0:00 media and so many things and you gradually get the world's values then the devil succeeded. You haven't overcome him. We are living in a time when media has got a tremendous power to influence you. The articles that are written in 0:17 different magazines are all geared to change our mind to think in a certain direction politically or in any other way or in terms of you know, lowering our standards in the sexual area etc. in terms of marriage and what's 0:34 right, what's wrong. We got to be very, very careful that the prince of the world does not get into our mind and the only way to keep him out is by uh being real deeply in God's word. Students of God's word loving the Holy 0:52 Spirit to write his laws upon our heart and mind. And the only way where where we only place we can find his heart his laws are in in the scriptures. It's it's a great tragedy that we are growing up we are generation is growing 1:07 up now that are not deep students of the word. They don't even bring a Bible to the meetings. I it's uh tragic. And the Western world which had Christianity long before India has given up on the Bible. In our churches everybody brings a Bible 1:27 including the children. We encourage them to I see that's the only way you can avoid deception. Get to know the word of God. It's the only way by which we can know what is of God and what is not. Another reason why Christ died was 1:41 to build the church. That's what I want to speak about now. Ephesians 5:25 the last part says Ephesians 5:25 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. He died on the cross because he loved the church. 2:00 And he wanted to build Now you know that it says God so loved the world that whosoever That's referring to the individual. Whosoever means one person. And we can come come to Christ individually. That's right. We all come 2:16 to him individually. And what I spoke in the last session was about our personal experience of being free from the guilt of sin, free from the power of sin, free from the fear of death, free from the authority of Satan over our lives, 2:32 etc. But Christ also died for the church. He loved the church. So don't only think that he loved you. He loved the church and he gave himself up not for you, but for the church. And I And for me in the sense that I'm 2:50 part of the church. And this is the one thing that Jesus could not build until the day of Pentecost came. And he spoke about it. He said in Matthew 16:18, "I will build my church on this rock." And a lot of people think he's referring 3:13 to Peter. No. It's what Peter confessed. He asked the people in Matthew 16:15, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter said, "You are the Christ, the son of the living God." That's right, Peter. On this rock I will build my church. 3:32 Christ, the son of the living God. That is the rock. And not a Christ who's understood by human wisdom. But like it says in verse 17, "Revealed by my Father in heaven." There are a lot of people who believe in 3:49 another Jesus. Second Corinthians says, like the devil deceived Eve, he can deceive you to believe in another Jesus, and receive another spirit, and believe another gospel. But the Jesus 4:08 that Simon Peter believed in was the one revealed by the Father, the one revealed in the scriptures. Like I was talking to you earlier. One who was died for our sin and took the punishment because he was God himself. And we also need to see him as a man 4:28 who walked on this earth not using the privileges that he had as God. He was still God. And the clearest proof of it is that on earth when seven instances where people worshipped him, he accepted it. No created being dare 4:45 accept worship. Angels would tell, you know, angel told John, "Get up. Don't worship me. Worship only God." Jesus was the only one who walked this earth who accepted worship. But though he was God in his person, he never used his privileges 5:03 as God when he was on earth. He needed to go near a fig tree to see whether there was fruit on it. He said, "I don't know the date of my own second coming." That is all deliberate limitation 5:21 uh purposely. Because otherwise he couldn't be an example for us. How could he be an example for me if he used all his powers as God? So it's very important to see that. So on this rock I will build my church, the Christ revealed by God to us, 5:39 and the powers of hell will never prevail against it. All the powers of spiritual darkness will not be able to overcome the church, and the church will go against the gates of hell and overcome it. So, what does it mean in practical 5:53 terms? When you see a church, what calls itself a church, riddled by strife, can you say that's a church against which the gates of hell have not prevailed? Of course, gates of hell have prevailed. They're living in a delusion if they 6:08 think the gates of hell have not prevailed there. When you see a church whose leaders love money, can you say the gates of hell have not prevailed against that church? Of course, the gates of hell. Satan is the one who infiltrates the church with the 6:24 love of money. Gates of hell have prevailed against that church. It's leaders take money from poor people to live in grand style. And today's Christendom is full of that. And there are dumb Christians who sit there and don't even see the gates of 6:41 hell have prevailed against this leader, prevailed against the church, but they don't seem to see anything wrong in it. When Christian leaders fall into sin, what does it mean? The gates of hell have prevailed against that church. What do they do? Just 6:55 replace that pastor, advertise for another one, hire another one. This is not Christianity. This is Babylon through and through. And uh there Are God's people in Babylon? Of course. I won't deny that. 7:13 There are some God-fearing people in the Roman Catholic Church who are really born again. Mother Teresa in India, I think she was born again. She was wrong in staying in the Roman Catholic Church. But she was more God-fearing than most 7:27 TV evangelists I met I've heard of, definitely. She lived more simply. She didn't swindle poor people's money and live in grand style. And are God's people in Babylon? Yes, but what is the word to God's people in Babylon? Revelation 18:4, "My people, 7:46 come out of Babylon." Have you heard that? That's God speaking to people in Babylon. My people, I know you're there, but you shouldn't be there. Come out of Babylon. You know, in Babylon, Babylon was built 8:04 by human wisdom. It's the beginning of the Tower of Babel. That's where Babylon began. In the first two books of the Bible, you have two buildings. One is the Tower of Babel, and the other is a Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is a picture of the 8:18 church. The Tower of Babel is a picture of Babylon. And there's a difference. The Tower of Babel was built like this. I If you don't have time to look at it, it's all in Genesis 11. "Come, let us build a city and a tower." 8:36 That is the spirit of Babylon. I am going to do something for God. Try, brother. It'll be Babylon through and through, however big you make it. That's the spirit. "Come, uh Genesis 11:4, a tower that will take us to heaven. 8:56 And secondly, let us make for ourselves a name." "Let us send reports about our work, about what we are accomplishing. Let us send photographs and videos. And let us 9:13 make for ourselves a name." Babylon. Yeah? So that we can all be one. What type of unity is that? That's not the unity of the church. That is the origin of Babylon, man's wisdom, man's power, man's glory. 