0:00 I'll begin with the verse that [clears throat] Daniel just read. Galatians in chapter 5 and verse 6. It's a very beautiful verse. In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision 0:23 means anything. But faith working through love. [clears throat] See there were two groups of Christians in the early days of Christianity in in Israel. One were those who emphasized 0:42 circumcision, the law. You can't be accepted if you don't keep the law. And the other was, "Oh, that's all finished. That's old covenant." And so Paul said, "The main thing is not your arguing about all these things. 1:00 The main thing is to see in your life whether your faith is making you work through love to build up your own life and to build up other people." As I've observed Christendom through the years, 1:16 so over 60 years now, I've seen the main problem that comes in individual lives and in churches is the lack of balance. And where there is no balance, 1:35 the glory of God is missed. For example, when Paul wrote to Timothy, he wrote to him like this. And remember, Timothy's 45 years old when Paul is writing. And he says to him in 1 uh Timothy chapter 4 and verse 16, [clears throat] 1:54 "There are two things you need to pay close attention to. 1 Timothy 4:16. One is your personal life and the other is your doctrine, what you're teaching. Every one of us believes something. 2:12 That is the teaching you believe. But at the same time you have a life that you live. And what he's saying is you've got to pay close attention to both. It's like two legs you stand on. One is your teaching, your doctrine 2:29 and the other is the life you're living. And [clears throat] one leg should not be longer than the other. With most Christians that I have met their doctrine leg is much longer than their life leg. That means their doctrine they are so 2:45 pure but their life is about half that size. So, [clears throat] what did he say? You pay close attention to both. Make sure your life is equal to your doctrine. Is your doctrine pure? Your life should be equally long. Don't [clears throat] glory 3:03 in the fact that your doctrine is pure. We've [clears throat] had examples in the years that I've seen CFC people you know, arguing with others about doctrine. What you're teaching is not right, they say to some other people in some other 3:17 church. And what they're saying is right. What they're teaching is not right. But [clears throat] if this guy who's saying that to the other person if his own life is not balancing his doctrine, he he's an unsteady person 3:32 himself. There must be a balance. [clears throat] I remember many years ago as a young Christian when I was reading the Bible I read something in Leviticus [clears throat and cough] which really stuck with me through the 3:46 years. Now, unfortunately, many Christians don't read Leviticus. It's a book all about the It's an emphasis on holiness. And there [clears throat] are difficult passages, but Leviticus 26:13 is the word that has 4:03 rung in my mind for many years. Leviticus 26:13 because it applies [clears throat] to me and to all Christians. And when you think of loud land of Egypt from the land of slavery we were in in sin. The Lord says to them, "I am the Lord 4:20 your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt." In our case, from the land of slavery to sin. So that you will not be a slave to sin. And I broke the bars of your yoke so that you may walk erect. 4:40 That mean you must walk in a balanced way with both legs equal length. Your life must balance your teaching. If you boast about the rightness of your doctrine, the rightness of NCCF's doctrine, 4:58 oh brother, sister, your life must match up to that. If someone in other another church may say, [clears throat] "Well, those guys don't have a right doctrine. They baptize babies, whereas we know bap- infant baptism is wrong." 5:16 Well, if his life if his Christianity is better than yours, what are you going to teach him about water baptism? You need to judge yourself. I've met Christians like that who are really godly and who seem to have a 5:33 slightly different doctrine from mine. Some people have sometimes wondered why I appreciate some Roman Catholics. Now, I completely disagree with Roman Catholic teaching and with a lot of their priestcraft and all that, 5:48 to me it's all garbage. But I met some saintly people among Roman Catholics and I appreciate and I say, for example, I've often spoken about Mother Teresa in India. [clears throat] There are millions and millions of poor 6:03 beggars in India who are helpless on the streets and the number keeps increasing. I have done nothing for them. I've sometimes given them some money. But I've not picked them up off the streets and tried to take care of them. 6:20 This lady did that. Am I going to criticize and she does it in the name of Christ. She's not doing it for money. And she says things like I got place only for one person in my heart, that is Jesus Christ, not for Mary, for Jesus 6:33 Christ. And so people have asked me, "Brother Zach, how can you appreciate that person? She