0:03 I was seeking the Lord for a word for the coming year. There's nothing sacred about December 31st or January the 1st because calendars were made by 0:22 man. But it was God who determined many thousands of years ago that the earth should go around the sun once in 365 and a quarter days. That was not determined by 0:42 man. So whatever date you choose, whether it's your birthday or December 31st or whatever it is, it's good once in a year to have a checkup on our lives. doesn't have to be December 31st, but 1:00 that's a convenient date because everybody's emotionally ready to hear what God has to say. Uh, one of the things that the Lord says in Hebrews chapter 1:18 12, and I believe that this is something that'll be more and more true in the coming year. Jesus said, "In the world, you'll have tribulation, but in me, you will have 1:39 peace. Tribulation is like, you know, earthquakes and peace is like stability. In the world you shall have tribulation, he said, "But in me you have 1:57 peace." John 16:33. And Hebrews 12, we read in verse 26, God's voice shook the earth. That's going back to the time 2:14 when the law was given on Mount Si. The earth shook. But now he has promised yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the 2:31 heaven. And this expression yet once more denotes, I want you to read, listen to this carefully, the removing of everything that can be shaken as of created things so that the things which cannot be 2:51 shaken may [Music] remain. So the coming year is going to be a year of shaking. The things which can be shaken will be 3:09 shaken and things which cannot be shaken will remain since we are receiving a kingdom verse 28 that cannot be shaken. If you have planted both your feet 3:27 firmly in the kingdom of God, not one foot there and one foot in the kingdom of earth as it is with most believers. But if you have planted your feet firmly, both feet in the kingdom of God, 3:46 then we have a kingdom which cannot be shaken. And then let us show gratitude. That's how we serve God. It says here by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. In the Old 4:08 Testament, they offered service to God out of fear. The wrong type of fear. Fear of judgment. If I don't do it, God will punish me. If I don't pay my tithe, God will curse me. If I don't give the stipulated 4:27 offerings, I may suffer. My children may suffer. But in the new covenant, it says here, we offer acceptable service. How? By gratitude. Do you see that word? Verse 28, gratitude. That's not something that 4:47 comes naturally. It's something we have to uh it comes only when we meditate on how much God has done for us. We are basically such selfish 5:06 creatures that we don't think of expressing gratitude easily. We think God owes us a living. Everybody around us owes us a living and um we think we're such great people 5:26 that we don't think of even giving thanks when people have done something for us. It's a very rare thing that I have seen when people are really grateful. Gratitude is a not thing that you find commonly. I mean, we know 5:43 the civilization teaches us to be courteous and to say thank you and sorry and all, but gratitude is more than just saying thank you. It's a deep attitude in the heart where I'm deeply thankful to God for what he's done for 5:58 me. And only then can I offer an acceptable service to him. If my service does not arise out of gratitude, it's worthless. If it arises because I want to get some reward in heaven or because I want to 6:16 show others how spiritual I am or get some position in the church or some rubbish like that. It's not acceptable. It says acceptable service must come out of gratitude and it must be offered with deep reverence for God. That's what it 6:35 says here. If our service for God does not come out of deep reverence for him, it's not acceptable. We unfortunately we have a lot of approaching God today and you see that in some 6:52 of the choruses that are I don't mean the ones we sing here but a lot of others that are sung in some churches where Jesus is like a buddy. a buddy, you put your arm around and say hi. There's very little reverence and that's why their lives are 7:12 shaky. If you don't have gratitude and you don't have re reverence, I can assure you your whole life is going to shake in the coming year. And let's turn to a passage where Jesus spoke about something that can shake and something that cannot shake in 7:29 Matthew chapter 7. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We want to be both feet in that kingdom in the coming year. Do you want to go through 365 7:49 days in the coming year without being shaken? I can think of many things that many things that I faced in my life and ministry particularly in the ministry in u what's it 8:09 364 days of this year and we got two more days left to complete the leap year but as far as I can think can't remember a single day when I was shaken Even when some terrible things happen, 8:28 it's fine. God is on the throne. And I believe we can live a life where 365 days of the year we will not be shaken no matter what happens in our life, in our 8:47 home, and in our church. It's only God who can do that. He says everything created can be shaken if you depend on depend on your created abilities. That's what he read in Hebrews 12 that everything created will be shaken. Even the heavens will be shaken. 