9:32 And you see that later on, years later, when that develops into the real city of Babylon where built by Nebuchadnezzar and you know history tells us it was one of the most fantastic structures with uh hanging gardens and a wall so thick 9:49 that four horses could ride a chariot over the walls. So thick Babylon. And we read one day in Daniel chapter 4 that Nebuchadnezzar walked on his royal palace and looked around. Daniel 4 29 28 29. He was walking on the roof of this royal 10:09 palace of Babylon and listen to his words. Verse 30. Isn't this Babylon the great which I have built my wisdom by the might of my power 10:28 and for the glory of my majesty. It's the same old thing as the tower of Babel. Man's wisdom, man's power, man's glory. I have built by my power, my wisdom, my power and for my glory. And anything that you build call it whatever you like, call it New 10:48 Covenant Church if you like with your wisdom and your power and your methods of psychology or because you got so much money or because you got musicians. These are the substitutes for the Holy 11:07 Spirit today. Psychology music. And we notice in a lot of these healing meetings how music plays a great part. Move people emotionally. Some In some churches you make the noise noise loud enough and the decibel power goes above a 11:25 certain level the Holy Spirit has come. In other places the other technique slowly just a whisper. No. No. You think Jesus tried all these tricks to heal people? It's deception. Music, 11:46 psychology. Lot of preachers in today's pulpits, particularly the educated ones, are using psychology to manipulate people, make them fall down. What? Soul soul power. I told you yesterday about soul power 12:05 and spirit power. If you don't discern between that, these two, I tell you in Jesus' name, you'll be deceived. There's a lot of soul power nowadays in Christian work. Music, there's soul power in music, soul power in psychology. 12:18 The Apostle Peter did not have any musicians or any accordion prodigy playing there up on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit moved upon people. These have all become substitutes because the real power of the Holy 12:30 Spirit is gone. And if you don't have psychology, you don't have music, then you have money. You know the number of Christian organizations who think that you can't do God's work if you don't have money. You got to raise money, 12:41 brother. The one thing the apostles never spoke about is what most Christian workers in Christian churches and missions talk about today. What does that prove? They're a million miles away from the truth of scripture. Where do you find it in scripture? 12:55 This is my power. Money has got tremendous power. I can raise money. I can do God's work. My power, my cleverness. We use the methods of the Coca-Cola company to raise money to Their their aim is to get everybody on earth to taste 13:09 Coca-Cola at least once. Our aim is to get everybody to hear the gospel once, and the method is the same. Money and one CEO on top who runs the whole thing. This is not the church. This is Babylon built exactly according 13:21 to the principles of the business world, and that is what Jesus drove out of the temple one day when people were making money in the name of religion and trying to do God's work with money. And that's why Jesus told his disciples 13:32 to the Pharisees, he said, "You cannot serve God and money. Make a choice which one you want." The deceitfulness of riches will choke out the word of God. And I believe that until a person has got a right attitude to money, he cannot 13:45 serve God. It is impossible, because you cannot serve God and money. That's it. And that's one of the number one reasons why I personally do not believe that most people who claim to be servants of God today are servants of God. 13:57 I say, "I want to know what's your attitude to money." I want to know. I want to know all the secrets of your um the way you get money. Then I'll tell you what I whether I have any confidence in you. But usually I don't have to find 14:09 that out. You can see in a person's face. You can listen to a person. I can listen to a person for 10 minutes in a pulpit and tell you immediately whether the man's a man of God or not. Because I've been listening for 50 14:18 years. And I'm not fooled anymore. We must develop discernment in these days, otherwise we'll be deceived, we'll end up building Babylon. Don't be moved by emotional music. Fast music or slow music. I believe in music. I believe most music today is helpful 14:36 for praise and thanksgiving, not worship. No. Worship is mostly in secret, where you fall before God and say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? There's none upon earth I desire beside thee." If you can fall down before God, 14:50 everybody in the Bible you see fell down with their head down and worshiped God. Today today's big platforms people fall backwards and show their feet to God. The biggest insult in Eastern culture to show your feet. Do you know that? In 15:04 Eastern culture to show your feet to somebody is the biggest insult of all. And the devil watches all these people lying down on the platform and says, "God, you see these fellows? They're worshiping you. They're showing 15:15 you their feet." And there are foolish leaders who stand up there and think this is the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't be deceived. God is worshipped when you put your head down before him and say, "God, I desire nothing on Earth but you." 15:29 I don't want anything on this Earth. I don't want anybody's honor. I don't want anybody's money. I don't want anything. I want you. And when I get to heaven, I'm not interested in the golden streets or the mansions or the crown. I want you, Lord Jesus. 15:40 Whom have I in heaven but you? There's nothing on Earth I desire beside you. That's worship. If you're a worshipper, you can be a true servant of God and you will build a church. And I believe God wants every single one 15:50 of us either to build a church or be a part of someone else who's building a local body of Christ. Don't just be a drifter. There are lots of Christians today who go to conferences, who are wanderers. They They never built anything in their 16:08 whole life. If you went to the Apostle Paul and asked him, "Hey, I hear you're a great evangelist." That's right. He brought, I don't know, thousands to Christ. "Where are your converts?" He said, "Come, I'll show you." Come with me to Ephesus. Come with 16:21 me to Philippi. Come with me to Corinth. Here. Here are these people who were converted through my ministry. They're meeting in this church. You go to today's great evangelists and healers who say, "I brought 10,000 here and 16:31 5,000 here to Christ." Show me where they are. No, I don't know. They are somewhere. Is that New Testament Christianity? It's Babylon. You never find an apostle saying that in the New Testament, "I don't know where they are. 16:46 I just saved them and It's like uh you're asking a mother, "Where are all those 10 babies you gave birth to?" "I don't know. Soon as I gave birth to them, I left them on the street. Somebody picked them up. I hope they're 16:56 alive somewhere." Have you ever heard of a mother doing that? This is what's happening today. And there's hardly a voice that raises up to speak against these things because people are threatened. "Oh, don't speak against the Holy Spirit." 17:11 I'm not afraid. The Bible says, "Believe not every spirit, brethren, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. And I believe we need to raise a voice against all this deception that's going on in Christendom. 