0:12 Would you turn your Bibles with me to the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. That is Genesis chapter 1. We know this is the narrative of the story of creation. 0:31 When God started creating or rather recreating the destroyed chaotic world as we read in verse 1. The earth was shapeless without form. Whatever God 0:49 creates, he creates perfectly. But something happened. We read that he had created in verse 1 the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the 1:08 deep. And the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. And something happened in between that what many people call a gap theory. So when God started recreating, he started creating different things 1:28 on daily basis and it took six days for him to complete what he had in mind. And the last thing that he created, as we know, is human beings. That was the last thing that he created, 1:48 not the first thing. Just imagine if God had created Adam and Eve on the first day. You know, it says the whole earth was covered with water and there was darkness. And they there was no place for them to 2:08 uh put their foot. They would have to be swimming for 3 days in the water and uh then there was no food. And on the third day on the first day the light came 2:26 and on the second day the waters separated and on the third day the water separated from the earth and then he could land on earth. But without eating anything for 3 days. And if God had done that, then on the 2:45 fourth day when God created um plants and trees, say apple tree and mango tree, orange tree popping up here and there, they would have to jump all around the place because something under their feet 3:04 was you know, sprouting. So, God made all these things ready for him. Everything ready. And on the sixth day, the last day of creation, that to the latter part of the day in the afternoon as we read there 3:24 God created man. And you know, like there is a saying in the world, they say uh last but not the least. So, man was last but not the least. And God created him last 3:43 to be the crown of creation. He created him to have dominion over all that is there on earth. The beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish in the sea, and every creeping thing, including 4:02 vegetation, everything. And God said, "Have dominion over them, rule over them." And God made the ruler the last. It is something like you know, many expectant mothers, they keep things ready for the arrival of the baby. 4:21 When they know that the baby is due on a certain day, they keep things ready, the crib and the clothes and topi and the cap and the shawl and so many things to welcome the baby. Like that, God had kept everything ready, food and 4:40 um you know, the place, the garden for them to enjoy and um rivers to probably go and jump into and All that God created and made such a beautiful place for them to live. 4:58 And then uh before creating them on the last day, there was Prior to that, there was only commands, commands, commands. Let there be light and let the water separate. And so on and so forth. But on the last thing when 5:16 he was about to do, the thing changes from command to consultation. And there is a consultation in the Godhead. The Lord says in verse 20, um six. 5:35 Now, he's taking consultation with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish 5:53 of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth or every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in his own image. And God created 6:11 them male and female he created them. In his own image God created man. That's very important for us to know that we all of us have been created in the image of God. 6:31 You know why God created man last? I think probably the reason is so that man cannot boast about anything. If he had been created on the first day or something he could have very well have said, 6:50 "Yeah, I was there when creation was taking place. I was also with God helping him around or something like that." But he said to Job in chapter 38:4, I think. He said, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" 7:08 That is God telling even to us today. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Probably you are the last person I created and you think you know something better than me or you 7:27 think there's no God like many atheists say out of their arrogance and pride and haughtiness they say everything came into existence from Big Bang and Yeah. 7:47 The Bible says, "The fool says in his heart that there is no God." And one has to be real fool to say that. Cuz you see all things that you see around you, everything has a beginning and 8:04 everything has a creator or a maker. And you just can't say something came out of nothing and something came out of a Big Bang. From where did the Big Bang come? God is self-existent 8:23 and self-sufficient, uncaused being. So, we cannot understand God. If a person is able to explain and understand God, then God is not God. We with our puny little mind try to grasp thing 8:41 things pertaining to God, we become utter failures in that. Because we cannot comprehend him. He is beyond our comprehension and he's beyond our thinking. 8:58 And his ways are past finding. And God He not only wants this this tiny speck of dust called planet Earth, he wants the whole universe, billions and billions of stars as we read. 9:17 It's mind-boggling for us. And a person staying on that tiny little space thinks no end of himself. That should humble. This very fact should humble us that God didn't involve man in creation. 