9:06 Where are we going to stand? But if we have what the Bible calls an indestructible life in us. Yeah, maybe I should show you that verse before we go to Hebrews 7. Mark, Matthew 7. If you're not familiar with that verse, it's a lovely verse in 9:23 Hebrews in chapter 7 where it speaks about an indestructible life. In verse 16, he says, "The Old Testament priests became priests because they belong to the tribe of 9:42 Levi, a physical requirement. No matter how zealous you were, you couldn't be a priest in the Old Testament if you didn't belong to the tribe of Levi. But in the New Testament, he says priesthood is not according to any 9:58 physical requirement that you must belong to a particular community or nothing physical. It's nothing created. Created will all shake but to the power of an indestructible life. Something that cannot be destroyed. That's the type of life God gives 10:17 us. That's what he gives us through the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you something. A lot of people who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be fooled by it. the Holy Spirit. It's an absolute insult 10:33 to say a man's filled with the for a person to claim he's filled with the Holy Spirit and then lose his temper or love money or get bitter or be unforgiving or be anxious. What type of Holy Spirit is that? It's absolute 10:48 insult to the Holy Spirit to say I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and to lust after women and watch internet pornography and all the other wretched things that a lot of people who speak in tongues, they say they speak in tonesues and do all 11:00 these other things as well. It's not the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit, he'll give you an indestructible life, a joy that nobody can take away from you, a peace that passes understanding. These are scriptural 11:15 verses. and a love that passes knowledge. So there's an indestructible life that the Holy Spirit gives us. So in everything I'm going to say, please remember it's the Holy Spirit who's going to make this real in your life. 11:31 And the Holy Spirit will fill you if you yield every area of your life to him. He's waiting to fill you. A lot of people think that I'm more eager to be filled with the Holy Spirit than God is eager to fill me. That's not 11:48 true. I formed a definition of faith which has helped me a lot. It's based on scripture but I can't find it in one particular verse. It's the overall truth of New Testament. One definition of faith. There are many definitions but one of 12:06 them that I found helpful is this. to believe that God is more eager to bless me than I am to be blessed. You got it? God is more eager to fill me with the Holy Spirit than I am to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 12:24 God is more eager to make me holy than I am to be holy. God is more eager to cleanse me of all my sin than I am to be cleansed of all my sin. God is more eager to help me to live according to the standard in the New Testament than I am eager to live 12:41 according to that standard. That's faith. If any of you got the crazy idea that you are more eager for something and God is reluctant and you got to twist his arm and force him and pray and fast and you're not have you don't have 12:55 faith. You don't have faith at all. No wonder you don't get anything. You can pray all night, you won't get anything. It's not the length of hours we pray. The prophets of Baal prayed for hours. They got nothing. Elijah prayed for half 13:08 a minute and look what he got. The fire from heaven. It's faith and not the type of faith that you read of in books in the Christian bookshops. Is this type of faith that gives us an indestructible life by the power of the Holy Spirit. A life that 13:26 cannot be destroyed. where people throw cold water on you and the fire still burns. That's indestructible fire. That's the power of the Holy Spirit. And if you haven't got that, I want to tell you, ask God for it and believe. Believe means believe that he 13:45 is more eager to give it to you than you are to receive it. The sunlight is more eager to come into your room than you are eager. You pull a curtain. That's why the sunlight doesn't come in. So if you pull a curtain or pull the blinds 13:59 down and say, "Oh, sunlight come in, come in." It's not going to come in. And that's exactly how a lot of people are praying for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You can pray for a 100 years, the sunlight won't come in. If you pull 14:10 the blinds down, pull the curtains, where you going, where's the sunlight going to come in? It's exactly like that. I want to urge you, don't waste your time praying for the Holy Spirit like that. Just see if there are areas in your life that 14:23 you're completely shut off to God. rooms in your heart that you don't want Christ to enter and cleanse and get rid of things in your home. Do you remember in the in Ephesus when Paul preached there was a revival people brought piles 14:38 of books worth hundreds of thousands of rupees and burned it all up. Think of a day comes in your life when you get rid of everything in your life that's dishonoring to God. books and DVDs of movies and music and all that Jesus 14:56 Christ would never want to hear and you don't give it to the junk man who'll sell it to somebody else but you'll destroy them. Ah, when you're serious, I tell you, you'll get filled with the Holy Spirit pretty soon. When you say, "Lord, take 15:10 care of my finances. I'm going to give you everything area of my life. I'm going to return everything I took wrongfully." And uh even if people have forgotten the debts they owed me, I'm going to repay it. And you you open up 15:20 every single area of your life. And you're quick to acknowledge your fault, especially in your relationship as husband and wife. I'll tell you something, it's very easy to acknowledge your fault to a stranger. But let me see whether you can 15:36 acknowledge your fault quickly to your wife or to your husband. That is where um you decide whether you are willing to open that door of humility in your life. If you're not quick to do that, if you have to hesitate and think about it and 15:55 all that, brother, sister, I have to warn you. You'll be shaken in the coming year. You will be shaken. And don't wonder why there's an area of your life you refuse to yield to God to give you that indestructible 16:13 life. So let me turn you to Matthew chapter 7. Jesus, you know the story very