17:23 And when you know God well enough, you won't be afraid of all these verses people fling at you to get you to be scared. So, that's very important. We want to build the church of Jesus Christ and not people wandering around like 17:35 this. The in the New Testament, the Lord always brought people together. Christ did came to build the church. He didn't say, "Where one person is there, I'm there in their midst." No, there is no midst. Minimum is two or three. Where two or 17:51 three are gathered together, there I am in the midst. It's not like the Old Testament where you had that lonely prophet who could be all by himself and say like Elijah, "I stand before the face of God and I will speak to you." 18:02 Brother, if you're like that, you're in the Old Testament. I want you to tell you that Jesus came, by the way. The Holy Spirit's poured out. We're in the new covenant now. And not in the old covenant where you you're some lonely prophet standing 18:13 alone as a voice for God. The last one like that was John the Baptist. Since then, Christ is building a body. A body. That's what he's been building since the day of Pentecost. He took 120 God-fearing individuals who were like pieces of iron, put them in 18:31 the furnace, they came out as one piece. That's what happens when you put iron into a furnace. 120 pieces become one. That's the one thing Jesus longed to do. He said, "I'll build my church." But, he couldn't do it till the Holy Spirit 18:44 came. And now he's left it to us and says, "You will do a greater work than I have done." What is that greater work? Is it raising somebody who was dead for 5 days cuz Jesus raised Lazarus who was dead for 4 days? No, it's building the 18:58 church, making people one. And if you want to know how difficult it is to make even two people one, go and ask any husband and wife. They'll tell you. How difficult it is for two people to become one. And then to make 120 people one. 19:16 It's easy to just convert people. I've seen it plenty of it happen in India. I traveled all over India for 9 years in 1966 to 1975 to see what was happening in Christian work in India and all I saw was multitudes of people that accepted, 19:30 converted, backslidden. I remember one person who was asked to do the follow-up for some people who had signed decision cards and some great American evangelist who had come there to preach. And he visited all those people and not 19:47 one of them was really converted. He asked them, "Why did you go forward?" He said, "I wanted to have a closer look at the evangelist so I was far away so I went forward." All types of reasons why people went forward at that over there. 19:57 They thought they were coming forward for salvation. I spoke to this guy who did the follow-up. I know what's happening there after the great preacher goes away. And I decided, I said, "Lord, this is not what I see in the New Testament." 20:12 So I turned away from all of that and I said, "Even if I build one little church as an expression of the body of Christ in my life, I'll be happy. But I want to do something to satisfy God's heart. He loved the church and 20:25 gave himself for it. And that's why we started on the road that we did 36 years ago. I want you to see that. I don't know whether you see that as God's eternal purpose. If you turn to Ephesians, it says there, there was a mystery that's hidden from 20:42 generations. And you wonder, "What is it? This generate mystery hidden from genera for generations?" Ephesians 3:4 and 5, you remember I told you about this eternal purpose in verse 11. It begins with verse 4 and 5, a mystery. 20:57 A mystery means a secret that only God can reveal to you. Forgiveness of sins is not a mystery. It's written plainly on the pages of scripture, Christ died for our sins. But this is a mystery which is not known in other generations to the sons of men. 21:16 But now has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets. Now I want you to stop there for a minute and consider one thing. What does the Bible say is the foundation on which you have 21:33 built your personal life as a Christian? Very clear. 1 Corinthians 3:11 says there is no other foundation that anyone can lay except Jesus Christ. Your personal life 21:53 is built on only one foundation if you're a true Christian, Jesus Christ, who died for my sins, rose again, ascended, is coming back. But when it comes to building the church, what is the foundation? Let's go to scripture. Not use our head. 22:12 We saw, on this rock I will build my church, in Matthew 16:18. But we've got to see scripture. Which scripture? You remember once when Satan told Jesus, "It is written, he will give his angels charge over you." Jesus said, "It is also written, 22:31 thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." The whole truth is not contained in it is written. The whole truth is contained in it is written and it is also written. And that's where, if you don't know the scriptures, you can be deceived by 22:45 somebody coming and saying, "See, brother, it is written." That could be the voice of Satan. Because you need to know what is also written. Jesus knew the scriptures, so he could confront Satan and say, "I know it's written, but it's also written this." 22:58 God's given us two legs to stand on. So, here is another verse. Ephesians 2 verse 19 to 21. Speaking about the church, you are no longer strangers and aliens. You're fellow citizens with the saints 23:17 and a part of God's family. And you're built upon which foundation? The foundation of the apostles and prophets. Are you built on a foundation of apostles and prophets? It's talking about a church here, not 23:36 the individual. We saw the individual in 1 Corinthians 3:11. But when you come together, you're built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the chief cornerstone, through in whom the whole building 23:52 is fitted together to a holy temple in the Lord. This is what is also written. And Christianity has neglected that. Babylon does not need apostles and prophets. Babylon is full of full of 24:12 individualistic Christians who say, "I'm founded on Christ." I hope you are. Where in the New Testament you see a church? You show me one which is not planted by an apostle. Where do you find a church in the New 24:31 Testament which has got a pyramid structure with a CEO or a president or a pope or someone on top or a general superintendent? You never see it. Elected. Are these things important? They certainly are. Cuz that's Babylon. 24:46 The principles of the business world brought into the church. You remember when David wanted to bring the ark from where it was kept to the city of God. The law was very clear. It must be 25:04 carried on the shoulder of the Levites. But David said, "That's a long distance for these poor Levites to carry the ark on the shoulder. I remember some years ago the Philistines once sent the ark on a cart. And the ark came safely. And the 25:20 Philistines sent it in the cart there. Let's put it on a cart." And David followed the principles of the world and put the ark on a cart. And you know what happened? Somebody died. He made one poor woman a widow that day 25:34 because he decided to follow the human methods. Uzzah died. God's very strict about doing it things exactly the way he wants it done. David forgot 25:52 that when Moses built the tabernacle, you read Exodus chapter 39. I don't know whether you've noticed this in Exodus chapter 39 and 40. This is the contrast to the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel was built man's wisdom, man's power, man's glory. 26:10 But here we read the tabernacle being built. And I want you to see something very significant in Exodus 39 and 40. A little phrase that occurs 18 times in two chapters. You'll never find a phrase like that occurring 18 times in two 26:28 chapters. As the Lord commanded Moses, chapter 39:1. Just as the Lord commanded Moses, verse 5 last part, 39:5. 