0:02 And people wonder why I told Sept it's the sick who need a physician and not those who are healthy. So we first visit the 0:17 sick and then come and meet the healthy. But we need you know but even the healthy if you're not careful you can get sick again. So we have to see how we can progress spiritually as a church. So there are a number of things 0:39 on my heart this morning which I would like to share with you as I was thinking this morning of what I should share with you. The first of all is about fellowship. The thing that is 0:55 missing in most of Christendom today all over the world is fellowship. There's a lot of preaching, a lot of clever teaching and a lot of false signs and miracles. a lot of 1:18 entertainment and a lot of teaching on positive thinking and psychology. A lot of urging people to give money, mission work and people can get excited over all these things that I mentioned. 1:37 But Jesus came to bring us into fellowship with the father and thus in fellowship with one another. If that is not accomplished, all our Christianity is worthless. Jesus said, "All men will 2:00 know you're my disciples." Not when you read the Bible. Not when you care for the homeless, not when you sing wonderful songs, but when you love one another. That's fellowship. That is the primary thing. It's more than anything else. In the 2:17 last prayer that Jesus prayed in John 17, he kept on saying, "Father, I pray they'll be one with each other. They'll be one with each other." And you remember that's the last prayer he prayed before he went to the cross. It's 2:30 like if you're a dying man and you're praying something for your children. Oh God, do this for my children. And you keep repeating it. That's how you must read John 17. His burden was not that they will reach the world, but they'll fellowship 2:47 with each other. And I think Christendom has lost that emphasis. And I know when we started as a church in our home about 39 years ago, it was this that we wanted to recapture 3:06 fellowship. I believe more than anything else in our church. We don't have great music to tell you honestly. We were never interested in that. And in most of our village churches, we cannot have great music because they are too poor to study 3:22 music. They don't have the money for that. But they can love one another. I've always felt the essentials of the gospel can be experienced in any part of the world. If the essentials of the gospel can be only be experienced in 3:41 among educated people, that's not the essentials. If something which we think is essential for the gospel can be experienced only among those who um earn a lot of money or can afford a lot of things, we got it wrong. It's been my privilege to work 3:58 among very educated people, very rich people and extremely poor people and illiterate people who can't even read and write. And so I've had the unique privilege of seeing what are the essentials because I can compare this with this and say it 4:16 must work here and it must work here. The these folks must have as much access to it as these then it is essential but if it only works in one of these groups can't be part of the gospel at all. 4:33 So we have to you know even a lot of Bible study I think of the first 14th centuries of Christianity that there were no printed Bibles. Printed Bibles came into existence only 4:51 in the 1400s when printing was invented. So for 1,400 years all they had was handwritten paparus or something like that parchments on which the Bible was 5:09 written very expensive to copy a whole Bible by hand. I mean imagine if somebody had to copy a Bible by hand today on some parchment who could afford to buy that. So what is it that they had in the early church? When the early Christians met in 5:27 Thessalonica and Ephesus and Colassi, they never had Bibles with them. There were no Bibles. Even the preacher didn't have one. But they had the Holy Spirit. And I feel that that is one of the things that 5:46 Christendom today has missed. We when you depend I I've studied the Bible thoroughly for 55 years so I don't devalue it. But if ever in my life my dependence becomes more 6:01 on black ink on paper than on the Holy Spirit. I've missed it. So even when you read the Bible brothers and sisters depend on the Holy Spirit. Don't study it like some other 6:19 book. Lord, what do you want me to man? Shall not live by bread alone, by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. And that is if I open myself to the Holy Spirit. When you wake up in the morning, if you don't have to 6:36 immediately get out of bed to work or something like that, spend a little time listening to what the Holy Spirit is say to say to you. Even if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night and you take a little while to go to sleep, the best 6:52 way to go back to sleep is listening to the Holy Spirit. What's he saying to you? Just like Samuel, Eli taught him to say, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening." Keep that attitude, speak Lord, your servant is listening. It's the most important thing 7:11 in the Christian life to listen. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. It is one of the most important things that the Lord taught me from very early in my Christian life. Mary sat at Jesus' feet. 7:27 listening. Martha was busy serving and uh when you serve you can accomplish a lot and see how many dishes you've made and etc etc. When she came back and asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her, Jesus 7:46 said, "You're worried about so many things which I'm not interested." I'm paraphrasing his words. Martha, you're bothered about so many things which I have no interest in. You think I came here to eat your food? You think I came here to make you serve 8:01 me? Not at all. Mary sitting here who has apparently done nothing. She has chosen the good part. She's chosen to sit and listen to what I have to say. It's not that those who listen don't 8:19 serve. Those who listen may serve less, but they serve much better and accomplish much more. Because in the next chapter you read that um Mary was pouring an ointment in John rather in John 12 was pouring out an ointment at Jesus' feet and the whole 8:36 house was filled with the odor of the ointment and that's wonderful to serve the Lord in such a way that the fragrance of Christ spreads through you and the whole house and everybody gets blessed not by your profound words 8:53 but by the fragrance of Christ that people can sense in your life and that's how we build fellowship. We must seek for that and therefore fellowship with one another is the most important thing. There are times in our church in 9:11 India where we've done some things which are would be considered unacceptable by other churches. We have done many things like that because we didn't want to live in a rut which a lot of Christians have got into. A rut is a grave actually with 9:31 both ends open. It's a place for the dead and I never want to be in a rut. So one of the things we did was I said we've heard so many messages. So we decided next Sunday we're not going to have a service. We're going to go go out for a picnic. What a 9:47 terrible thing to do on Sunday morning for Christians who it's sacred to be in church on Sunday morning. We say we're going to spend time together out in the park and get to speak to one another and get to know one another better and build fellowship. 10:03 We've done that every now and then because you can sit in a in a service and listen and listen and listen week after week after week and not build fellowship. It's the most important thing. The body of Christ like the human 10:21 body is you know every part is linked to the other through a connection with the head and works together. So our fellowship with one another is directly dependent on our fellowship with the head. It's not how much time you spend 10:40 together that's important, but more than that depends on how much you're walking in the light in your daily personal life. So, let me turn to one John chapter 1. See you remember John was 10:58 writing thank you at a time when a lot of churches were in a very pathetic condition as you see in revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. He had seen churches you know such powerful churches 11:17 where one man like ananas came in with hypocrisy and would drop dead. That's how the church started. You couldn't have one hypocrite there. He would drop dead and great fear would come upon all. But slowly, that was Acts chapter 11:34 5. But by the time you come to the next chapter, Acts chapter 6, decline has already set in. There was an unfairness in which with which the food was distributed to the widows. There was a bit of racism there. 11:54 The Jewish brothers gave more food to the Jewish widows and less to the non-Jewish widows. And there was a bit of a complaint there. And the apostles had to set appointment seven people to make sure that the distribution of food was 12:12 equal. Can you imagine a church which is so powerful beginning to sink already? It's very easy and those are the days of the apostles. It's very easy. What you what I learned from that is it's very easy 12:31 for decline to set in particularly immediately after a great revival and wonderful work has been done. They could compare themselves with the dead Jewish synagogues around them and say, "Boy, it's wonderful what the Lord has done in our 12:48 church." And it's very easy for us also to be like that. God's done a new work here. And we can compare ourselves with other people and say, "Boy, God's done a great work." But I want to tell you, if you read the New Testament, you can see 13:01 decline sets in very quickly. If we don't like to once said in one of his writings the tendency of nature is not towards a garden but towards a wilderness that means if you leave a field all by itself it won't grow into a 13:20 beautiful garden it'll grow into a wilderness you got to work on it to make it a garden and after you make it a garden if you want it to remain like that you got to keep on working on it doesn't remain like that you made a 13:34 beautiful garden and then you leave it becomes a wilderness in a little while. The tendency of nature is always towards the wilderness and that's how it is in a church as well. So the churches at the end of the first century, you know, people talk about the 13:52 first century church. It's actually a wrong expression. When people tell me first century church, are you I say, are you talking about revelation chapter 2 or chapter 3? Are you talking about the church in Leodysia? By the way, is that 14:04 what