prays to Mary." I said, "That is an intellectual problem she has in her head. She was taught from childhood to pray to Mary. That's a 6:44 wrong thing. Okay, forget it. But look at her heart. Don't look at her mind. Look at her heart. I think her heart is better than mine. But not that I have to do what she does. We have different ministries in the body. I'm quite happy for her to do what 6:57 she does. I have to do what I do. God didn't call me to look after the poor on the streets. He asked me to build the body of Christ. Are both important? Yes. Paul did not spend his life looking after the poor people on the streets. He built the body of 7:10 Christ, but there were other people through the years who've done that other part of Christ's ministry. So what I mean is when you try to stand up for the truth of the doctrine that CFC churches and NCCF stands for, dear brothers and sisters, I'm not 7:28 saying this is a judgment or a criticism, but you judge yourself and see whether your life is backing up the uprightness of your doctrine. Your doctrine is so pure, so right. Is your life as much better 7:45 than those other people's lives who have a slightly wrong doctrine? If we don't do that, we are unconsciously going to become a little proud of our doctrine. That our left leg is the right size. And we don't even realize that our right leg 8:02 is half that size. And we're not walking upright. Like this verse said in Leviticus, I didn't I save you so that you'll walk upright and direct. Not like a lame man limping along. If we could see [clears throat] what the way I see some 8:18 brothers and sisters who are in CFC churches. If you could see the way they are walking in God's eyes, it's like a lame man. One leg is shorter than the other. They'll It's so obvious that their life is much shorter than their doctrine. Their doctrine they 8:32 stand up for. But that's much longer than their life leg. You need to ask yourself, is that how you You see a man walking like this? One leg shorter, one leg the other. That's exactly how it is spiritually with many people whose life is not at 8:45 all equal with their doctrine. But they boast so much about their doctrine. Otherwise, you should not boast so much about your doctrine. Does that mean doctrine is not important? Of course, it is. Because without the correct doctrine, you're not 9:00 going to find place in God's kingdom and you're not going to build the body of Christ. That's very, very important. Take heed to your life and to your doctrine. Paul told Timothy. Even in John chapter 1, [clears throat and cough] 9:15 you see uh he says that about the You see the word the phrase the glory of God. In my younger days when I didn't know what the glory of God was, I thought glory of God means a tremendous bright light. In the Old Testament, you read about 9:32 Moses saw the glory of God. Isaiah saw the glory of God. And I think all it means is a fantastically bright light which blinds you. Or like the disciples saw in the Mount of Transfiguration, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It was just a 9:46 bright light. But that's the old covenant understanding of the glory of God. What is your new covenant understanding of the glory of God? In the new covenant, we're not children. We are mature. One difference between old covenant and 10:00 new covenant is that God treated the old covenant people like babies. But we are like grown-up sons. He's given us the right to be the sons of God. And a son should have a better understanding than a baby. What is your understanding of the glory of God? If 10:17 somebody asks you, "Describe the glory of God for me." How can you How do you manifest the glory of God in your life? Okay. Here it is. John 1:14. How did Jesus manifest the glory of God in his life? That's my example. Always 10:35 You say, "Whenever you see a word in scripture that you don't Well, let's say in a word in a You read a word in a book and you don't know the meaning of it. I had a habit of uh closing that book and picking up the dictionary. 10:51 If I read a word in the newspaper or the internet, I don't know the meaning. I stop, pick up a dictionary. That's how I improved my English, by the way. Find out the meaning of that word. And I learned a lot of English that way 11:02 by immediately stopping, closing the book, or turning away from what I'm watching, and say, "Let me take a dictionary and learn that." Now, people who don't have that habit of immediately looking at it, their English will never improve. 11:17 They'll hear that word 25 times and not know the meaning of it. Now, the same thing with scripture. Whenever I heard somebody quoting a verse and I didn't know the meaning I didn't know what the reference was. I would turn to my Bible. See, 11:31 unfortunately, today we have so many people who are not familiar with the Bible and they don't even have a They don't even bring a Bible to the meetings. And okay, they have it on their phone, but at least I hope they're referring to 11:43 it and constantly referring to it whenever they come across a verse that they don't know. Very, very important. So, here's the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. John chapter 1 verse 14. The word became flesh. That's Jesus came 12:00 as a human being. And dwelt among us, and we saw his glory. There's the word glory. But it's not just a bright light like Isaiah saw. The glory of God the Father. And here it is spelt out. 12:17 Equally full of grace and truth. Think of them as two legs. There was grace and truth in Jesus. And that is the perfect balance. There was not more truth than grace. 