26:45 End of verse 7, same phrase. And that is end of verse 9. And further down in verse number of places, in verse 26, uh 21, and the end of 21, at the end of 26, at the end of 29, at the end of 31, and so on, at the end of 42 and chapter 40, all the way through 27:04 chapter 40. And then it ends in verse 32, the last time, 18th time, 40:32, as the Lord commanded Moses. And verse 33, thus Moses finished the work. Moses didn't use the clever ideas he had learned in the academies of Egypt, how 27:21 to build pyramids, etc., which even today's engineers wonder. Oh, Moses had studied all that, but he's laid aside all that wisdom and decided to build that simple tabernacle, which looked so simple. If it was Moses at the age of 40, he'd 27:36 have told God, "Just leave it to me, God. I'll build a fantastic structure for you. I've studied building the pyramids in Egypt." And that's why God had to thrash out that uh knowledge from his head for 40 years it took to get all 27:47 that wisdom of Egypt out of his head till he did exactly as the Lord commanded. Lord, these white sheets around, is that all? Why not some colored sheets? No question. White sheets around the outer court, white sheets. And the outer cover of the 28:04 tent should be a dirty brown ramskin. Why not put the gold and silver? No, Moses said God said, "The gold and silver is on the inside." The glory of God is seen on the inside, not on the outside. Outside I didn't let it look dirty with a ramskin. There was 28:24 meaning behind it all. Oh, Moses didn't understand it. But but if you went inside of the tabernacle, it was glorious. But the outside looked like a dirty ramskin covered with dust and all types of things. The church is like that. 28:40 It's glorious inside. You got to come inside to see it. Outside there's a reproach. And Jesus, if you want to know the real value of Jesus, you couldn't see it on the outside, it's on the inside. There are internal Christians and there 28:54 are external Christians as I told you. Those who are taken up with the inner life of Jesus and those who are taken up with the outward activities of Jesus. So, he did it exactly as the Lord commanded and thus Moses finished the 29:06 work. What was the result? Verse 34, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Do you want the glory of the Lord to fill your church? Let it be written about 18 times or 1,800 times in your life that you did it exactly as the Lord 29:23 commanded. Not like the Tower of Babel. And when they stopped doing it as the Lord commanded, you know what happened in Israel? The glory departed. You read about that in Ezekiel. And in Ezekiel, the Lord says, "But a day is coming when that glory will come 29:40 back." And that's the New Testament church. I want to show you that for a minute. Ezekiel and chapter 10. The Lord is showing Ezekiel why the glory of God departed from Jerusalem. 29:59 And Ezekiel was in Babylon by the way. Why did God's people end up in Babylon? That has got relevance today for us where we are facing Christendom which is mostly Babylonian. The Lord And the Lord showed him in Ezekiel 10, the glory of the Lord, 30:17 verse four, went up from the cherub to the gate of the temple, the threshold. You know, the glory of God doesn't suddenly depart that one day is there and one day it goes. It doesn't go from your life or from a church like that. 30:29 The Lord is very patient. He sees this church gradually disobeying the Lord like the Lord told the church in Ephesus, the leader, "Repent. Otherwise, I will derecognize you as a church." By when he says, "I'll remove the 30:42 lampstand." It means, as far as I'm concerned, you're no longer a church. You may call yourself First Church in Ephesus and with 500 members, but the Lord is not there. So, this is what was happening here in the Old Testament. If you read the Old 30:55 Testament, you can learn from the mistakes of Israel and not repeat it. The glory of the Lord went from there to the gate of the temple and from there, we read in verse 18, the glory of the Lord went away even from the gate of the 31:09 temple and wind right away and went away with the cherubims and it was gone. And then we read when you come to chapter 43, this is the restoration of the new covenant church. Then the Lord led me to the gate, 31:29 Ezekiel 43, and I saw the glory of God coming back. Praise the Lord. God is doing a new work. He's building a church where his glory will be seen. Like the Old Testament tabernacle, it won't be a grand structure like a pyramid. 31:48 Maybe a very simple structure, little dirty on the outside. For remember, the first body of Christ was born in a cowshed. Don't ever forget that. The first body of Christ was not born in the palace. The wise men followed the star 32:03 in humility saying, "Even though we are wise, we must follow the star, which is a picture of God's word." Followed the star all the way to Jerusalem. And they said, "Ah, now we don't have to follow the star, the word of God. We 32:16 know where the king of the Jews will be born. Where?" Of course, in the palace. Let's go to the palace and ask King Herod, "Where is the King of the Jews born?" King of the Jews, never heard of him. It's me. That was the one foolish thing those 32:31 wise men did. They were wise up to that point, following the star. And they go to the palace and discover the body of Christ is not there. And many mega churches today, you don't find the body of Christ there. Many of these things with big pomp and 32:46 show, great crusades and all, the body of Christ is not there, brother sister. Get back to the word of God. And so these wise men finally humbled themselves and decided to follow the star. And the star led them to Bethlehem. 32:59 But by the time they came to Bethlehem, they couldn't see Jesus in the cowshed. He had moved from a cowshed to a house. If they had been obedient like the shepherds, they'd have seen Jesus in the cowshed. That wonderful I would have 33:13 given anything to see that baby in a you know, cowshed with the donkeys and all the cows and everything else and the son of God. But they missed it. They missed that. Because for some time they did not obey God's word. Then they says in Matthew 2, 33:32 they came to the house where he was, but they recognized him. If they had disobeyed a little more, they'd have missed him completely. He'd have been in Egypt. You know, you lose a lot when you don't humbly follow the word of God. 33:47 You think after some time you can use your common sense. Say, I followed the word of God up to this point. Now I know. You don't know. Be like Moses who did exactly as the Lord commanded in everything. The glory of the Lord came back. 34:02 And the spirit lifted me up and there the glory of the Lord filled the house. Verse 5. I say, Lord, I want to see that. I want to build a church where the glory of the Lord fills the house. It says in his 1 Corinthians 14 that 34:16 when prophecy's there in a church, people will feel God spoke to my heart. I met with Jesus. That's been my longing. Wherever I preach in every church, I say, dear brothers, people who come to your church meeting must go away feeling 34:34 I met with Jesus. I met with the Lord. The Lord spoke to me. He convicted me of sin. Like Isaiah when he saw the glory of the Lord, he said, "Oh, I'm an unclean man." Have you had experiences like that? Like when Jesus walked with the 34:52 disciples to Emmaus, their hearts burned within them. Do you know my brothers and sisters that is the mark of a new covenant church? The glory of the Lord fills the house. It's not fantastic music or psychological preaching that stimulates 35:05 you or raising offerings. People evaluate whether God is in a church by the size of the offering. Can you imagine a more godless church than that? The glory of the Lord. Christ is there. Speaks to my heart. 35:25 Do you long that you will have a church like that? Are you one of those lonely individual Christians who wanders around like butterflies going from this flower to that flower to that flower? Which flower can I pick some honey from? 35:39 There are a lot of wandering Christians like that. Jude says they are wandering stars. You read in the book of Jude. Wandering stars. Because they are too full of themselves. They are not willing to humble themselves under any authority. 