well of the two builders. One man built on the rock that was unshakable. Verse 24 and 25. Matthew 7:24 25. The rain fell, the floods came, 16:32 the winds blew, and slammed against that house. What a word. Slammed against that house, and it did not fall, unshakable. But the foolish man, the rain fell, and the verse 27, the floods 16:50 came and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. What was the difference? Jesus said, "The difference is just this. Both of them, verse 24 and 26, they heard my words in that area. 17:08 They were both alike." There was one similarity with both these people. They both heard the words of Jesus. In other words, they both came for the Sunday services. How can they hear the words of Jesus if they didn't come for the Sunday 17:23 meetings? You know those days there nobody had a Bible. I don't know whether you know that these printed Bibles have been available only the last 500 years. In the days of Jesus, nobody had a Bible in their 17:41 home. If you wanted to hear the Bible, you had to go to the synagogue. And in the early days of the Christian church, if somebody had a copy, one copy for the church, they were lucky. You'd had to go to church Sunday morning to listen to the words of God. 17:59 So, let me read it like this. These two people were people who went to Sunday services regularly. They never missed a Sunday. And yet, one one man's life shook and the other man's was unshakable. There's going to be a line 18:14 drawn here in our midst between those whose lives will shake in the coming year and those whose lives will not shake in the coming year. And it all depends on whether you just listen or like the wise man, listen and 18:33 obey. That was the only difference. One man decided, I'm going to obey. And that obedience was costly because he had to dig until he hit rock. He had to spend more money, spend more 18:52 time. He had to blast the rock. They didn't have dynamite those days. I don't know how long it took to for him to just lay the foundation. But because he took time to make sure that there was a deep foundation and remember the foundation 19:09 is the hidden area of our life. This this building's got a foundation. Um none of you have ever seen it. I saw it when it was being built. Otherwise I wouldn't see it either. But that is what gives strength to this building. The hidden part. And there's a 19:27 hidden area in your life which determines whether when the wind slams and the floods come you will shake or not. It's not the visible part which everybody can see. It's that hidden part of every building that you see. It's that foundation that determines 19:47 whether it'll shake or not. And Jesus was talking here not about the beauty of the building, not how many floors it had. The wise man, the foolish man could have had many floors. That's not the point. May have put beautiful paint on 20:01 it. It's not the point. The important thing is what's the foundation like? The wise man's house may have been a small one, but it lasted. So don't be impressed by the externals in the Christians you see around 20:19 you. Don't be taken up with the externals in churches. Look for the hidden life. What you are when you're alone before God, that's what you really 20:35 are. The rest is all public show. What you are when you're alone before God, that's what you really are. So in that area of our life which nobody can see, there's something you can do. 20:54 with the help of the Holy Spirit that can make your life unshakable 365 days of the coming year. Now there are many things you know Jesus was saying these words of mine that means particularly referring to the sermon on the mount and 21:08 that's why through all these 37 years of this church we have kept on preaching frequently on the sermon on the mount. Why? Because that's the only way to build an unshakable life. That's the only way to build an unshakable family 21:23 life and home. And that's the only way to build an unshakable church. That's the only way to put our children on an unshakable foundation. Because we, if you follow what's written in these three chapters, Jesus guaranteed that the storm and the 21:38 winds and the waves and everything will not shake you at all. I believe his word. I've experienced a little bit of it. So I don't have time to go through the all of Matthew 5 6 and 7 but there's one particular part of it which I wanted 21:53 to share with you is just about seven or eight verses. Um and that's relating to prayer. Jesus said in verse six when you pray go into your inner room. Matthew 22:10 6:6, sorry. Matthew 6:6. When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your father in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. That reward will be that you will not 22:29 shake. But there's got something you have to have in secret. And you know, it's not that we cannot pray in public. very often we have prayer meetings, we are praying and other people are listening. He was not saying that every single time you pray you must 22:48 pray in secret because Jesus often prayed in public too. But there's a principle here and that's the thing we need to understand. He was contrasting it with people who like to pray. Verse five, don't be like the hypocrites who pray in 23:03 the synagogues to be seen by men. That's the point. The point is not how you pray or where you pray, but do you pray to be heard by people or to your father who sees in secret? That's the contrast. To be heard by 23:23 people or to your father who hears in secret. And if you were to examine your own life, the times whenever you have prayed in public, even if there's three or four people in your home and you 23:42 pray, if you're honest, and sometimes it's very difficult to be honest, but those are the people who really get blessed. If you're honest, you will acknowledge that much that you pray in public is not for God to 24:01 hear. It's just a formality. Other people are listening. Sometimes