They were helping this person. But was this what was happening Monday 22:10 to Sunday, Sunday to Sunday in their life? He did not know. He didn't do the father's will. He didn't have a personal walk with the Lord. and he was living in sin in private. I want you to turn with me to First John 22:32 chapter 3. There's a very close connection between knowing the Lord, knowing the Lord and living in sin. Knowing the Lord and living in sin. If we say that we know 22:49 the Lord and living in sin, this is what it says. 1 John chapter 3 verse 6, no one who abides in him sins. That means if I say that I found a home in Jesus or Jesus has found a home in 23:06 me, I will not be living in sin. No one who se who sins has seen him or knows him. Verse seven, little children, make sure no one deceives you. Deceives you 23:23 into what? Deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. Verse eight, the one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The son of God has appeared for this 23:42 purpose to destroy the works of the devil. Verse n, no one who is born of God practices sin because his seed abides in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of devil are 24:01 obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. And he says, don't deceive yourself. Don't think you can live in sin in private. Don't think you can 24:19 say that you know the Lord but also live in sin in private. So what should we say? Lord, it's not going well for my wife. We can be honest. Lord, it's not going well for me. I've not sought your I've been doing a lot of good things, but 24:35 I've not sought to know whether it's your will that I'm doing or I'm doing my own will. It is true my life in private is very different from the life that I have in public. But this is the good news for each of us who is alive today. We have hope. The 24:54 final exam hasn't come yet. We still have time to go and check all the lights, check everything, make sure that we're ready from today. We can say, "Lord, I want to wait on you. I don't want to go about doing a lot of wonderful things. I want 25:10 to know what you want me to do. I want to know your will and then I want to do it. I want to know you personally. And I don't want to live in sin in private, Lord. And if I've fallen into sin, I want to repent of it because I know on 25:27 that day I cannot stand before you with unconfessed sin. And I want to take sin seriously. Lord, I don't want to have two lives, one in private and then one in public. I want to take sin seriously. I want to ask you 25:45 to forgive me for all my past, Lord. And I pray that you help me. There's a beautiful prophec uh 13, I'm sorry. Acts chapter 13. 26:01 Acts chapter 13 verse 52. Acts 13:52. And this is a promise that each of us can take to the new year. How do I know God's will? How do I know Jesus personally? How can I be free 26:18 from the bondage of sin? The answer is being filled with the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit in this new year. How can I do God's will? How do I know the Lord personally? How can I not be bound by sin and live a 26:37 overcoming life? It's by being filled with the Holy Spirit. And it says this is the testimony and this is how I know that these disciples experienced it. That means we also can experience it. It says in verse 52, "And the disciples were 26:54 continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." So can we be filled with the Holy Spirit every single day of 2026? What's the answer? Yes. 27:11 We can be filled with the joy and the Holy Spirit all the days of the year 2026. It's a promise God has given us. And it says that the children of Israel were led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of 27:30 fire by night. So they didn't have to guess where to go. They just had to be sensitive to where the pillar was going. And wherever the pillar was going, if they went there, they knew that they were going according to God's will. If 27:44 the pillar stopped, they stopped. The pillar went, they went. It says in Romans 8:14, "All who are led by the Holy Spirit are sons of God." How how do we find out God's will today? All who are led by the Holy Spirit are sons of 28:03 God. They will hear a voice behind them that says, "This is the way. Walk in it." Isaiah 30 21. The Holy Spirit will lead us. In uh Genesis 24 verse 65, Rebecca says, 28:22 "Who's that man walking towards us? Who is he?" Eleazar who's a picture of the Holy Spirit says this is my master. Eleazar was a picture of the Holy Spirit and he will tell us when we ask him tell 28:41 me about my bridegroom. The same Holy Spirit will teach us and show us how wonderful our bridegroom how wonderful Jesus is. And also when we look at our lives and we say Lord how can I live this life I've been bound by sin for all these 29:01 years I don't know is there hope for me for it to be any different yes again by being filled with God's Holy Spirit he'll write his laws giving us a desire to do his will and also the 29:19 power the ability to do his will in this new year and So, as we close, as I as I close this morning, as I close this morning, I say may the Lord help us. 29:37 We know what the Lord's going to expect of us on that final day. He doesn't want us to go and do something for him. He wants us to be sensitive to hear. Wait on him. Hear what his will is for my life and your life and then do it. He's 29:53 not happy with us knowing him secondhand. He wants us to know him for ourselves. And thirdly, he doesn't want us to be bound by sin in 2026. That's not his will. He want us to be continuously filled with his holy spirit and him 30:12 giving us a desire to do his will and the ability to do his will. So at the end of all these things, God may be glorified. Amen. Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, I pray in this year 2026, no matter how it's been, thank 30:32 you. You've overlooked the times of ignorance and you're calling each one of us to repent. I pray sorry Lord for the times that I've done my own will. I pray from this day onwards. Lord, I want to wait and hear just like those angels 30:47 waited for you. Just like Peter's mother-in-law waited for you. I want to hear your will and do it. I want to know my bridegroom more and more intimately. Holy Spirit, reveal Jesus to each of us and give us a desire and the ability to 31:05 do your will so that at the end of our life, we also like Jesus said, I've completed the works that the father has given me to do. We also want to have that testimony that we can enter into your kingdom with a wonderful entry in Jesus name. 31:23 Amen.