9:35 He put him last and he created him last so that he has no scope to brag about that he was there when God was creating all these things. No. But you see when God 9:55 created man in his own image, he had purpose in his heart that he could have fellowship with him with them. That he could walk with them, talk with them like he used to do before sin came into the world. Fellowship with them 10:13 and enjoy their fellowship in return. That was God's intention, original intention that he made man and but unfortunately he listened to what the devil had to say 10:32 instead of verifying it. Eve, instead of verifying it with her husband who was there with her. It says when she stretched out her hand and took the or even before that entering into a conversation with the serpent 10:51 Adam was there. She could have said you you ask my husband. He's here. He will tell you. But she assumed responsibility and she took the initiative in talking to the serpent and took the fruit 11:11 and gave it to him who was there next to her. Many times we ignore that fact. We thought maybe Adam was somewhere else, but he was right there beside her. And he could have stopped her from eating that and he could have interfered saying that no, 11:30 don't you take that. God has told us not to. And he was also there standing like a dumb henpecked man. And he took the fruit what she gave and ate of it himself. 11:48 And sin came into this world and that you know, marred the image that was there on man. Man lost his glory. Cuz the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 12:06 Man came short of the glory of God. Man's divine image was shattered in man. And then God had to find a way to restore it. Then he promised them that I shall send the seed of the woman. That's Jesus. 12:25 Who will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel. And that's what happened on the cross. Satan was crushed under the feet of Jesus and he lost the battle. And now God is in the business of restoring 12:43 mankind the glory that he lost and also the image of God that he lost. You compare that verse where Jesus where the Lord said, "Let us create man in our own image." with with um 13:03 Colossians with Colossians chapter 3 verse 10. With Colossians chapter 3 verse 10. It says God has put I mean, he's telling us the apostle is telling us, "Put on the 13:23 new self who is being renewed to a knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. God is in the business of restoring that image. So, he says to us who have been born again, born of 13:41 born by repentance and faith and born of the Holy Spirit and born of water. To them the Apostle is writing, "Put on the new self, that is the new man." God said in Ezekiel 13:59 that I will give you a new spirit and a new mind. And I'll put take away the stony heart from you and give a heart of flesh and put my spirit within you so that you'll be able to obey me and walk in my ways." That's what God is 14:17 doing. And in the new covenant, he's telling, "Put on the new man." That is when we repented of repented of our sins and put our faith in Christ, the Bible says, "If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. All things 14:35 passed away. Behold, everything has become new." A person becomes a new creation in Christ when he repents and surrenders his life to the Lord. And all things pass away and something new happens. A new nature, a 14:53 new heart, a new mind, a new spirit is given to him. And he is made a new creation inside. Externally, everything seems I mean, the same. But internally, something happens. This 15:13 is the work of God that God does in us. He renews us, restores us to the original plan that he had. So, it says, "As we put on the new self which is being renewed according to the 15:31 image of the one who created. Man lost God's image by sin and God is in the business of restoring it." The same book in Colossians 1:15 it says, Colossians 1:15 that 15:50 it is the Lord Jesus who is the image of the invisible God. Christ is the image of the invisible God. When Jesus was on Earth 16:06 many undiscerning people didn't recognize as to who he was. He came for his own, but his own received him not. It says. And their eyes were blinded to see the glory of God because the Bible says the 16:26 God of this world, that is Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, not the unbelievers, unbelieving believers. Even build so-called believers become also unbelieving 16:43 because they allow their minds and their spiritual eyes to be blinded by the devil. That's why they crucified Christ. Many of those who had been healed by Jesus, who had experienced miracles of Jesus, 17:01 who had eaten when he multiplied bread for 4,000 and 5,000 and on various occasions when Jesus healed so many people, probably some of them were there telling, crying, crucify him and crucify him. 17:19 Why? Because their minds were blinded. Because they didn't want to receive the truth of God in love. They didn't love the truth of God. That's why the Bible says God sent upon them or sends upon them a spirit of delusion 17:39 so that they may believe what is the lie. The lie is that this is not the one. They had their own preconceived idea that when Christ comes, he will do this, that, and the other. 17:57 But Jesus didn't come in the package that they expected. He came differently. They thought, like the wise men thought, that he would be born in the palace. But unfortunately, he was born in a cowshed. 