it is to impress them. But certainly you're very conscious of the people who are listening and you got to make sure that the prayer is according to their 24:20 will be accepted by them. So this business of closing the door is something we can do even when we're in public. You know, it's something I've tried for years to train myself to do that when I pray in public, as I shut my eyes, I want to close a door to 24:39 everybody around me and be conscious only of the father and pray to him. It's not easy, but if you work at it, work at it, it'll become easy. It's like learning how to swim or learning how to type. I mean in the 24:58 beginning it's difficult but over a period of time it'll become easy if you train if you don't train yourself. I mean if you never practice typing you'll never learn how to type. If you never practice swimming you don't learn how to 25:09 swim. And if you never practice this shutting the door even when you're praying in public even after 50 years you'll be praying seeking honor. But if you work at it and say Lord I want to shut the door and I want to focus on you. That's 25:27 the main thing to focus on God. There's no verse in the Bible which says you must shut your eyes when you pray. You can keep your eyes open. Jesus sometimes opened his eyes and prayed looking up. But the point, the reason to shut our 25:40 eyes so we don't get distracted. We want to focus on God. We want to focus on God. And it says here, that's how it says in this other paraphrase, the focus will then shift from you to 26:00 God. And it says here, the world is full of so-called prayer warriors. Do you like the phrase prayer warrior? It's a very common phrase nowadays in Christian circles, never found in the Bible. But a lot of people like to imagine that they 26:17 are prayer warriors and they like to talk about being prayer warriors. It says here they are prayer ignorant. I agree what a lot of things people do to get honor. I'm a prayer warrior. 26:34 Wow, what a wonderful person there are. So the world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer ignorant. I'm reading the message paraphrase. They are full of formulas and programs and advice peddling their techniques. That 26:50 means they sell their books for money. How to become a prayer warrior. Peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. You're dealing with a father in heaven. He knows better than you what 27:09 you need. And with a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. I like that. When the focus shifts from you to God. True prayer is when the focus 27:25 shifts from you to God. Ask yourself when you pray, has your focus shifted from you to God? No. Even when we pray, we're asking for ourselves. It's not on God. I'm not saying we shouldn't ask for ourselves. But question is where is our 27:43 focus? And that is the secret of the Christian life. An unshakable life is one where our focus has shifted from ourselves to God. Not only in prayer, but in 28:00 everything. It's God's name and God's honor and God's kingdom that concern us more than us and what I'm going to get and how other people are treating me and expecting things from other people. I was telling somebody the other 28:17 day that if you want to live a happy life, you got to die spiritually, inwardly. And one characteristic of dead people is they have no expectations. You walk through any graveyard, nobody there is expecting 28:36 anything from you. Expectations, zero. That's the mark of a dead man. You want a happy married life, have zero expectations. You want a miserable married life, have plenty of expectations. My wife must do this and 28:55 my husband must do this. The more expectations you have, the more miserable your married life is going to be. No matter what denomination of Christianity you claim to belong to or whatever experiences you say you have had or whatever doctrine you believe, if 29:10 you haven't died with Christ, you're not going to have a happy life. So expectations when the focus shifts from you to God and that hasn't shifted with many Christians that's why their life is shaky that's why they fight and 29:26 quarrel that's why there's so much of shaking in their homes that's why Christians divorce nowadays they get fed up they got expectations they claim to be Christians but they haven't died with Christ you cannot be a disciple of Jesus 29:39 without dying with Christ we have this false gospel that's being preached today saying come and Christ will give you this and Christ will give you that, Christ will give you the other thing. Whereas Jesus would say come and 29:50 die. That's the message we need to preach. That's what we preached in this church. Come and die. Who wants it? You don't like that message, brother, sister, there are hundreds of other churches that'll give you whatever you 30:03 want, please go there. We don't preach that message here. We preach the truth of scripture. Come and die. Because that's what Jesus said. If you want to come after me, take up your cross, which is another way of saying die daily and follow me. Paul says in 1 30:19 Corinthians 15, I die daily. And he says even more than that in 2 Corinthians 4:10, always bearing in my body the dying of Jesus. So that's what it means to shift our focus from ourselves to God. Let me show you that verse in 2 Corinthians 30:37 chapter 4. It's a verse that we have often quoted in our church in the olden days, but we haven't quoted it recently. I notice 2 Corinthians 4:10. This is the secret of having the 30:56 life of Jesus manifested in our body. If I were to ask you, how many of you want the life of Jesus Christ to be manifested in your body through your eyes and through your tongue and through your hands and through your personality? 