12:36 And it was not more grace than truth. And if I am want If I want the glory of God in my life, there must be a growth in both of these in my life. See, 2 Corinthians and chapter 3 12:55 uh In Let's look at chapter 4 verse 6 first. He's talking about way back Genesis chapter 1. 13:13 He's explaining the meaning of Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 and 3. Let light The Lord said, "Let there be light." You know, that's how the Bible begins. The remaking of the corrupt earth. Let there be light. And the remaking of our corrupt life 13:32 also begins with let there be light. And that's described in verse 6 as God who said let light shine out of the darkness is the one who has brought into our hearts the same word. He has spoken to our hearts let there be light one day. The day you were 13:48 born again was the day God spoken to your heart let there be light. And the light that what is that light? The light is the knowledge of the glory of God. In the face of Jesus Christ, what is that? Grace and truth. So in future 14:05 whenever you read the word the glory of God in the New Testament, in the Old Testament it's all just a bright light. In the New Testament always link it to a John 1:14. In the face of Jesus Christ grace and truth. So when it says here 14:22 God has shown into our hearts to give me a knowledge of that glory of God. Did you know that before today? That the glory of God was grace and truth. Well, if you don't know it, you know it at least today. A knowledge of the glory of God that 14:40 light has shown it's shown into my heart. And I understood it. But I so many years I thought it was just a bright light. I said no, it's not just a bright light. I'm in the new covenant. It is grace and truth in a balanced way. 14:55 I'm not going to be lame limping on one side with more grace or more truth. Grace and truth in a balanced way. And how would you feel if your little child is one leg is not growing as long as the other? You'd feel terrible. 15:10 You'd be disturbed about it day and night. Ask yourself. The Bible says we must judge ourselves. Examine ourselves. What should I examine myself? Not just if my doctrine is right, that's important. But also whether my grace leg is 15:29 matching up with my truth leg. That's the important thing. Is there a balance there? Am I growing in a balanced way? And that applies also to our place in the church. I told you that some people like uh 15:48 I have a ministry to help poor people, the beggars on the streets to take care of them. That's not my calling. But I'm not in competition with them. I'm not going to give up that that that type of ministry will get a person like Teresa Mother 16:03 Teresa got the Nobel Prize and some other awards in India and all that and gets a lot of honor in the world. The type of work we do building the body of Christ, you don't get any Nobel Prize or you get a lot of abuses from other people who when you 16:18 stand up with the truth. But we are not in competition. Praise God that she's doing a great work and let her get any amount of awards and prizes. I'm not going to go into that cuz that's not my calling. And that applies also within the church. 16:34 Don't think that all of you should be as gifted as I am in the matter of teaching. Your gift may be something else and I cannot be like you in that area. Just like you cannot be like me. So just like we need to know the balance 16:50 of grace and truth, we also need to know the balance within the body of Christ of different ministries in the body. The Bible speaks of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Which is more important? 17:07 I say both are important. The fruit of the Spirit is mentioned in Galatians 5. It's good for all of you, even children, you young people. Please know this verse. Galatians chapter 5 verse 23 and 17:27 22 and 23. All the nine fold fruit of the spirit. It's not not called fruits, plural. Please notice that. It's not the fruits of the spirit, it's the fruit. It's a single fruit. And 17:47 you open it up, it is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And I would urge all of you, my dear fellow believers, 18:03 to examine your heart to see if this nine-fold fruit is growing in you. Is there some area where you're lacking? Perhaps in one of these areas. Then work on it. You see, just like if your child is 18:22 studying nine subjects in school, and he's particularly weak in two or three subjects, you'll give him special tuition in those three subjects. He's already He's good in the other six. Examine your own life in the same way. 18:41 Look at this often. Galatians 5:22-23. And say, "Lord, here are nine subjects in my syllabus. Love, joy, peace, patience, 18:59 kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Yeah, all of you. Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, even young people. It's good you start early. And ask yourself, which subject are you weak in? 19:18 Get some special tuition in that. That means you ask the Holy Spirit, who's the teacher, say, "Lord, please give me a little help in this area." He has come to help you. Jesus, do you know what Jesus name Jesus gave to the 19:32 Holy Spirit? Helper. Helper. To help you in what? In the areas where you're lacking. Like special tuition. The piano tutor. You don't know head or tail about the piano. Your dad employs a tutor to 19:51 teach you. And you better listen to the tutor and you'll become a first-class pianist one day. So, the Holy Spirit is like a tutor. And if you find someone playing the piano excellently, that's a person who they didn't learn it from scratch. He 20:07 had a tutor. He listened to the tutor, obeyed the tutor, didn't argue with the tutor. He believed that the tutor knew he knew more, knows more than him. He didn't dare to tell the tutor, "No, I know more." He humbly submitted submitted to all 20:21 that discipline of practice, practice, practice, practice, and he become a first-class pianist. It's the same way in the Christian life. The Holy Spirit is like a tutor. And he'll tell you, "Hey, you're not playing that note correctly." 20:33 Don't argue with him. Lord, I need a little more patience. I get upset so easily. Please give me a little extra tuition in that. Yeah. And he'll bring you into situations. That's how he gives you tuition. When he brings you into situations where 20:50 you have to learn patience. So, when you come into a situation where you have to learn patience, just remember that the Holy Spirit is giving you extra tuition there. Don't get upset. Lord, you see I'm weak in this subject. 21:02 Please help me. So, this is how we grow if we honestly acknowledge that we are weak in certain subjects and we need some help to be balanced. We want to walk Our aim is to walk erect with both legs equally long and equally strong. 21:22 So, there's a lot in that. You can meditate on that. I don't want to go just into that. But, the other side is the gifts of the Spirit. You know, the ministry we have in the church. This is about personal life. And we need to watch that ourselves. 21:39 But, when it comes to the ministry in the church, also, we read in 1 Corinthians 12 an amazing statement. Now, some people say, "Oh, brother, I don't have any gift." That is not true. 21:56 Maybe you've neglected. Paul told Timothy, "Don't neglect the gift of God that is in you." That's a very, very good verse. "Don't neglect the gift of God that is in you." 22:14 I think it's in 1 Timothy 4. And uh or 5, one of those chapters. Now, I would say the same thing to you. You say, "Well, I don't have any gift." Well, let me ask you this question. Do you believe the Bible speaks the truth? 22:33 Well, here's the truth. 1 Corinthians 12:1 verse 7. Listen to this if you've never heard it before. To every single believer. Are you one of them? If you're not born again, this doesn't apply to you. 22:51 But, if you're born again, every single believer is given some manifestation of the Spirit. That means some gift of the spirit for the good of everybody else. It's like in a church, they say, "Okay, we're 23:11 going to have potluck dinner next Sunday. And everybody must bring something. Whatever it is. And I'm sure all of us in such a situation would bring something. If you're poor, you'll still bring a 23:29 bag of something. Because you want to contribute because you're a member of the body. I want to say to you in that same way recognize much more important than a potluck dinner where you feel embarrassed to come empty-handed. You 23:46 want to bring at least a bag of chips that you buy from the store. If you're maybe you're single and you're living by yourself. But you say, "Well, everybody, not just for the sake of embarrassment, but because you say, 'Everybody's bringing 23:58 something. I want to do something too.'" That's the spirit of fellowship in one body. It's exactly the same spiritually and much more important than bringing food is to say, "I want to bring something for the building up of the body." And 24:15 that doesn't mean getting up here and preaching. That's what I want to say. It's not just those who get up here to preach who are building the body of Christ. I have met a lot of people who never once get to the front 24:33 to speak. But who have a tremendous hidden ministry quietly going and helping different families. Maybe sending food to the sick. Or not because they were nominated by the elders saying, "Okay, you you you you distribute it on this 24:50 day. You give on Friday, Thursday." No, no, no. That's good. But that's I That's good because you don't Everybody doesn't go and produce food on the same day. So, it's good to organize that. But, what I say is not because they've been 