18:14 The lowliest of place, which probably we have not heard anybody giving birth to their child in a cowshed. At least maybe in some government hospital or probably in their hut or something like that. But in a cowshed, 18:33 the dirty, dingy, uh filthy, unhygienic place, Jesus chose to be born there. And because he humbled himself like that, 18:52 we read in the book of Philippians that God exalted him above everyone and everybody. This is just quite amazing that the king of kings, the lord of lords, 19:12 the creator of the universe, the second person of the trinity in the Godhead, had to come in such humble condition and live in such a humble home with six siblings 19:34 and parents and working hard with his own hands and making ends meet supporting them. And went about doing good, it says in the book of Acts. And still 19:54 many people's eyes are blinded even today. And they have their own doubts as to whether he is the Messiah. Even John the Baptist, who saw all that when he baptized Jesus, the heavens being opened, 20:11 the Father's voice being heard, the Holy Spirit coming down, and the Son of God is there coming out of the waters of baptism, the picture of the trinity. He heard, experienced all that, and yet when he was in jail, he sends a delegation saying, "Are you 20:31 the one to come or we are to look for someone else?" See, we can't blame John the Baptist because he was in the old covenant even though he is mentioned in the new covenant. The new covenant was not inaugurated until Jesus died and rose 20:47 again and on the day of Pentecost it was inaugurated. But before that only John died. He comes under the old covenant. But think of the man, the Apostle Paul, who came into the new covenant and who experienced the the covenant life. 21:06 And when he was in jail like John the Baptist, mhm, John the Baptist probably would have been there for few days. But the Apostle Paul was being jailed frequently, every now and then in different places. 21:25 You and mean from from jail he writes some of these things. He says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." Philippian jailer in in the in jail. And this is a man who has all the reason to 21:45 complain and to grumble and to murmur, but he is full of the joy of the Lord. He says, "Rejoice. In case you didn't hear that, again I say," he says. "Luke, write it again. Again I say, rejoice." This is the new covenant life. 22:07 In spite of all the sufferings and the torture and the persecution that a person goes through, yet nobody can conquer his spirit and put his spirit down. He's triumphant. He says, "Thanks be to God who gives us 22:26 the victory." He bursts out in praise and worship and thanksgiving. "I bowed on my knees," he says, when he writes to the Ephesians in chapter 3. He's there in jail. He's In chapter 4 you see he's writing 22:46 from prison. He's writing. He says, "I bow down my knees before the Father that he may grant you uh that your eyes may be opened." Now, such a life God has promised to us, dear brothers and sisters. 23:05 And he's in the business of renewing that glory, renewing that image that God originally created man with. In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 13, it says, "Jesus is the radiance of his glory 23:24 and the exact representation of his nature. And he upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." He's the exact representation. When 23:41 Philip asked Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father." And you know what Jesus said? "Philip, I've been with you for so long and you don't know. He who has seen me has seen the Father." 23:59 This exact representation of the Father who came down and lived and made purification of sins and now sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. I want you to turn with me to Ephesians 24:18 chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, how you can regain that glory and how you can um how that image can be restored. Ephesians chapter 4. See in verse 1 he says, "I therefore the prisoner of the Lord." 24:36 See, he's writing from prison. The first three chapters he has written, there is not a single commandment in the first three chapters. He's writing about all that God has done for you, for us, believers, who have repented of our sins, put our 24:54 trust in the Lord, and are seeking to follow him, he's writing to them as to what all God has done for you. So, in view of that, even in Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, it says in the 25:12 Mhm. By view of the mercies of God, my beloved brethren, I urge you to present your bodies or to offer your bodies. Give an offering. What offering? Not money. Mhm. The New Testament never 25:31 speaks of giving offering. But I mean, money as offering or even tithes. That's why we don't preach about that. The The Bible says in the New Testament, God loves a cheerful giver. What you are cheerfully give without 25:48 compulsion, without coercion, that God is pleased to accept. And that's a privilege for every Christian to give cheerfully. But the offering that God wants is not bulls or goats or gold or silver or any such perishing things, 26:07 but God wants in the new covenant to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. So, he says here, "Live in a manner or walk in a manner." Verse 1 of chapter 4, "Walk in a manner worthy of the calling 26:26 with which you've been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 26:45 And so on and so forth, he says. And the reason God has given to us in the church as gifts remember, he's speaking about the new covenant church after Jesus 27:05 Christ has died and risen and gone back to heaven. Now, he's talking about the church. He is talking in verse 11. Today, people say there are no apostles, 27:23 there are no prophets today. They all finished in the first century, but read this verse. He says he gave when he ascended to heaven not when he was on earth. When he was on earth also, he appointed apostles. 