31:11 We would all say yes. Now, my question is, are you willing to pay the price? You know, you go to some shop and you find a wonderful gadget which will really help you in your home. You say, I'd like to have that. And the 31:23 shopkeeper says, are you willing to pay the price? You have the money, but you don't want to pay the price. He can't have it. So do you want to pay the price? Here it is. Always carrying in our body the dying of Jesus. That's the 31:40 price. Always means 24/7. 24/7 I die with Christ to this world to my self life to focusing on myself. I 31:58 die. But because Christ lives in me, I'm not dead. I mean, if I died and Christ didn't live in me, I'd be in the grave. But if I die, the Bible says, if we die with him, we live with him. And inwardly, if I choose to die, 32:14 Christ will live. That's what it says here. If I die always, the life of Jesus will be manifested always. If I choose to die one minute a day, the life of Jesus will be manifested me one minute in a day. The rest of the 24 hours, 32:29 it'll be my old Adamic life that's manifested. That's my choice. So, and there's no partiality with God. The price is the same for everybody. And who are the people who think this is a very hard message? I'll tell 32:48 you. Listen. Those who think their own life is better than the life of Jesus. I don't want the life of Jesus. My own life is pretty good. Okay, brother. Keep it. Those who think that the life they inherited from Adam is much better than 33:05 the life of Jesus, they won't die to it. I've often compared this to um you know if someone were to come to you and say if you give me a bucket of garbage I'll give you an equal bucket of 33:22 gold. You say let me pray about it and see whether I want that or not. Can you imagine anybody so crazy? I mean you think it's a joke. I mean can it be possible? Who in the world will exchange a bucket of garbage? I want to get rid 33:40 of this garbage in any case. I don't want anything in exchange. The guy's willing to give me a bucket of gold. This is exactly what it is. How many of you believe that this Adamic life, aren't you sick and tired of it? Everything that's come forth from it, 33:53 that's made your home life unhappy, that's made your relationship with other people unhappy, that's made you miserable, that makes you not get proper sleep at night and causes all types of problems. Don't you are you haven't you 34:05 aren't you convinced that it is garbage? Are you sick and tired of it enough to get rid of it? And why are you hesitant to die and say, "Lord, give me your life." It's exactly like that illustration, a bucket 34:24 of garbage for a bucket of gold. And I decided years ago, sure, Lord, even if you give me nothing, I want to get rid of this garbage. Leave alone. On top of that, you're going to give me gold. That's great. Always bearing in my body the 34:39 dying of Jesus. Why did Jesus come in our flesh? So that he could die to this self-will that he had all the way to Gethsemane. He was saying, "Not my will, but thine, oh father." That's why he lived such a perfect life. He had no 34:56 expectations from anybody. No, zero. He never got upset when people left him. He didn't have an expectation that they should always be with him. Give him some sense of security. And we read in John 6, so many 35:13 people left him. And he was just with 11 12 people. And he said, "Do you also want to go?" And Peter said, "No, we we got the words of eternal life." He said, "Yeah, you can say that, but one of you is still a devil. One of you will leave." And then 35:28 later on in John 16:32, he says, "All of you will leave." Yeah, you'll hang around me now, but when the Roman soldiers come and get some money, you'll all run away fearing for your own life, but I'm not alone. I'm not insecure 35:42 because you're all going to leave me. My father's with me. How many of you would feel insecure if everybody left you? Your families turned against you and all the brothers, all all the brothers and 35:59 sisters in the church turned against you and you're sitting alone at home. Nobody to visit you anymore. Would you be happy? I'll be happy. I say, Lord, you can all they can all go. I got my 36:18 father. I got my father. He's with me all the time. And like one old brother said, there are so many angels in the house that I got to push my way around to go from one room to the other. That's how I live. It's a wonderful way to live. It's 36:35 real. It's real. If you if heaven becomes real in your home, it's like that. You're missing something, brother, sister. When you don't die to that Adamic life, when your focus is on yourself, how other people are treating 36:51 you, what they're speaking about you behind your back, and what you can do with your life, are you willing to die to all that? What about the ambitions you have for yourself? Are you willing to die to that? You think you can make a 37:02 better plan for your life than God can make for you? You got to be crazy. You really got to be crazy to think that you can make a better plan for your life than God can make for you. It's like a beggar thinking that he can invest his 37:17 money better than some expert banker. It's crazy. All your ambitions, are you willing to die to them? Habits, hobbies, everything. I had a lot of habits and hobbies and 37:36 ambitions. I said, "Lord, you can do something better with all that than if I give them all up. But we can be so strong. I'll give up everything except this. You'll never be filled with the Holy Spirit even if you pray for a 100 years because there's 37:51 one thing you won't give up." And that's why we remain in bondage. I remember hearing a story of a little small little girl who put her hand inside a flower was it got stuck and she couldn't pull it 38:09 out. And mommy said, "Straighten your fingers and pull out your hand." She said, "If I straighten my fingers, I lose that coin that I'm holding on to." Well, then of course you'll never get free. That's it. There's something 38:23 you're holding on to and you're wanting liberty. You'll never get free. Examine your life. Is there something you're holding on to? I I'll give up everything except that I prophesy you'll never be free. You'll never be filled with the 38:40 Holy Spirit. You'll get some counterfeit experience in some Pentecostal charismatic church to satisfy you. But it'll never bring you this indestructible life of Jesus. For that, you have to die. Stop focusing on yourself and let 38:55 your focus be on God. And that was what he was saying here to shut out the world. And you know when you're alone before God then you pray thinking of God not of others. And then he told us how we should pray. It's not a question of many words. 