25:02 delegated to do it. They just look around and are alert to a need and go and meet it. There's a wonderful brothers and sisters like that who are always alert to a need. I think of one or two brothers I met like that who 25:20 always alert. If they are For example, the church is going out on a picnic somewhere or going to a park and something happens. Maybe some child falls or something happens. Somebody's There's some brothers or sisters alert 25:38 immediately. They rush. I've seen that. Others sit back lazily waiting for somebody else to do something. But, there are some brothers who are just alert. They immediately rush. It's not their child. It's somebody else's, but 25:49 they rush to help. I I've seen such brothers and it's always one or two people like that who do it. It's an amazing gift and they're not great preachers. But, what a fantastic ministry in the body of Christ. Are you Is there something you can't do? 26:06 To be alert. Hey, that child has fallen. Don't wait for somebody else to go and help that child. You do it. You need some gift of the Holy Spirit to do it. It's a question of alertness. Saying, "Lord, I can't get into the 26:20 pulpit and preach. I don't have that gift." But, to every single person is given some manifestation for the common good, for the help everybody. So, you won't have all the gifts. To one is given wisdom. Maybe you don't have that. Another word of knowledge. 26:38 Maybe you don't have that. Faith. Faith means faith for supernatural miracles and healings. So, you don't have that. Okay. Gifts of healing. You don't have that. Miracles. You don't have that. Prophecy. You don't have that. Discerning of 26:49 spirits. You don't have that. Speaking in tongues, you don't have that. Interpretation of tongues, you don't have that. You say, "Hey, I've gone through the list and I'm not any one of them." Hang on, that's not the full list. 27:03 Read the whole chapter. Uh verse 28. Verse 27. You are Christ's body and individually members of it. Now, go through this list and see if you can fit in anywhere. Read carefully. 27:22 Are you one of these? Or can you have one of these gifts? Or will you seek one of these? Apostles. Oh, a lot of people would like to be apostles. What for? Not to build the body, but for honor. You know, there are people in some 27:38 countries who call They don't call themselves brother so-and-so. They call themselves apostle so-and-so. Crazy guys. Oh, they call themselves prophet so-and-so. Jesus said, "You're all brothers." There are two titles Jesus gave us, 27:56 brothers and servants. I'll come back to this. Let's turn to Matthew 23. That's an important passage. Then I'll come back to 1 Corinthians 12. Matthew 23. I never get tired of showing people this. Matthew chapter 23. He's talking about the Pharisees 28:18 and the true disciples of Jesus. He was teaching the whole chapter is don't be like the Pharisees. We can say the subject of Matthew 23 is don't be like the Pharisees. A lot of terrible things written about the Pharisees in the whole chapter, but 28:30 it begins with this. Verse 8. Don't be called rabbi. There are people who like to be called rabbi. Not Jewish people, forget them. I'm talking about Christians. Don't haven't they read this verse? Is this verse not in their Bible? 28:48 Don't be called Rabbi. Because only one is your teacher. And here is the title he's given all of us, brothers. Are you happy with that title? Brothers. Not Rabbi, teacher, apostle, prophet. No, no, no, no, no. 29:08 Brothers. And don't call anyone on earth your father. I wish I could read that. I wonder if that verse is in the Roman Catholic Bible. It is. Why don't they obey it? Don't call anyone on earth your father. Except your earthly father. 29:26 For only one is your heaven spiritual father, that is God. These are little little things. Jesus said not one small letter of the law will disappear. And the test of a person's obedience is not in the big commands, in the small 29:42 commands. Don't call somebody father so-and-so. And don't be called leaders as a title. Because one is your leader, Christ. So, you're not happy with the title brother, right? Okay, the Lord says I'll give you 30:01 another sir letter, another title. Verse 11. Servant. Pick your choice. You can call yourself servant so-and-so or brother so-and-so. You can take both if you like. Brothers and sisters. Sister so-and-so 30:21 or servant so-and-so. Would you like that? How many people say I want to be known as servant so-and-so? You hardly ever find a Christian choosing that. But that's what Jesus said. People are lusting for this apostle and 30:36 prophet and If you don't believe me, just go into I've come across a lot of these people, in countries, particularly in charismatic Pentecostal circles. Apostle so-and-so, uh prophet so-and-so. I don't respect any of them as I don't 30:51 think some of them are even born again. Imbalanced Christianity, that's how the name of Jesus is dishonored in the world today because of that type of Christianity. So, coming back now to the 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I