35:54 They don't have any apostle or prophet over them. No. They don't believe in all that. They are wandering stars. Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Every New Testament church was built like that. 36:07 We read here the glory of the Lord came from there. And the Lord says, "Son of man, verse seven, this is the place of my throne. This is where I place the soles of my feet and will dwell in the midst of my people forever." 36:23 And then he says, "Son of man, I want to tell you something. Describe this wonderful church. Let me paraphrase it, verse 10. Describe this wonderful church to my people that they may be ashamed of the type of church they're living in. 36:41 That they may be ashamed of their sins, the way they have disobeyed my word, they they way they live like wandering lonely individuals. You know, Jesus did not die to produce 400 holy individuals. He died to build a church. One new man, 36:55 one body. And don't reveal this to everybody. No, no, no, no, no. If you find among my people, verse 11, some who are really ashamed of their individualistic Christianity, 37:14 then show them the design of my church. And there is one law for my church, one law. Verse 12. The whole area will be most holy. 37:31 In the tabernacle, only one small 15 ft by 15 ft area was most holy. The rest was holy or outer court, but not in the New Testament church. In the New Testament church, there's no outer court, there's no holy place. The whole 37:44 area is most holy. That is the church. Build a church like that. But if people say, "Oh, brother, that's not possible." Don't reveal the secret to them because they are not ashamed. They don't have any faith in me. They have more faith in the devil who 38:01 can destroy God's work than in Jesus who can do God's work. Well, if you have faith in the devil, build a church which the gates of hell will prevail against. But if you have faith in Jesus that he's more powerful than the devil, build a 38:14 church where the gates of hell don't prevail against. This is very, very important. Whenever I ask anyone to speak in our church in Bangalore, anyone, I want to find out a few things before I invite him. One, what is his attitude to money? Does he 38:31 go around collecting money from people? Does he send reports in order to get money? I will never invite such a man to our church, never. I say there are a thousand other churches you can go and preach what you like, you won't preach in our church. 38:43 We're building the body of Christ. Jesus is our example who never asked for money, never sent a report, and we're building his body. The rest you can go and do what you like. Second thing I want to find out is are your children following the Lord? 38:57 Not 50% of them, all of them. Are your children disciples of Jesus Christ? Whether they have a ministry or not is not what I'm bothered. Are they disciples of Jesus Christ? Are some of them wayward? Living for the world? 39:13 Well, then I know how you lived at home. Whatever you may have preached in the pulpit, what is how you lived at home I see by the way you brought up your children. The other thing I want to know is can you show me some church, local church which you have 39:30 built somewhere which is a part of the body of Christ, which is like a body of Christ. Or if you haven't built it, something you're a part of. Which is an expression of the body of Christ. I'd like to come and see it. No, it's not my calling. 39:45 I'm just a preacher. Okay. A thousand churches you can go to, not not our church, sorry. And I also want to know, show me some of your co-workers. Do you have any co-workers? Like Paul, Peter, they all had co-workers. Let me see the quality of their 40:01 co-workers, of your co-workers. That'll tell me the type of person you are. A lot of these people say, "No, no, no, I sort of serve the Lord on my own." Brother, you're a wandering star. Go and find some other church which it 40:14 wants, looks for these wandering stars. We're not interested in them. Do you know who was the first wanderer on earth? Cain. One of the curses the Lord put upon him was Genesis 4:12. You will never have fellowship. 40:31 You will be a wanderer on the earth. It's the curse of Cain that I find in so many preachers today. The Lord saying you'll be a wanderer on earth. You'll never build my church. You'll wander around, collect money, maybe you'll be famous, maybe you'll be 40:47 great, maybe you'll be rich, maybe you'll have a a house and a plane and all types of things or whatever you'll have and you can buy all types of fancy things with the money you've collected from the poor, but you'll be a wanderer. 41:00 The Apostle Paul was poor. He never collected money with from people. He says he worked day and night even when he was preaching, so he could support himself, not be a burden to anybody. And boy, did he build the body of Christ? 41:17 That is what the Lord is doing today, building the church of Jesus Christ. Christ loved the church, gave himself for it. We read we read in Ephesians, come back to that passage I was looking at in chapter 3. This mystery that has been 41:33 hidden for many generations, and what is this mystery? And in very simple words, verse 6 onwards, is that the Gentiles and Jews can become one. She says, "That's such a great mystery?" Well, go and ask two Gentile husband and wife whether 41:52 they've become one, leave alone the Gentiles and the Jews. It's not easy to make two people one. There's an enmity in the flesh. It says in Ephesians 2:15, which prevents me from being one. 42:10 Why do husbands and wives who in their marriage on the day they got married said, "Darling, I can't live without you." Why are they 6 months later yelling at each other? Cuz there's an enmity in the flesh which they didn't discover. 42:25 There is an enmity in the flesh which Ephesians 2:15 says Jesus abolished on the cross. There's a wall, a dividing wall, whether you know it or not, which hinders fellowship. It says he broke down Ephesians 2:14 that dividing 42:43 wall. There was a dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles. They're not like us. We are a pure race. They are a corrupted race. There's a lot of that. This is racism. Jews and Gentiles is racism. And you think there's no racism in the 43:01 Christian church? Plenty of it. Plenty of it. It's not so much in words because now if you speak such words, you can be hauled up by the law, so people are careful. But it's in their heart. An attitude towards 43:20 people who are not as cultured as I am. Who don't know as much as me. And would you go and mingle with them? Yes. We go as benefactors. Jesus That's the word Jesus used in Luke chapter 22. Uh 43:40 don't be called benefactors. Genesis Luke 22:25. You know who a benefactor is? A benefactor is a gracious rich man who comes and helps poor people. I'll give you some money. You need some money? Well, I'll help you run an orphanage. I will help you to 43:58 take care of the poor people here. Here's some money. Benefactor. Jesus said, "Don't be a benefactor." He said that. Luke 22:25. Beautiful translation in the NASB. Don't be called benefactors. Be a brother. Be a brother among brothers. 44:19 I know the difference. Because I worked most of our work in the poor villages of India. And I know what it is. I don't go there for 2 days and come out. I've I've gone there again and again and again and again for 35 years. 44:34 My wife has gone there and taken care of the sick people again and again and again all these years. Everything freely. We're not benefactors. If we started giving money, we'd have all of India at our doors. We'd have church growth like anything. 