you mean by first century church? It was a pretty pathetic state. I don't want to be in that type of first century church. I mean, if you're talking about the church in Acts chapter 5, that was about the most powerful. Chapter 2, 14:15 chapter 3, chapter four, chapter five. That's great. But by the time you come to chapter six, decline is set in very quick. So decline setting in means why is it that they give preference to the Jewish 14:34 widows over the Greek widows? They're born again, both of them. Something went wrong with the connection of the people distributing food with the head. It's like this hand got a bit paralyzed because it's connection with 14:49 the head. It couldn't work together with the other hand. And that's what happens. You know, there's hardly a church where pretty soon you find somebody gets offended and leaves. Or if they don't leave, they sit 15:08 around there and criticize and complain. I mean, you've experienced that here. Some folks who left, why do they leave? I don't know. I don't want to judge them. They can answer to God. God is the judge of all. 15:27 There are people who come here, taste a little bit, and say, "Well, it's okay once in a while, but we don't want to be here forever." Why? We don't want to be committed to this church because say, "I have to pay a price." Very often, if you look at the 15:51 reason behind it, it's a carnal reason. When people choose a church, it's not necessarily that they can honestly say this is the most spiritual church I found in this locality. No, they say this suits certain aspects 16:10 of my person. I mean, forget about spirituality. There are certain other factors that I appreciate. And so, that's why I prefer this church. I think that's really the honest reason. If somebody were to admit it, very often 16:28 it's due to community or music or something like that. But real fellowship is based on fellowship with the head. And in my I've had the tremendous 16:48 privilege of in India of fellowshipping with very highly educated people and totally illiterate people. That means people who can't read and write but who can speak I can speak with them communicate with them and a wonderful 17:03 fellowship with a person who can't read and write can't read a Bible cuz he's not literate and in that in fellowship with both these extremes of highly educated and illiterate I've discovered that fellowship has nothing to do with 17:22 understanding or knowledge or being able to explain doctrines it's got to do with that person's fellowship with the head. If he's in fellowship with the head and I'm fellowship with the head, we have wonderful fellowship with each other. 17:38 So John's realized that the pro reason for all the problems in all these churches in Ephesus and Patira, Leodysia and Sardis and all these churches was because the leaders and the 17:56 people in the church were not having daily fellowship with the head. So their fellowship with each other broke down. Maybe they agreed in doctrine. There's hardly any rebuke from the Lord saying you guys have gone astray in 18:14 doctrine in those seven five churches. The Lord criticized Revelation 2 and 3. It was certain attitudes they had towards money, towards um sexual [Music] 18:32 sin and few things like that towards honor and position etc. It was not doctrinal. We can be united in doctrine and still have no fellowship with each other. And you see that clearly in case of a husband and wife who are completely 18:48 agreed in doctrine go to the same church but they can't get along with each other sometimes. What does that prove? Doctrine does not necessarily bring unity. It's fellowship with the father. Please value that all your life. And so 19:02 John I believe he wrote one John I mean people who studied it say he wrote John 1 John even after the book of revelation or after he had seen the condition of the churches in any case and what does he write in one John seeing the condition of the churches 19:18 even if revelation is the last book John had seen around him he was 95 years old and he had seen the decline of Christianity from the day of Pentecost in 65 years and seen the condition of churches which started out so well with the 19:36 apostles. And so he writes in one John about the most important things which can try and bring those churches back into fellowship with the father. Read one John sometime with that in mind and you will see he doesn't talk 19:53 about healing. He doesn't talk about speaking in tongues. He doesn't talk about raising the dead. He talks about fellowship with the father. And he talks about being free from sin. And he talks about following in Jesus' footsteps, 20:04 walking as Jesus walked. He talks about um don't believe all the spirits around you that are all the people who claim to be doing things. He says be careful. Have discernment. More than once he talks about it. He says listen to that 20:18 inner witness of the spirit within you. 1 John 2:27. The anointing that tells you there's something wrong here. Don't just swallow everything that you see in Christendom. It's so needed today. So in 1 John 1, he speaks about 20:36 fellowship and he starts with talking about Jesus in whom the life of God was manifested. Christianity is not about a doctrine. It's not about laws. It's not about rules. It's not even about forgiveness