39:14 He said in verse 7, the Gentiles think that if they pray a long time they'll be heard. You know, you read these biographies of people who prayed for two hours a day and four hours a day. I don't know how long Peter prayed 39:30 and Paul prayed. The Bible always says, "Pray always." Luke 18:1, "Men should pray always." 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 17, pray without ceasing. Every place that I read in the New 39:49 Testament, it never says pray for half an hour or 10 minutes or two hours or four hours. It's pray without ceasing. So some people come to me and say, "Brother Zach, I've heard that some great man of God prayed for four hours, 40:03 some prayed for two hours." And brother Zach, how how long do you pray? I say 24 hours. It's like breathing for me. You're asking me how often do you breathe? I say, well, not two hours a day. I'd die if I pray for breathe for two hours a day. I see. I 40:19 follow scripture in Luke 18:1. Pray always. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 18. Pray always. It's like breathing all the time. It's life of dependence upon God all the time. Don't be fooled by 40:37 biographies. Read the Bible. Don't be impressed by biographies. Read the Bible and see if it is there. Follow scripture. The follow the words of Jesus. Make his words your guide. And he said when you pray, pray like 40:57 this. Verse 9. If you don't want to be shaken, listen to these words of Jesus and obey them. There's nothing wrong in saying, "Oh Lord, oh God." You know, the apostles also sometimes prayed like that. that you read in Acts chapter 4. 41:14 But your attitude should be you must recognize that you're praying to a father. So I prefer when I pray to pray to a father just like Jesus said. And if that has not become a habit in your life, try and develop it. In my younger days, I used to 41:33 whenever I prayed, I said, "Oh God, there's nothing wrong in that because we are praying to God." provided at the back of your mind you recognize that he's also your dad. But if that is a problem then you should discipline yourself to pray 41:51 father dad. That's the way we're supposed to pray. Jesus said that. He says not like those people in the Old Testament. You never read this in the Old Testament. Nobody in the Old Testament prayed saying oh father. Not even one. They prayed oh God. And when I 42:07 pray like that, I'm an Old Testament person, but I'm I don't want to live in the Old Testament. I want to live in the New Covenant. I want to obey what Jesus said. He said, "When you pray, talk to God as your father." And not that means one who 42:23 knows all your need, one who cares for you. Think of think if you think of the best earthly father when you pray to God. That's a good way to think about it. You know those of you for example who have a problem wondering whether God 42:36 forgave some sin you committed few years ago. Maybe it was a terrible sin and you confessed it already 500 times but you're still not sure whether God forgave you. Then I say I think of God as a father. Supposing I have a 5-year-old 42:55 son who comes to me and says dad you know you did something wrong today. I'm sorry I disobeyed you. Will you please forgive me? I say, "Sure, son. Forgiven. Forget it." And the next day he comes to me and says, "Dad, you 43:09 remember what I did yesterday. Will you please forgive me?" I said, "Listen, I told you yesterday it's forgiven." And one year later, he comes to me and says, "Dad, you remember one year ago I did that thing. Will you please forgive me?" 43:21 I said, "Dear me, am I a liar? I want to ask you, do you go to God like that? Lord, you remember that thing I did one year ago? Have you forgiven me? Your God is a liar, right? He said he'd forgive you, but he didn't forgive 43:39 you. Your earthly father was more honest than your heavenly father. You don't have a correct picture of God. When he says, "I've forgiven you. I've forgiven you." When he says, "I will not remember your sins anymore," he means 43:54 it. I'm telling you the battle I had in my own life with this till I saw he has blotted out the past. Not to make me take sin lightly. No. When I realized he blotted out the past and the price he paid to blot out 44:13 the past that he had to hang between heaven and earth on a cross. Boy, that didn't make me take sin lightly. It made me take sin much more seriously. father. He's a father who cares, 44:31 provides. Little children don't have to be anxious. Orphans have to be anxious because they don't have a father or mother. They don't know whether their uncles and aunts will treat them kindly. But children, do your children 44:46 have to worry? They're not orphans. Think if both their parents, you and your husband or wife had died and they're alone and at the mercy of some uncle or aunt. I don't know what'll be their fate. But have you got a uncle in 45:02 heaven or a father? Some of you pray as if dear uncle, he's not your uncle, he's your dad. I hope these things will become clear to you, my brothers and sisters. is it made a tremendous difference in my 45:21 life. It'll be your life will be unshakable. And when you pray our father, pray our father who is in heaven. Don't forget that he's not some old buddy of yours whom we can just say hi. There's a balance here. He is our 45:40 dad, but he's not just an earthly dad. He's in heaven. Don't