44:50 It wouldn't be disciples. That's what we see all over. You got to be careful that you don't reduce your church to a social service organization. Helping the poor, caring for this We believe in it. But the Bible says, "Do good to all men, but especially to 45:08 the household of faith." And if there's one thing that can very subtly turn your church away from building the body of Christ, it is let's care for the poor, let's spend our time rehabilitating people and this that and the other. 45:24 Do you think Jesus collected all the blind Bartimaeuses together and spent his time trying to improve their lot? There were blind Bartimaeuses in in Israel. There were lepers. But he didn't gather all the lepers and try to get employment for them and try 45:39 to improve their standard of living. Don't you think there was need if there was a need today among the poor? There was a need there, but Jesus didn't do it. Why didn't he do it? He had only 3 and 1/2 years. He's got a job to do. And 45:47 he His job was not to claim He He would help the blind Bartimaeuses and move on. He said, "That's not my main calling." He concentrated on 11 people who were not lepers, who were not blind, who were not poor, and built a church. 45:59 We try to be more spiritual than Jesus, more loving than Jesus, and we never build a church against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. We get a name for ourselves as benefactors. I've seen lots and lots of it in India. All these 46:14 people who go on 15-day mission trips. I'm not against it. Go and build better homes to somebody. Okay, um you know, a lot of people want to send their children on these 15-day mission trips so that the children will see how the poor people live and they'll 46:28 come back and be grateful for what they have at home. They are not interested in those poor people. They are interested in their own children being grateful for what they get in America. Don't call it mission trips. Say I'm 46:38 sending my child so that he learn to be more grateful for what he has at home. But to give this holy title of mission trip is a lot of garbage. I remember one of those people asking me uh one of these American guys who came 46:50 there to India and said, "Do you think it'll uh I'm going out there to work among these people?" I think it'll do you a lot of good. I said, "I don't know about the others." But they never hear such things because most Indians are afraid to tell them the 47:01 truth. Because they want their money. They like these benefactors coming. This is These benefactors are the ones who've destroyed God's work in the third world, I'll tell you. As one who's lived there 72 years, I'm telling you. 47:16 You cannot counter what I say because I've lived there and I've moved all over India. I've traveled up and down across the whole country. So, dear brothers and sisters, if you want to build a church, be careful that you don't end up in a rehabilitation 47:30 program. Build a church and then there are enough organizations in the world to do rehabilitation and social work and all that. Let them do it. You know that Paul didn't even take a crusade against slavery? Do you think Paul believed in slavery? 47:47 Absolutely not. You think Abraham Lincoln had more light on slavery than the Apostle Paul? You got to be off your head to believe that. Abraham Lincoln got his light from the Bible. Paul was 100% against slavery. Why didn't he take up a crusade against 48:05 slavery? It's like why didn't Jesus spend his life collecting all the lepers and getting employment for them? Because he knew that if he spent his time on that, he'd never do that lasting work which Jesus wanted him to do, to 48:20 build the church. I live in a country where I see poor people all the time. And it's very easy for me to be challenged all the time. I got to do something here, do something there. I have never done God's work in my life 48:34 and I wasted my life and that's exactly what the devil wanted me to do. Have you heard this expression? The good is the enemy of the best. The good is the enemy of the best. You can do something good and miss out on God's perfect plan for your life. And I 48:49 believe this is the great danger with many Christians. So that's why we decided not like we made our mistakes because you know as Christians we're compassionate. Poor people come in and we try to help them, give them money. 49:02 And care for them. We we we found out for a while they began to take advantage of us. And boy, my wife and I made a lot of mistakes. I'm not speaking as one who's made I'm trying to save other people from making the mistakes I made. 49:16 And we found that people would come because oh, this is a nice compassionate church. Everybody's very kind and they're Christians and they will never say no. One of the great words I had to learn after many years was to say no. 49:32 Very difficult word for Christians to say. No. I'm sorry, it's not convenient. Oh, that won't sound like a Christian. It certainly will if I've got a calling to do. You've got nothing else to do in life, but be a wandering star, go do 49:46 what you like. But I saw very clearly that God called me to build a church. And I learned through trial and error. And dear brothers and sisters, there are a lot of so-called Christians who will try to take advantage of your 50:02 Christianity. A mark of a true servant of God, I remember God showing this to me and saying, "At the end of your life, you must have this testimony as a servant of God." Second Corinthians 7, verse 2. Three things 50:22 that Paul says. Second Corinthians 7:2, "We wronged nobody. We corrupted nobody. We took advantage of nobody." Can you say that? We didn't cheat anyone. 50:43 We didn't corrupt anyone. We didn't take advantage of anyone. I want to have that testimony. I believe I can stand up in my church today. People have known me for years. I can say that. I've traveled many places in the world 51:00 and I can stand before many, many people and say, "I never took advantage of any of you in any way. I've not corrupted anyone. I've not cheated anyone. Taken advantage of no one." This is how the Apostle Paul served. He 51:15 said, "Because I've got to be a testimony for Christ." And be careful of those who would come in the name of Christ, try to take advantage of you, and turn you away from your primary calling to build a church where people are bound together 51:34 and linked together like the members of a body, where fellowship is built, and where the gates of hell are destroyed. If you're interested in that, then the Lord says to Ezekiel, "Then show them the pattern if they are ashamed of what they've been spending 51:52 their time doing. If they are ashamed of being a wanderer like Cain, if they are ashamed of being a wandering star like those mentioned in Jude, if they are willing to submit to authority, do you know why these people are wandering stars and wandering like 52:05 Cain? And could be some of you sitting here coming from different places, you're just one lonely individual. I'll tell you why. Jesus said that in John 12:24, "If a grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and die, it will remain alone." 52:23 Many churches today are filled with lonely individuals. They've never been built together. They'll wander from one church to another. They'll never be satisfied anywhere because they've never learned to fall into the 52:41 ground and die. But if it dies, it will bring forth much fruit. I remember 40 years ago, a godly man told me, "Brother, the greatest work you can do for God in Bangalore, fall into the ground and die." 53:01 I believed it was a truth and I decided to do that. I said, "Lord, let me prove it. Let me prove whether John 12:24 still works in the 20th century in a poor country like India." I decided to fall into the ground and die. And I want to say the same thing to 53:20 you. God does not want you to be a lonely individual. Ask yourself, I'm not trying to get anybody into condemnation. But consider, does God want just you to be one lonely person wandering from church to church forever? 