of sins. 20:55 Forgiveness of sins is like cleaning the cup. Why do you why does a mother clean the glass or cup, isn't it? To pour something for the children to drink. Not just to clean the cup and show how clean the cup is. So forgiveness of sins is like cleaning the 21:14 cup, but then something's got to be put inside it. Fellowship with God. That's the whole purpose of cleansing from sin. So people who live in a constant cleansing from sin and think, "Oh, my sins are all forgiven." Haven't 21:27 understood the first thing about the Christian life. It's like a mother cleaning the cup and giving an empty cup to the child. Doesn't feed it. The purpose of cleaning the cup is to fill it with something. The purpose of forgiveness of 21:43 sins is that we might have fellowship with the father. So he talks about Jesus. He says, "I want to tell you something I've seen." 1 John 1. What we've heard, what we've seen, which you have touched, it wasn't a doctrine. It was a 21:59 life. Verse two, that was manifested. We have seen it. We bear witness to it. A life, the eternal life which is with the father and manifested to us in Jesus. And what we have seen and heard this Jesus, we proclaim to you. 22:17 And the whole purpose of proclaiming Jesus is that you may have fellowship with us, the godly apostles, and our fellowship is with the father. And he says this is the way our 22:36 joy can be made full. And so if we walk in the light, verse seven, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, that is with God and with each other, and we'll be cleansed from all 22:53 sin. So we must value this more than anything else. Fellowship, we need to ask ourselves, is our fellowship with the father getting better and better and better? Like when people are married in in our church 23:10 and sometimes come to me and say, "Brother Zach, we've been married 5 years. Today is our fifth anniversary." I said, "You I hope you love each other five times as much as on the day you were married. I hope so." Like I was speaking at the reception of 23:30 one of my children's wedding and I told them, I hope years later you'll look back to this wedding day and say this is the day in which we loved each other the least. The day of the 23:50 wedding. Every day after that we loved each other more. It should be like that relationship with Jesus be better and better and better. A fellowship getting better and better and better and thereby our fellowship with one another getting better and better 24:08 and better. This is the true Christian life. You know, just like in every area of life there's growth in school. There's progression in from one grade to another. The children we expect them to grow must be like that. Our fellowship 24:26 must not be the same as it was a year ago. It must be better. And some indications of that are just like in a marriage. We don't get offended with each other. Now somebody did 24:44 something, we assume the best. We believe the best. Love believes the best. It says in 1 Corinthians 13 that means I always attribute a good motive. Whereas my old Adamic nature was always to attribute a bad 25:03 motive to what I saw which I couldn't explain. And now I attribute a good motive or say well I wasn't aware there was he did it without being aware. Always a good 25:21 motive means I've grown in love. I'm not offended by anything someone said or didn't say or they did or didn't do. We must work on it. My brothers and 25:40 sisters, I always have taught for years that that is the kindergarten lesson in the Christian life to finish with getting offended in a marriage or in a church. that I cannot now get offended with 25:56 anything that my wife will do or not do, my husband will do or not do, what she says or doesn't say or what he says or doesn't say, what any brother can do or not do or say or not say makes no difference because I have fellowship 26:14 with the father and it's not dependent on not even dependent somebody respecting me. A lot of Christians, you know, feel that they deserve some respect. It's very easy. I've seen that with pastors 26:31 and elders and all feel that I deserve some respect here. I tell you, if you go around with that attitude, I guarantee you'll get offended very quickly. If the Bible says in Romans 8:11, "Reckon yourself to be dead with 26:51 Christ." This the secret of the Christian life fellowship. You know we sang in that song take me to the holy of holies and uh that is the most holy place the tabernacle. You know there are about 15 chapters in the book of 27:10 Exodus 13 at least I think describing the tabernacle. It was so important in the Old Testament. The tabernacle later the temple so important that when the temple was destroyed after 70 years when they came back to Jerusalem God was not happy. He 27:29 sent his prophets Haggi and all say you fellows are building your own houses. What about building my temple? It was very important. The temple was a central thing and in that c in that temple was the most holy place where curtained off with a veil that 27:44 people could not go in. Nobody could go. The high priest once a year means you basically he was saying that you can nobody can come in here cuz that's where God is. In the outer court you had people in the holy place you had all the priests 27:59 those who serve God. But in the most holy place it was only God. So if you're bored with God, you wouldn't want to go to the most holy place. If you're the type of person who always wants to be with people, you'll be in the outer court. 