forget that the sinless angels, sinless angels cover their faces when they come before him. We read in Isaiah 6 and they say, "Holy, holy, 45:58 holy." Sinless angels cover their faces. This is the one we are praying to. Holy, holy, holy. One who is holy, one who is totally pure, and one who is the ruler of this 46:15 universe, one for whom nothing is impossible. Jesus said, "Before you even begin to pray, get your foundation right, see who you're praying to." You know why there's so much unbelief in our prayer? Because we don't begin with our 46:33 father who art in heaven and understand the full implication of that simple statement. One who loves me, one who can do anything he wants. That's the one I'm praying to. And he Jesus prefaced it by saying in 46:51 verse 8, "Your father knows what you need before you ask him." What a wonderful thing. He knows what I need before I ask him. Then why does he want me to ask? Because he wants me to have the joy of answered prayer. There are thousands of things he 47:11 gives us without our asking. For example, the functioning of our bodies in perfect ways. Perfect functioning of our bodies. It's all God's provision. He He does that. that he's kept your heart beating for so many years without even 47:31 your asking him. I don't think any of you have prayed saying Lord please keep my heart beating today the whole day but he answered that without you even your asking for so many years doesn't he love you there are millions of things like 47:46 that which we don't even think of which he does for us without our asking but he wants us to have the joy of answered prayer when you pray for the conversion of your children he wants you to believe that You're praying according 48:03 to his will. When you're praying that your children will grow up to be God-fearing, that they'll marry God-fearing partners. You're praying according to God's will. You got a father in heaven. You You want an unshakable life? Learn to 48:19 pray to a father in heaven. And then in this prayer, there are six requests. Six requests that we pray to our father in heaven. And uh the important thing to recognize 48:36 is the first three concern God and the next three concern us. That's what I mean by shifting our focus to God and not to us. This is what it 48:54 means to this is how we are going to be unshaken if you don't learn to pray like this. And prayer means our life. If you don't learn to live like this, your life will be shakable and will shake. See, when we pray, I'm not saying 49:12 that every single time we pray, we must pray in exactly these words. We're talking about the direction of our life and the focus of our life. That my primary ambition in life is not concerning myself. the focus has 49:30 shifted from myself. You know sometimes uh when they have a musical performance and there are a whole lot of people on the in a dark stage whole lot of people playing various instruments the search light will focus on that one singer 49:47 who's standing in the middle and the others you see in the shadows they're there but the search light is on this one person standing and singing in the middle. So that's what I mean by making the focus on God. Yeah, our needs are 50:03 there like the other magicians in the background. They are not ignored. But if you put your focus on God, those other needs will be met quicker. That's what the Lord is trying to say. The whole problem with man is that he is centered in 50:19 himself. And the Lord says, get out of that. When you pray, let your first request be Lord, let your name be hallowed, respected, honored number one. God, let your name be honored in India. I prayed that prayer for India 50:39 many, many times. That your name be glorified and honored in India. I don't pray for the conversion of people in India because Jesus said very few will find the way to life. So, I don't believe all 1,200 million people are going to come rushing into God's 50:53 kingdom. But I do pray this Lord let your name be glorified in India. Let your name be glorified in my home. That must be your number one request. Let your name be respected and honored. And secondly, let your kingdom 51:12 come. Boy, when I hear about all the way women are being molested and raped and murdered, a spontaneous cry comes out from my heart. Lord this wicked world, Lord Jesus, come soon and establish your 51:31 kingdom. You find a prayer like that. Where has it got to be established first? In my heart, then in my home, then in my church, and then in the world. So I got to if I want that to be established the world, let me pray. 51:48 First of all, it'll be in my heart. Lord, I want your kingdom. Kingdom means government. We don't use the word kingdom so much but government. Government of India. The olden days it was the kingdom of Israel. The government of God. Lord I want to 52:03 come under your government like we obey the rules of the government of India. I want to obey the rules of your government. Ma let your government come in my life and let your will be done in my life exactly as it is done in heaven. What a prayer. Just like 52:21 those angels are just waiting to do your will. And when God says something, no angel says, "I'm going to think about it." Only foolish human beings say that. When they read something in scripture to think about it, are you a Christian that 52:38 you read something in scripture and you got to think about it? No. Let your will be done in my life as it is done in heaven. Lord, I want to I want How do the angels know God's will? They don't run around all the time busy doing something or the other. 