53:37 Or does he want to build a body? You say, "I'm sick and tired of this church, go to the other church. I remember one man came to me in one of our conferences in India and said, "Brother Zac, I'm sick and tired of this Pentecostal church. I want you I want to 53:50 join your church." I said, "Please don't. We're also failing human beings. You'll come and get sick and tired of us." I said, "We are a bunch of people who are sick and tired of ourselves, not sick and tired of other people. 54:07 And the day you become sick and tired of yourself, welcome. Come and join us." Because Jesus said, if I were to paraphrase Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you who are sick and tired of yourselves. I'll give you rest." That is the invitation we give in our 54:25 church. All who are sick and tired of themselves, sick and tired of their defeated lives, sick and tired of sinning, sick and tired of being legalists, trying to keep this law, that law, the other law, come. You're welcome. 54:43 And through the years, we have found how God can bring together those who really become united and work together and function as a body. A lot of people don't like that. You know, some people come to our church and say, "Why are you so exclusive?" I said, 55:00 "Call us what you like. We're not afraid of bad names. Call us the devil if you like. We're building the body of Christ." Why is it they call us exclusive? They want to be like wandering stars and sit in our church and say, "Sorry, there's 55:12 no place for wandering stars in this church." You can come as a visitor, but we will not allow you to break bread with us. Sorry. Breaking of bread is a commitment. We take one loaf and say, "We are all members of one body breaking this 55:24 bread." Not breaking this bread and wandering off wherever you like. I said, "Sorry, then don't break bread with us." We are testifying when we break one bread, we are one body, one piece together like this bread. Yes, once upon 55:37 a time we were individual grains of wheat, but that grain of wheat was crushed and powdered and put in the oven and heated and gone through all that. Now we're one. I say, "If you If you mean that, you're welcome. I don't care whether you're 55:51 poor. I don't care whether you were born again yesterday. It doesn't matter. But you may be a great Bible scholar, but if you don't want to be one with us in this body, sorry, you can't break bread with us. Come as a visitor. We have sometimes 56:03 in our Sunday services 30, 40 visitors. They're welcome. They sit there. My responsibility for them is zero. They could be living in adultery. I say, "Hello. Goodbye." But if there's a brother in our church who even does something like gossiping, 56:23 which is not as serious a sin as adultery, I'll pull him up. I say, "You got to get rid of that." I remember putting a brother out of our church for 2 months because he was gossiping and he wasn't getting rid of that habit. 56:37 Now, I discipline my children. I never discipline other people's children. We have a lot of other people's children coming to our church. I say, "Come. Hello. Good to see you. You're welcome to come any number. You can come come here till Jesus comes. 56:49 But until you commit yourself, we won't consider you a part of this church because we're not a social service organization. We are not a club of wandering stars. We are building the body of Jesus Christ. And those who are ashamed of the way 57:02 they are living when they compare themselves to scripture, the Lord says, "Show them the pattern of my house." Not all will hear. Look at the ministry of the greatest preacher that ever walked on this earth. Jesus Christ. 57:21 He could gather only 11. And he says, "Father, I pray for these 11." He had a church, but it was a church that could turn the world upside down. And the effect of which has lasted for 2,000 years. I've said that to the Lord. 57:38 I said, "Lord, in my entire life, if I can just gather 11 people like that and make them a body, I will say like Simeon, 'Lord, let your servant depart in peace, for I have seen your body.'" Do you have a passion like that to build 57:56 the body of Christ? I carried a burden in my heart for 10 years, no exaggeration, like a baby in the womb. Lord, I want to see a local expression of the body of Christ. You can't have a baby born without a conception. 58:16 And the burden in the heart is the beginning. Sometimes you have to carry the burden for a long time. I carried it for 10 years, from 1965 to 1975, before I saw the beginning of that birth. the body. As I look back now, I'm so thankful 58:33 that I didn't remain a wandering star. I was a wandering preacher for a long time. I'll tell you what I was. I was traveling, preaching at conventions in Australia and Japan and Hong Kong and Europe and Ireland and and different parts of India as a great 58:51 famous preacher with my photograph in the uh posters and all that and I said, "This is not the church. I'm just getting a lot of honor and everybody appreciates and get good offerings and uh go from here and there and gradually 59:10 build up a name as a rising star, this young 30-year-old rising star in evangelical India." I said, "Lord, I'm finished with this." The day came and I said, "I'm not going anywhere." I said, "Lord, I'm going to sit at home 59:26 with those who are sick and tired of themselves and they're defeated. I was defeated in my life, sure. I was defeated in my thought life those days. They didn't bother me because I was a great preacher. They didn't know I was defeated in my 59:38 thought life, so it didn't matter. I was an absolute hypocrite. Defeated inwardly. I remember in my I was preaching in a big convention, a deeper life convention in Melbourne in Australia in 1973 59:57 and that's what, nearly 40 years ago. And there was this Christian newspaper said "This is the finest preacher we have ever heard in this convention." And they didn't know I was the biggest backslider at that time in my heart. You 1:00:11 know, I kept that newspaper with me just to show me you can be the greatest preacher and the biggest backslider at the same time. And so I'm not fooled by all these big preachers nowadays because I've gone that route and I know what they're like. Lonely 1:00:25 wandering stars like me. I got sick and tired of it. And then like Ezekiel's the Lord showed me the plan. And I said, "Okay, Lord. This is what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. I don't want to be a famous man. I don't 1:00:42 want to be anything. I don't want to collect money. I'll stop taking offerings. I will just build your church." And I took seriously and God took me seriously. And things turned around. He filled me with the spirit all over again 1:00:57 and showed me the plan for building his church. I believe God can do that with for anybody anywhere. But you got to first acknowledge that you've been unwilling to be built along with others because of your stubborn self-will 1:01:17 and your pride and your refusal to judge yourself and judge others. The mark of God's house, 1 Peter 4:17, is this. What is the mark of God's house? Here it is. 1 Peter 4:17, the time has come for judgment to begin at the household of 1:01:37 God. And it begins with us first. The mark of the children of Adam, listen to me, the mark of the children of Adam is they put themselves first in everything. Me first, the others next. Except in judgment. 