27:41 But when he ascended to heaven verse 9 and 10 verse 11, he says he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers. That is after Jesus' 27:59 resurrection and ascension. That he has given these gifts, these people as gifts to the church with what purpose? The purpose in verse 12 for equipping of the saints, that's you and me. To equip us for the work of service to 28:19 the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God and to a mature man um to the measure of the stature with which which belongs to the fullness 28:38 of Christ. This is the reason why God has given all these people to bless us in the church so that we all can be mature, come to a spiritual maturity and become what God wants us to be. Brothers and sisters, and not to be carried away by every wind 28:58 of doctrine. You hear something on on TV by one preacher, you listen to another on your YouTube, and some someone else, some preacher somewhere in some church preaches something. You all get confused, and you 29:17 don't know what what is true and what to follow, what not to follow. And he says very clearly, as a result, we are no longer to be children. Verse 14, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, 29:33 by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him. And verse 20, it says, "You did not learn Christ in this way, in craftiness 29:52 and all these evil ways that different preachers preach in order to promote themselves, in order to make money, and become rich at the cost of the poor people. But you didn't learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard him and have 30:10 been taught in him, just as the truth is in Christ. And now he comes to the manner in which we should live. He says in verse 22, "In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which 30:29 is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Again, that word renewal comes. "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. The same chapter and verse 12, chapter 12 verse 30:49 two in Romans, he says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." And that means, "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold." Like the JB Phillips translation says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." 31:06 We are to be renewed inwardly. Many people try to, you know, behave well and good acceptably outwardly. On Sunday mornings especially, many so-called Christians 31:25 who have not been regenerated inside, they behave, they're very careful how they behave two hours on Sunday morning and two hours on Wednesday evening. That's not the way God wants us, his children, to live. God wants his 31:41 children to live and be the same 24/7, seven days a week. At home, in office, on the road, everywhere, the same. They shouldn't find you a saint on Sunday 31:58 and a Satan on Monday till Saturday. Like there is a saying in the world, "Saint abroad, devil at home." Many Christians live that way. They are saints abroad to everybody, nice smile and praise the Lord and 32:17 hallelujah and all that on Sundays in the meeting, and get back home and start shouting and be the same old person that you were, a child of the devil. Don't you be like that, live a double life. 32:35 Be yourself. The Lord should be able to find you the same whether he comes in the morning or noon or on Sunday or Saturday. He should find you the same. Jesus Christ is like that. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You be 32:55 the same. That is our calling. And he says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God is being created or renewed in righteousness and holiness and truth." 33:12 Put on the new self. That means take off your old clothing. It's old nature, whatever, that made you sin and incur God's wrath. Put on the new self. Put on the new man that God has given you. And 33:31 see to it that this new man God has placed in you becomes stronger by the day by feeding yourself on God's word, by prayer, by fellowship. And laying aside falsehood, speak the truth. Each one of you with his neighbor, for 33:50 we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And don't let the devil have an opportunity. Let him who steals steal no longer. Rather, let him labor performing with his hands 34:10 what is good in order that he may have something to share with him who has need. Persons who were uh thieves earlier, the ca- main characteristic of a thief is that he's a lazy person. 34:29 He doesn't want to work. He wants a fast buck. That's why he goes and steals something that doesn't belong to him. Chain snatchers and all these people, you know, these are all lazy guys want to make a fast buck. 34:45 And he says, "Let him who stole steal no longer. Let him work with his hands and earn and support those who cannot help themselves so that you know, you can be useful. 35:02 And let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment that it may give grace to those who hear. How is your conversation dear brothers and sisters? 35:21 I'm talking especially at home. Not here on Sunday mornings. Here everybody puts on their best behavior on Sunday mornings. But at home, how are you? You know that. 35:42 Search your heart. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only that which is edifying to others, ministering grace to those who hear. You know, when Jesus spoke, 36:00 it's written about him that gracious words were flowing from his lips. That is how he lived even at home with his six siblings irritating him day and night. For 30 years he lived at home 36:19 with these imperfect parents and siblings, but he says he was tempted in all points like as we are. Yet without sin. He didn't sin even in thought or word. That's why 36:38 the father said on the day of his baptism, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." Can God say that about us? We have a past Jesus didn't have. Every saint has a very horrible past. But every sinner has a glorious future, 36:57 brothers and sisters. We all We all have had very horrible past. Some have come from very bad background. Some may not be. But still the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all have 37:16 been categorized under that. So it says that we come under sinners, that that category. But Jesus has come to redeem us. He shed his blood so that whosoever repents and believes in him may not perish but have 37:35 everlasting life. That is the reason why why God gave man. He is in the business of restoring that lost glory and that image. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit by uh which you are sealed for the day of redemption. How do we grieve the Holy 37:55 Spirit? By sinning against him. By anger. By talking unwholesome words. By our behavior. 38:11 Let all bitterness and roths and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another. And you know, only man has been made in the 38:31 image of God. God didn't say when he was making other animals or sea creatures or even reptiles or even birds that I'll make them in my image. No. He said that only about man 38:50 that I will make man in my own image. That's why it gives us worth and the dignity to man. And the Bible says 39:08 that as we continue to behold his glory in 2 Corinthians 3:18, as we continue to behold his glory as in a mirror, the mirror is the word of God. As we keep on reading God's word and see how Jesus lived and how he conducted himself and 39:26 how he finished his earthly course then we will be changed from one degree of glory to another degree on a daily basis if we are serious about our Christian life. 39:41 We will also be changed just as the Lord who is the spirit. And Christ-likeness is not produced by imitation. Christ-likeness is produced by by um 40:01 indwelling of the Holy Spirit by inhabitation not by imitation. By indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when we allow the Holy Spirit and his word to have his way then you know, he changes us 40:20 from one degree of glory to another until we all attain, like we read in Ephesians, to that fullness of the stature of the Lord. And God uses different circumstances, different people, 40:39 and God uses um even his word, basically, to break us, to melt us, to make us into the kind of people that he can 40:58 inhabit and be useful. And there is no spiritual uh solitariness. And no saint is made in isolation. And saints, 41:17 as we read in scriptures, saints are always made in the midst of other saints. You can't be a saint sitting in a monastery in isolation. That is deception. How will you deal with other people 41:35 if you don't mix with them? If you don't go out in the world and be a light in the world? If you are secluded in a monastery, um you're deceiving yourself. We cannot become um holy. Holiness is, 41:54 you know, is attained or gained by the word of God and by people and by circumstances. As we allow ourselves to go through these, and the indwelling Holy Spirit guides us and leads us, 42:13 then there will be a gradual progress and development in our character. God is more interested in our character than our career. Our career, I was telling in the youth 42:29 camp, our career may last for 50, 60, 70 years here on this earth. And when we leave this place, we leave our career and all that we accomplished here. And what we take with us is our character. 42:47 That goes with us to eternity. Not our career, not our degree, not our um uh designation, and honor, and glory, and all the rewards that we receive, like including Bharat Ratna or Nobel Prize 43:06 and all that, they will leave here when they are going. Not a thread on their back they can take. None of us. We came without anything, we will go without anything. Praise the Lord. The Lord is in that business. Shall we allow him 43:25 to continue his work in us so that on the day when the Lord comes or the day when the Lord calls us home, we will not have we will not have to have our head hanging in shame. But we'll have boldness 43:44 to approach him with joy in our hearts, unspeakable and full of glory, that we can approach him as dad, as father, as the majesty on high, who has become our father in Christ 44:03 Jesus our Lord, through the indwelling Spirit. Want to turn to Revelation chapter 21 verse 5. It says, "He who sits on the throne is Lord and sovereign of everything." He says, "Behold, I am making all things 44:22 new." God is in the business of making all things new. And he uses the words that we hear every day or often 44:41 and he brings them to life and he makes something new. I I remember as as we were singing this song there was a time in my life I had been a believer for maybe 3-4 years already and suddenly this line, "Take my voice, let 45:00 me sing." came alive to me. And you know, I was listening to worldly music and I had dropped, you know, sinful music for the most part. I had stayed away from bad things but was still still a lot of worldly music in my life. 45:18 And then suddenly this line, you know, was impressed on my heart by the Holy Spirit. "Take my voice and let me sing always only for my king." And uh yeah, that is who the Lord is, the business that he's in. That 45:37 he takes his word and he impresses it on our hearts and everything is changed, transformed. You know, he says the verses before that are our favorite verses in Christianity. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will no longer be any death. These 45:55 are things that we look forward to. One day we will, you know, be with him. And he will wipe away every tear and there will no longer be any death, no crying, no mourning, no pain. And verse 5 is a little different. This is not 46:12 something he is saying he will do, you know, one day in heaven. He's saying, "I am now, right now, making all things new." That is who God is. You know, from the beginning he of from the beginning of creation we can 46:31 see he's been in that business of making things new. And we know that when the Lord came and he, you know, inaugurated the new covenant, he makes things new. And he says, "Write." You know, there's some other places in Revelation where he 46:46 says, "Don't write." And then he says, "No, this this you have to write." Because these words are for us. Says, "These words are faithful and true." These words are true. I am making all things new. I'm the one who makes all things new. 47:04 So, write it down. Yeah, you know, we we we should take this seriously. The Lord wants to make things new in my life, and he's doing that even today. And he says, "Yeah, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. 