52:53 They'd never hear God. Some of us are so busy life with doing so many things. We have no time to hear God. Then you never know his will. Is your life so busy? If the de devil can't get you to sin, I'll tell you what the next thing 53:09 he'll do. He'll get you to be busy and he'll accomplish the same thing. You think it's only by sin that he ruins people? He ruins people by keeping them so busy they have no time to listen to God. Jesus said about Mary sitting at 53:23 his feet saying Mary has chosen that good part which is to listen. Listen. You'll never know God's will if you don't listen. The angels listen God Almighty. What do you want me to do? And God says to Gabriel, "Go down to 53:37 Nazareth and speak to that woman Mary." And he goes down and tells her and then comes back and says, "Okay, God, I've done that. What next?" That's how they do God's will in heaven. God, what do you want me to do? An attitude. Not 53:50 consciously saying it, but an attitude. Lord, I'm always available. I want your will to be done on earth as it's done in heaven. Then come our requests. Give us this day our daily bread. Now, we would think that a spiritual person should put the 54:06 spiritual request like forgiveness first. Jesus said he was very realistic. We need physical health in order to do God's will. I see the connection between let your will be done on my life as it is done in heaven and in order to do 54:21 your will on earth. Lord, I need health. So please give me my daily bread. You see the connection between those two. We have a right to ask for material things. That's what he taught us here. And by food that means includes 54:39 clothing, housing, education for my children so that they can earn their daily bread when they grow up. It's all included. But Jesus taught us to ask for necessities. Not give us this day our daily ice cream, but give us this day 54:58 our daily bread. I mean, God may give you ice cream. He gives us a lot of extras. But we can ask for necessities. Lord, I want this. Don't be ashamed to ask God. I ask him if you want healing. Ask him for healing. 55:17 Sure, he'll help you. He cares for us. He's a father. He's interested in your getting a job. How will you earn bread if you don't have a job? Is God interested in getting you're getting a job? Of course. Is he interested in your finding a good 55:32 marriage partner? Of course. Doesn't he want another generation to come up? Is he interested in you having children? Sure. So that there can be another generation that grows up for God. You know, we we don't understand how much God cares for 55:47 us. He's interested in all these things. Don't be afraid to ask him. Jesus taught us to pray and forgive us our debts as we forgive others. Very important. God will treat you. Listen, God will treat you exactly like you treat other people. 56:03 You are hard on the servant in your home. You wonder why God is hard on you. You don't forgive somebody, God won't forgive you. Cuz God will treat you exactly like you treat others. Are you hard on your wife, brother? Don't be 56:22 surprised that God is hard on you. The Bible says that in 1 Peter 3:7, some husband doesn't treat his wife in a good way. says, "God won't even listen to his prayer." No wonder God doesn't listen to the prayers of so many 56:37 people. You don't seek to respect your husband and well, God's not going to treat you properly either. Learn to treat other people the way you want God to treat you. Even if that's the only reason, selfish reason. Uh treat others the way God you want God 56:56 to treat you. Forgive us Lord just like we forgive others completely and don't lead us into temptation meaning don't lead me into temptation that's too strong for me and God will do that look it's like saying God will provide us our daily 57:12 bread but we still pray for it God has promised that he'll never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability but we still pray and when we pray we are acknowledging Lord there are some temptations too strong for me I I don't want to go to that internet 57:28 pornographic site because it may be too strong a temptation for me. I don't want to prove like an overcomer. I don't want to walk into dirty bookstores. Temptation may be too strong for me. Lead me not into temptation and then deliver me from 57:45 evil. Now, you can't ask God to deliver you from evil if you yourself walk into temptation. The two go together. Lord, I recognize that some temptations too strong for me, so I don't want to go there. And please help me that you'll 58:01 never take me there. And deliver me from all evil. Lord, I have a great longing to be completely free from sin. Deliver me from all evil. Deliver me from the devil having any power over my life or my home. And I promise you, I'll give 58:16 you all the glory. Verse 13, it's all yours. this must be our way of life. And Jesus said, "The wise man hears these words and he patterns his life according to 58:35 this and the wind slammed against his house and the floods came and the rain fell. His house didn't fall." We've got the opportunity to begin a new year in this way where our focus is shifting from myself to God. And you 58:55 will discover that he'll take better care of you and your family than last year when you focused on yourself because his promise is seek the kingdom of God first and your earthly needs will be added to you. I have 59:13 proved that for many many years and I wish you a happy new year of proving that 365 days of 2013. Let's pray. Heavenly 59:38 Father, it's really very simple what you have spoken to us. Not 10,000 complicated things, but just one thing to stop focusing on ourselves and to focus on you Lord Jesus. That's what you came to earth for. To deliver us 59:58 deliver us from our self centered life. To be centered in you. To treat other people the way you want we want you to treat us. Help us to learn that way. To die to our self-centerness and the demands we make on other people that make us upset with them and 1:00:16 make us gloomy and miserable ourselves. Give us that indestructible life of Jesus. Lord, in this coming year, we pray through the power of the Holy Spirit, we want to open up every area of our life. And any area that's not yielded, please show it to us. We 1:00:32 pray in Jesus name. Amen.