28:16 You like to be with God's people. Yeah, it's great. All the time, God's people, that's the outer court. Or you want to be with those who are doing something with the Lord, those who are serving the Lord. That's the holy place. Activity, 28:27 activity, activity. But those who want to be with God primarily will long to be in the holy place. If you're bored to be alone with God, you'll never be in the most holy place. There's nobody there. Holy God. And our fellowship with each other 28:50 is dependent on how much we value our personal fellowship with God. That is the most important thing. That is what's called worship. Worship is not just singing songs of praise. It's getting into the holy place and fellowshipping with God. That is 29:06 worship as I understand. And you can express your worship in words. You can express it in song. I believe the highest form of worship is silence. The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before him. 29:24 That's from the Old Testament where you go worshiping God with speech and song and then silence. It's the highest form where you're alone with God. We must develop that brothers and sisters. We live in a world which is so 29:41 rushed and so many things to do. We must take time to be alone with God. And sometimes I find the only time is middle of the night when I'm in bed awake for a few moments. Even a few 29:58 moments can it's tremendous just to love Jesus and tell him how much we love him and talk to our heavenly father and call him dad. It's so wonderful. But to get into that most holy place, you know, Jesus 30:15 died so that that veil is rent. And many people like even in that song we sang think we enter the most holy place by the blood of 30:32 Jesus. It's true. Why is it then that so many people who believe in the blood of Jesus don't seem to enter into that deep fellowship with God where they can never be offended with anything that people do or don't do, where they can never be in a bad 30:52 mood. If you're in fellowship with God, I'll tell you something. You'll never be in a bad mood 247. This is what I longed for as a as a defeated Christian, frequently discouraged, frequently in bad moods, frequently angry in my 31:08 home. And I said, Lord, this is not the type. This is not walking as Jesus walked. As I saw to understand how Jesus walked on the earth, I saw that he was never in a bad mood. Never once. You could never catch Jesus in a bad 31:21 mood. Not even after the Pharisees called him prince of devils. Not even after. You mean if you got for example in the in the last day when he was being tried and somebody spat on him and if you met Jesus right after that he wouldn't be in a bad 31:36 mood. What a life. And John says this is the life we saw. We touched it. We handled it. And this is what we proclaim to you that you can have this life eternal life. They couldn't have it in the Old Testament. They had a bunch of rules and 31:52 regulations which you know the old testament law I feel was something like that improved the quality of your life. You were much better than other Christians. It's like these management seminars that people conduct to make 32:05 people better managers. So you're better than some of the others and Israel became a better nation than some of the other nations around them. But it was not like that with Jesus. I mean Jesus life was an altogether different level. It was not 32:20 just an improved human life. You can improve human life up to a certain point. But this was divine eternal life. It is completely altogether different. And just like you know you train a dog to behave well but it'll never be a human being. Human 32:37 being life is completely different. So we must remember that that a good trained dog will never never come to the level of a human being. And you can improve your human life as much as you like with all the good words you 32:50 hear in a church. It'll never come to eternal life. It's an altogether different life. You need to understand that. And I'll tell you something from what I've seen through the years that most Christians are just improving the 33:02 quality of their life. They're behaving a little better and they're talking a little nicer, but they haven't been gripped by eternal life. And that's why life is such a struggle in their Christian life. They've always got to be 33:13 on their guard lest they slip up and uh behave badly and lose their testimony. Eternal life which comes through fellowship with the father. Long for this more than anything else and it only comes through being filled with the holy 33:32 spirit. There is just no other way. It has to be partaken and not by progressive improvement. I have to partake of the Holy Spirit has come. He doesn't say fill yourself. He says be filled with the Holy 33:51 Spirit. It's not something I can do to fill myself with the Holy Spirit. I have to be filled. Somebody else has got to do it for me. God's got to do it for me. Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. When people come to me and say, 34:03 "Brother Zack, pray for me. I'll be filled with the Holy Spirit." I say I'm not the baptizer. I say what John the Baptist said. I can baptize you in water, but go to him. He's the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Ask him to fill you with the 34:16 spirit and to give you that eternal life. But coming back to this new and this most holy place, you enter not only through the blood of Jesus. Turn with me to Hebrews 10 verse 19 and 20. Brethren, we have confidence now to 34:35 enter the holy place means the most holy place by the blood of Jesus and by a new and living way is not just the blood of Jesus. Most people think of entering the holy 34:54 place by the blood of Jesus and that's why they never enter in. The blood of Jesus cleanses me, gives me a clean conscience, justifies me, that means declares me righteous. I'm accepted by God. All that is good. But yet with 35:11 that, I still need to walk this new and living way if I want to get into this holy place. That's what it says here. That is the way that is inaugurated through the veil, the flesh of Jesus. And the flesh means his 35:29 self-will. That rending of the veil was symbolizing a man who walked on the earth for 33 and 1/2 years, never doing his own will. one single time in his entire life. And when he said, "It's 35:52 finished," that self-will of man was finished on the cross. Not just that our sins were finished and the veil was rent. He'd been tempted in every point and at every time. You see, temptations to sin is basically do my own 36:06 will. You know what it what anger is? Is doing your own will. You know what lusting after a woman is? is doing your own will. You know what's running after money is doing your own will. You know what getting upset with somebody is doing your own will. Every 36:24 sin is basically you want to do your own will. You don't want to do the will of God. Every single sin. And if you don't deal with that root of it, just clipping off a few bad habits, you can get a good testimony before people. But the tree is 36:41 still bad. And Jesus came, like John the Baptist said, to lay an axe to the root man's self-will. I never get tired of speaking on this because I find that Christians just don't seem to 36:59 understand very often. What is the most important requirement of disciplehip? The Lord commissioned his disciples, his apostles to go into all the world and make disciples in every nation. That commission has never changed. That's the thing that gripped 37:17 me. When I quit my job in the Navy in 1966 for 9 years, I traveled all over India and I got fed up with the Christianity I saw in every church. And I said, I don't want to spend my life promoting more of this type of 37:37 Christianity, increasing the numbers of people who are going to sit in churches like this. So even if I want to do something in a very small way, I want to go back to that original commission to make disciples. I can't do it in the whole of 37:51 India. I can't even do it in the city of Bangalore where I live. But I can do it in one small corner in my house with a few people who will come to my house. Maybe three, four, 10, whatever it is. But I'm going to make disciples. And if 38:06 I spend my life and all I do is make 11 disciples like Jesus did, I have to accomplish something. I could say to the father, "Father, I finished my course. I'm ready to go." Like Jesus said in John 17. What had he accomplished? He had made 11 38:22 disciples. That's about it. And what is the primary requirement to be a disciple who follows Jesus? If anyone will come after me, Luke 9:23, let him deny himself, take up his cross every day and follow me. That is the number one requirement 38:42 of disciplehip. And I found that was a thing which is hardly being preached anywhere. take up the cross, die every day. I was told to read the Bible every day. Good thing. But to deny myself, die to myself every 39:01 day. I was not taught that when I became a Christian. And this is the thing that's missing. You look at all the different denominations, listen to all the television preachers, Christian television preachers, and the different churches. 39:17 If you go into any church and listen, even you go one whole year, you'll never hear a message on die to yourself every day. And yet that's the most important thing to be a disciple. No wonder disciples are not being made. Converts 39:34 are being made. The quality of life of converts is being improved. And then so many theological discussions go around of the once saved or always saved or can you lose your salvation. I'm really not interested in those 39:52 discussions. Calvinists or Armenians, I say I'm interested in saying what Jesus said. If you want to follow me, take up your cross every day and die. die every 40:10 day. And he said, "My sheep hear my voice and follow me." John 10. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one will pluck them out of my hand. A verse which is very often misqued. The first part is left out. 40:27 Most people quote it as I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. I say to whom did he say that? To those who take up the cross and follow him every day. So that's what I preach and then you preach that the way is very narrow. Very 40:41 few find it. That's fine. But at least I have obeyed God's commission to make disciples in all nations. Not just made little better Christians. You can preach the law and make people better 40:57 Christians, but they won't be disciples. So the new and living way through the veil to get into the most holy place. That is the way of death to self. And this in the in the most holy 41:17 place is the presence of God. And the Bible says in the presence of God there is fullness of joy. That's what it says in Psalm 16:11. In thy presence there is fullness of joy. So for myself, I've used that verse like this. Anytime anytime 24/7 that I don't 41:37 have fullness of joy in my life, I am not in the father's presence. Because in the father's presence, there's fullness of joy. And why don't I have fullness of joy right now? Because somebody said something or did something or didn't do 41:50 something. I'm not in the father's presence. I'm not in the most holy place. Maybe I'm back in the outer court. I have not lost my salvation, but I'm not in the most holy place. That's for certain. I'm not in the father's 42:03 presence because in his presence there is fullness of joy. And the same verses says at his right hand there are pleasures forever more, eternal pleasures and fullness of joy. Why am I hankering for sinful sexual pleasure? 42:18 Why did why does that pornographic site even tempt me? because I'm not in the father's presence where I'd be having enjoying eternal pleasures. Think of this. Think of the prodigal son who had been eating the pig's food in Luke 42:35 15 and came back to his father's house. In what sort of situation would he hanker for the pig's food again if his father starved him? If his father said no food then he say at least let me get the 42:54 pig's food. You know all pornography is pig's food. Every type of sexual sin is pig's food. Every type of sin which leads us 43:12 to hanker after things God has forbidden is pig's food. Why do we hanker after it? Because we are not feasting at the father's table. Can you imagine the prodigal son enjoying the fatted cough 43:29 and having a great meal at the father's table and saying, "Boy, I wish I could go back and taste a little bit of that pig's food once more." It's unimaginable. At God's right hand, there are eternal pleasures. And I want to say 43:44 to you, the pleasures of sin when they become attractive and draw me, it is one of the clearest indications. I'm not enjoying the eternal pleasures in the father's presence. And that's because I don't want to die to myself. I've chosen a way 44:03 of Christianity where I go regularly to church and sing songs and have good friendship, not really fellowship. and think, "Oh, we're in a better church than every other church." That's fine, but you're not in fellowship with 44:20 God. You're not in living dwelling in the most holy place. Let me urge you, my dear brothers and sisters. Even if you're not able to come to some Sunday meetings because you're sick, doesn't matter if you didn't meet one another. Make sure you have 44:33 fellowship with the father, that you dwell in the most holy place every single moment of every single day. That's possible. It won't happen overnight if you're used to another way of life. But you can change your way of 44:46 life and say that I've decided I'm going to walk this new and living way through the veil. You know that Jesus chose that. You turn the page to chapter 12, Hebrews 12 when it says 45:05 here, let's look, let us run this race. 12:1 2 Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. Now listen to this. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross. Now I want you to picture in your mind. 45:23 Okay? Picture this in your mind. Jesus is standing before the veil that's not rent. That's his self-will. Beyond that is the father's presence in whose presence there is fullness of joy. He knows that that's the place of 45:39 fullness of joy and the only way I can get to that place is through enduring the cross of death to self. This is all through his life from the time he was a child. He wanted fellowship with the father. Fellowship with the 45:54 father. I want that for the joy set before him in the most holy place. He rent the veil. We could paraphrase that verse like that. Endured the cross. And then it says, "Let us look unto Jesus and run the same race." You see what it means? This is 46:14 exactly what he did. He chose fellowship with the father for the joy set before him, the fullness of joy. In the father's presence, there's fullness of joy. And he says, "That's the place I want to get. For the joy set before him, which could only come in the 46:30 father's presence, he'd say, "If I have to go through the veil, I'll go through it." He valued that more than anything else in the world because that is the most precious thing we can ever have on this earth. All the money you can make and all the 46:45 honor you can get and all the gifts of the spirit that you can be blessed with or nothing. Nothing. This has become so precious to me that I say Lord you can take away every gift I have. Take away my gift of preaching. You can paralyze my body. 47:00 Take away my health. I just want to fellowship with you every single day of my life. Every single moment if I if I'm lying in bed, it's fine. I can never get up again. It's fine. I will have no complaint if I can have fellowship with 47:14 the father. And nobody can rob that from me. Nobody can rob fellowship with the father from you. It's your choice. If you choose what Jesus chose, I want fellowship with the father more than anything else on this earth. 