47:23 I'm the one who's begun writing faith in your hearts, making you someone new, bringing to life the words that I that I give you." And he says, "I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water of life without end. 47:42 And he who overcomes will inherit these things. I will be his God, he will be my son." This is God's desire for us. That we should grow into his nature. Just as the Son of God had the nature of the Father of God. Represent was the 47:57 perfect representation. No. And his hands and his lips and his tongue and his eyes did perfectly what the Father wanted him to do because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And uh 48:14 he's saying, "Yeah, write this down. I am faithful. I will do this." And and this is the reality that I want you to have in your lives. I was I was thinking of of the Apostle Thomas. You know, we we know the Apostle Thomas 48:32 is the one who came to India and gave his life. And we know he was transformed. Uh we know he had seen Jesus, walked with him. And then uh you know, Jesus revealed himself to the 48:51 other disciples. You can read the story sometime. It's in John John 20. We don't have to go there now. But uh and the other disciples came and said, "We saw Jesus." And Thomas was like, "No, no." You know, because there's there's a pain 49:06 of having so much of hope and having, you know, like a desire and then you feel like everything is gone away. Brothers and sisters, many times in my Christian life I feel it's been like that. That, you know, oh, I said so 49:20 much. I had these promises. I prayed these prayers. And then now, Lord, what is my condition? The Lord says, "You turn your eyes away from yourself and look at me. I am in the business of making all things new. I can give you a new beginning. 49:36 I can recreate you in my image." And uh that's what he did for Thomas. You know, and Thomas came. He came to India. I think I think maybe I don't know, majority of us may be not, you know, from a from a Christian background of 49:56 some sort, some sort of a Christian background, right? And definitely, you know, the things that we heard in our childhood in some form, in some distorted form, you know, helped us, made it easier for us. But the Lord is saying, "No, I want to 50:12 bring those words to life. You have to see me." And everything will be new. And uh you know, he came to inaugurate the new covenant. I was challenged to to to think about that. The new covenant, you know, this picture 50:31 that brother Zac gives us of a cup. And what what the Lord spoke to the the Pharisees, we can look at that, Matthew 23. He said, "Clean the inside of the cup so that the outside may be clean also." 50:49 Matthew 23:25. "Inside you are full of robbery and self-indulgence." And the self-indulgence word was ringing in my heart. Robbery and self-indulgence. And he says, "No, you turn the cup the 51:06 right way around. It's upside down." And, you know, in the old covenant, the blessing of God can flow and flow to others, but it's external. But the Lord wants to deal with our innermost being. And he says, "Turn the cup." Even as we 51:22 hear these things today, brothers, sisters, teens, young people, turn your cup the right way. And say, "Lord, fill fill every part of me. Take every part of me. Let your Holy Spirit come and bring your word to life. And give me that reality. 51:43 I want to be transformed into your image. You are able to do this. This is who you are. This is the business that you are in. Yeah. Fill fill my cup. Clean the inside. Oh, and you know, this this is the new 52:02 covenant that the Lord wants to inaugurate. And brothers and sisters, again and again, you know, the same word comes to me that I can start again. I can go back to the Lord and say, "Lord, here I am. Start again. Start this work 52:16 in me because that's the business you're in. You're able to do this. Let me start again from now." Change me. Here's my cup, Lord. Fill it up. And in in relation to this, yeah, I was thinking about what we just heard 52:35 and the ministry that we have to be faithful to each other. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 25. It says, "Therefore, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 25, therefore laying aside falsehood, 52:53 speak truth each one of you with his neighbor." And you know, it says, "Therefore," when I see the therefore, I have to go to the verse before that. The verse before that says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new self which is in the 53:08 likeness of God which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." Because God is in this business of transforming me, of changing me into his image. And because 53:25 everyone here who's a disciple has come here with that desire saying, "Lord, I want you to do this in my life and you're able to do this in my life and I have a desire for this. I thirst for this." Says, "Therefore, speak truth 53:42 each of you to his neighbor. Point to the reality of who God is in our speech. And this is not in church on Sundays as we've heard because what sort of a reality would that be? That would be a show. That would be the outside. 53:59 You know? In our lives when we get the opportunity, speak the truth. What is speak the truth? It's not just I don't tell lies. No, no. Point to the reality of who God is. And what he's able to do and his desire 54:18 for us. My words should point to that reality. Yeah. For we are members of one another. That is how we can encourage each other. This is who the Lord is. This is what he wants to do. This is what he's able to do. This is what he's done in me. 54:37 And we can start again. We can turn our cup and he will fill it. Brothers and sisters, let's bow our heads and pray.