was showing 31:09 you there was some other gifts also. 1 Corinthians 12:28. Pro- apostles, see which of these you love to be. We'll go one by one. Prophets, teachers, 31:28 miracles, gifts of healing, helps, administrations, that is sort of administering a church, and various kinds of tongues. Do you think you can do any of those? Did any of them 31:49 Which one are you drawn to? I'll tell you. Helps. Have you ever heard anybody saying, "Lord, I want that helps. Give me that gift." No, people are not lusting for that. They're lusting for apostles, prophets, 32:09 teachers, because it gets honor. What they're seeking is not a gift. What they're seeking is honor in the church. That's what's destroyed many churches, many Christian leaders. They're seeking for honor. What a surprise they'll get to heaven if 32:30 they ever get there. I have a big doubt whether people who seek honor on this earth will ever get into God's kingdom. It's my honest opinion. You can disagree with me if you like. But Christian leaders who seek honor on 32:42 this earth, I seriously doubt whether they will be found in God's kingdom. I will not be surprised if they go to hell. Because pride is the thing that God hates more than any other sin. And if a man is proud and wants honor in 32:58 the midst of the church, the Bible says God resists the proud. He resists the proud. He'll keep on resisting him and push them down to hell. I wouldn't doubt it. Because the Lord will say those That's the place where the first proud leader 33:11 is, in hell, the devil, who became the devil through pride. Go and join him. You've been following him all your life with your pride. And that can happen in CFC. It can happen to you, any of you, my dear brothers and sisters. 33:24 Pride in some gift you have, some recognition you have with others that you're esteemed for some reason or the other, that you're esteemed as a very humble brother. That's enough to make you proud. Or a very humble sister, or a helpful 33:38 sister, or any such garbage. Don't think you're free from it. It's one of the greatest dangers that a lot of people in CFC face, especially when they look at others and say, "We're not like you." I want to ask you, my brothers, sisters, 33:55 do you look at people in other churches and say, "We're not like you?" You remember that story of one man who went to pray in the temple and said, "Lord, I thank you I'm not like those fellows there." Or that fellow over there. 34:09 But that spirit can come to you. Lord, I'm not like that guy in that church. I'm in NCCA. You should be humbler than anybody else if you really have the truth. 34:28 I often use the example of trees. You know, in some you see trees with fruit trees fruit trees. Which are the branches that are upright and which are the branches that are hanging down? What do you think? The more fruit 34:47 there is in a branch, the more it hangs down. The upright one is the one that has got no fruit at all. Cuz the weight of the fruit makes the branch hangs down. The humblest brothers in the church are 35:04 the most fruitful. The rest is just knowledge. More fruit means you really go down if you're more gifted. Real gift of the Holy Spirit, not human gifts. But gift of the Holy Spirit, it'll bring 35:21 you down and down because such a person is always comparing himself with Jesus Christ. To follow Christ means to compare yourself with him. Lord, am I walking in your footsteps? And [clears throat] 35:41 all these gifts can bring you honor. apostle prophet teacher miracle worker the gift of healing administering a church, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues. Wow. As I see that list, I see there's only one gift there in that list in 28 verse 36:00 28 that will bring you no honor. And you know what that is? [snorts] To be a help. To be an invisible help. You help somebody and the guy doesn't even know that you're the one who helped him. Quietly, secretly Well, that's what Jesus meant when he 36:20 said don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. So in the body of Christ here's somebody who's a right hand, does something for somebody, and he doesn't want anybody else to know that he did it. 36:38 Isn't it a wonderful way to be a help where you pray for someone and the person gets healed or but he don't he doesn't even know that you prayed for him. So, often when we pray for people, we want them to know I'm praying for you 36:58 and when he gets healed, you say, "Yeah, I prayed for you." But underneath that is a subtle desire for some credit for myself. There is such a lot of honor seeking in serving in the church. And the only person who escapes it 37:18 is the one who's constantly judging himself. And I'm telling you that from nearly half a century, 47 years since CFC started, that I've learned to judge myself all the time. And God is my witness that I judge myself every single day of 37:36 my life. That's the only way to preserve myself in the footsteps of Jesus, footsteps of humility and brokenness. I want to encourage all of you, my brothers and sisters, seek for this gift of helps 37:54 and for