1:01:55 In judgment, they put the others first. A- Agreed or not? Isn't that how your unconverted life was? Yourself first in everything. But when it comes to judgment, others first. Jesus, they say they turned the world upside down. Actually, they turned the 1:02:12 world right side up. The world into entire world is upside down. But if you have a whole lot of people walking on their hands and you see one man walking on their feet, they'll think he's upside down. He's not upside down. 1:02:21 He's the only one walking properly. So, we've got a Christendom where everybody's walking on their heads, and some man walks erect, and they think he's upside down. They turned the world right side up, which means they put others first in everything 1:02:34 except judgment, where they put themselves first. That's the mark of God's house. We judge ourselves first. That's the meaning of being poor in spirit. What is the greatest requirement to build fellowship? People say love. 1:02:52 Well, what will happen? I've seen I've actually had experience of this. He said, "You know, we got to love one another." And the brother says, "Yeah, brother, I love, but that fellow doesn't love." What do you do then? You go and ask the 1:03:07 other person, he'll say, "I love, brother, but he doesn't love me." I'm talking about Christians, believers who are trying to build a body. Then somebody else says humility, great virtue. But this brother says, "Brother, I'm 1:03:18 humble. I'm humbling myself all the time." But he's not. You go to him, he says, "Brother, I'm humbling myself all the time." But he's not. So, you discover that love and humility is not the thing. You know what it is? First verse in the Sermon on the Mount, 1:03:32 blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of God. Theirs is the church. The poor in spirit are I compare it with the poor man, the poor beggar in India, 1:03:50 who come to my gate and say, "Give me some money." Where's the money I gave you yesterday? Oh, sir, that was finished yesterday. I need some now. Okay. He'll come tomorrow again. Where's the money I gave you yesterday? Well, that was just for yesterday. I'm 1:04:05 in need. And he's never asking for somebody else. He's not saying there's a beggar down there who needs some money. He's asking for himself. That is poor in body. So, I apply that to poor in spirit. It's me coming to the gates of heaven 1:04:19 and saying, "Lord, I'm a needy man." Where's the grace I gave you yesterday? Oh, that was finished yesterday. I need some more now. Where's the grace I've been giving you for 35 years? It's all over, Lord. I want some more 1:04:35 now. That is poor in spirit. Are you worried about that man? No, I know, Lord. He's okay, perhaps. It's me. Like that say uh black spiritual says, "Lord, it's not my brother. It's not my sister. It's me standing in need. 1:04:52 It's me, Lord." That's the poor in spirit. I'll tell you something I've discovered through 35 years. You can only build the church with such people who are aware of their own need, not their wife's need. Adam was aware of his wife's need. He 1:05:09 could never build a church. I I to say to all of you husbands, if you're more aware of your wife's need than your own, you'll never build a church in a million years. You sisters, if you're more aware of your husband's need than yours, you'll 1:05:21 never build a church. Forget it. Go and do something else. Be a wandering star. Be a butterfly going from flower to flower. But you'll never build a church and you'll stand in heaven with eternal regret. I believe that. 1:05:34 I would have stood in heaven with eternal, not one or two years, eternal regret if I did not build what Jesus wanted to build on earth. And God told Noah, you got to build the ark. All his mind was set on building the ark. 1:05:51 Did he earn his own living? Of course he did. He didn't have anybody to send reports to to get money from. He earned his own living and built the ark. And his children would see dad getting up in the morning, getting the ark done and working hard, 1:06:04 going and preaching on the streets, the judgment is coming, and then building the ark and building the ark. And this is three sons got gripped. Hey, that's for real. He's not a hypocrite. He means what he says. And built the ark and dad's using his 1:06:15 own money to build the ark. Build the ark. Build the ark. Do you have that type of passion to build a church? Do you believe that Noah believed it with all his heart when one day when God judges this world, only the ark will 1:06:29 remain? And I believe with all my heart when God finally judges the world, the church will remain. I don't know where the wandering stars will be. I don't know where all the wandering Kains will be. But I know where people will be who are 1:06:45 built into the body of Christ. This is the church built on the apostles and prophets foundation with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. In India, we build our houses with bricks, not with wood, because it'll get eaten up by 1:07:03 white ants and all termites in no time. Every house is built with bricks. And the way they do it is you get this truck that brings 10,000 bricks and keeps it there. And the mason takes those bricks and cements them and puts them together and that's how slowly 1:07:21 a house is built. So very often you see in construction sites this big pile of bricks piled up there. Now one of the wonderful things about India is that if you leave those bricks there for 1 year, they'll all disappear one by 1:07:38 one. Almost every day it'll become a little less. Ultimately, there'll be nothing there. So people bring only as many bricks as they can use up in the next few days and then get another load. That's how it's always done in every place in India, 1:07:55 it's the same. And uh you can't find out. It's in the night usually these bricks disappear. They're strange. They don't walk away, but they seem to disappear. And you know, whenever I hear people telling me that somebody's stealing my 1:08:10 sheep, it's like somebody telling me he's stole my bricks. Well, he's stole your bricks because you didn't put it in the building. I said, "Look at this building for I built. Can you try and steal a brick from there? Try it. 1:08:24 Impossible." So there's a difference between that pile of 10,000 bricks and 10,000 bricks made into a building. That's the difference between individual believers who can be picked off by Satan and picked off by false teachers and all 1:08:37 that and those who are built together into a body, into a building, a holy temple unto the Lord. And that's the calling of every true apostle and prophet and elder and shepherd and teacher. Not to go around preaching like I did to get fame for 1:08:51 myself and teach people wonderful truths here and there, but to build. God, Christ has set Ephesians 4:11 in the church apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, shepherds to build the body it says. Not to go around preaching. 1:09:10 I thank God I got light on that after wasting nine years of my life getting fame. To build the body, to put the bricks together. And I'll tell you, it's more convenient to be a brick with plenty of room around with the other brick is a little 1:09:24 distance away. But when you get built into a building, you got a brick on top of you and a brick underneath you and a brick this side and it says a bit little little inconvenient, but you won't get stolen. That's the advantage. 1:09:35 Where do you want to be? One of those bricks with plenty of space around you, the other brick is a convenient distance away. You'll get stolen, brother. You'll get knocked off by the devil. I'm not saying you'll fall into sin. 1:09:48 He'll take you down to God's third best or 10th best. You'll never get God's best. Then the devil got you. If you got God's second best, devil's already got you in some area. I don't want God's second best. I want God's best. 1:10:03 But there's little inconvenient. Have you ever thought about how inconvenient it was to live inside the ark for one year? With all the animals answering the calls of nature and you got to smell that for one year. It's pretty inconvenient, but it was the 1:10:20 safest place on earth. And that's what the church is. Safest place on earth today. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let's pray.