invisible helps. That's the best type of help, where your left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. And even better, if the left hand got the credit for what the right hand did. You did something and somebody thought, 38:11 "Oh, somebody else did that for me." Somebody else brought that gift to my door. Ah. How blessed you are. You did something for somebody and they thought it was somebody else. You should be excited and say hallelujah. Hallelujah Lord, that guy didn't even 38:27 know that I did it. He gave the credit to somebody else. Praise the Lord. My left hand did not know what the right hand did. It's a great ministry, the ministry of helps. Covet it. 38:44 Earnestly desire. And I'm not saying we should not desire to share God's word because it says in 1 Corinthians 14:1, earnestly desire to prophesy. But before that, it says pursue love. You must not seek for to prophesy if you 39:03 don't pursue love first. You will seek honor. In other words, you love somebody so much that you want to help him with a word of encouragement. That is what prophecy is. What is prophecy? 1 Corinthians 14:3, prophesying is speaking to somebody for 39:21 three things, building him up, challenging him, comforting him. That's prophecy. Prophecy, you don't have to stand up here. You can speak on a telephone and prophesy. You can write an email and prophesy. You can speak a word when somebody comes 39:36 to visit you and prophesy. You can meet somebody in the store and say a word which will be prophecy. What is prophecy? A word that encourages that person or a word that challenges that person or a word that builds up that 39:47 person because he was discouraged and he got encouraged. One sentence. That's all prophecy is. It's a very sort of a spiritual word, but all it means is a word of encouragement. A word of challenge. A word of building up. And every one of us can do that. 40:03 Don't you do that for your children? I hope you do that for your children. Begin with your children. Husbands, encourage your wives. Wives, encourage your husbands. Challenge them to a higher standard. Not by rebuke and correction, but by 40:18 encouragement. It's a tremendous ministry and we can all do that. We can practice it at home with our children especially. I hope you fathers are encouraging your children instead of always correcting them. I hope you husbands and wives are 40:31 encouraging one another. It's a tremendous gift. Seek for that gift especially the encouragement part of prophecy. And I'll tell you why, because it says in Hebrews chapter 3, this is a great verse. Hebrews 3 and verse 13. 40:50 Here's a verse you must always remember all your life. Why do I say all your life? Because it says this is one of those few verses in the Bible which says you must do it every day. And I don't think there's any Christian who 41:04 does it every day. They should be doing it every day. I try to do it. I try to do it every day by word or by email or something. What is that? Encourage somebody. And if you don't find anybody, encourage your husband or your wife. 41:23 Or somebody in your home. But it says here you must do it daily. Encourage one another day by day as long as it is called today. One day your life will be over. There'll be no more today in your life. That's the meaning of that verse. A day 41:37 will come in your life and there'll be no more today. It's finished. So as long as it is called today means as long as you have a life as long as you're alive and you have a day encourage someone. Because that will save that person 41:56 from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Do you want to save your wife from being hardened? Encourage her. You say, "Why is my wife so hard?" Maybe because you spent all your life never encouraging her. If you lived 10,000 days with your wife, 42:15 you should have encouraged her 10,000 days. It's not a long period. Three, in 3 years you do more than 1,000 days. So, in 30 years, more than 10,000 days. My wife and I have been married for more than 15,000 days. I didn't know in the beginning how to 42:34 encourage, but I've learned a little bit more now. You can encourage even with a smile. Mother Teresa's one of her exhortations was, "Husbands, smile at your wives. Wives, smile at your husbands. Do you do that? Or do you go around with a grim face the 42:50 whole day?" You know, you can encourage by just smiling. It's true, even your children. Fathers, smile at your children now and then. At least once every day. Be happy. God has given you someone. Cheer them up. Encourage one another daily because you 43:09 can save that person from being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. We are fighting the devil. We're not fighting each other. I hope you're not in competition with anybody in this church to show that you're better or you're a better family or any 43:25 of that garbage. We are against the devil, period. So, let us learn to walk erect and say, "Lord, help me. Show me the areas of imbalance in my life where one leg is longer than the other. 43:44 Please help me to progress together." Amen.