47:34 And you choose the way of the cross every day. Death to your self-will. Willingness to keep quiet when the Holy Spirit says keep quiet. Go down. Humble yourself. It's easy for humble 47:52 people to take up the cross. I want to tell you this that it's one of the clearest tests of humility. If you're willing to take up the cross in every single day, in every single situation with your wife, husband, neighbor, friends, everybody, 48:10 you're willing to die to yourself, that proves you're humble. Every other idea you have of your own humility is a deception. It's imaginary. It's not real. I'll show you why. Philippians chapter 48:27 2 speaks about Jesus humility. Hebrews 2 verse 5. Have the same attitude in yourself which was in Christ Jesus. What is the first thing he did? 48:44 The first thing he did was he came down from that place of equality with God. Verse six. and made himself a bond servant. That is the first thing he did before he was even born. When he came into the womb of 49:04 Mary, that was humility. And then he came out of the womb and became a little child and spent 30 years obeying imperfect authority. Have you ever 49:23 obeyed imperfect authority? Imperfect boss and imperfect elders in a church. And all of us long for perfect authority. I've had numerous complaints about, "Oh, brother Zach, our elders are not perfect." It's like Jesus complaining, Joseph and 49:42 Mary are not perfect. The father would say, "So what? Submit to them. I kept you there to submit." It was humility for 30 years. So coming down from heaven was humility. That itself was humility. And then living for 30 50:00 years, obeying, obeying, obeying, obeying, obeying, imperfect authority for 30 years without ever dishonoring Joseph or Mary and dealing with brothers and sisters in the house who didn't believe 50:18 in him or irritated him. Humility, humility, humility. And then going out into the third stage was leaving the home. So first was coming down from heaven. Next was living in that house and third was going out into the ministry. And what did he face 50:33 there? Ridicule being called the devil even though he came to save people and mocked misunderstood people trying to kill him spitting on him finally getting that was humility. So it was humility coming down humility in the house and humility in 50:47 the ministry. That's why if you've heard me say the three secrets of the Christian life are humility, humility, humility. You see that in Jesus life. And it says here he emptied himself and then verse 51:04 8, he humbled himself. How? By dying on the cross. You see there? Humbled himself to the point of death. That's the ultimate. So you manifest your humility 51:22 by dying. Otherwise your humility is just a nonsense. It's the humility of other people in the world. You know there are some great scientists who don't have any heirs about themselves. Usually a great man in the the really great man never has any hairs 51:42 about themselves. They're uh they don't try to show off and say I'm a great scientist or I'm somebody big. Great people usually have a little earthly humility. But Christian humility is not more than that. It's he humbled himself 51:56 to the point of death on the cross. So that is the ultimate proof of humility. So a humble person will choose the way of the cross readily. And in a particular situation when I'm tempted and I'm not willing to 52:15 die, I have to say to myself, I'm not humble right now. I don't want to die. And a lot of it's very easy, my brothers and sisters, in a church like this where perfection and victory is 52:33 constantly being preached every Sunday. It's very easy for you to be discouraged. Very easy. Oh, the standard I never seem to come up to it. and you go away discouraged. What 52:52 what the brother said in the meeting today was absolutely right. I just feel so condemned cuz I'm not living up to that discouragement. We're not supposed to be discouraged. Discouragement is from the devil. Discouragement is the way the 53:09 devil weakens us so that he can knock us down easily into some other sin. I discovered that when as a young Christian when I didn't have victory over sin and I didn't know I'd be discouraged over one failure and I remain in that 53:26 discouragement for some time wondering how many times I had to confess that sin before I'd be forgiven. Uh and that made me weak for another sin. So I discovered you know you discover the devil's tactics after a while. The way he discourages you is to 53:42 weaken you. So I decided I'm never going to be discouraged. If I slip up and fall, I'm going to confess my sin immediately. Believe that I've been cleansed immediately. I don't have to confess my sin 10 times. Once is enough. 53:55 And if I really turned and I will not condemn myself. The two things I decided I'm never going to go down those roads again. Discouragement and self- condemnation. Those are no entry roads. They are oneway roads. You can come out of it, 54:13 but you can't go back in. Discouragement and self- condemnation. I've said that to myself many times. I will refuse to be discouraged. I refuse to condemn myself because I've been forgiven. The blood of Jesus has not only cleansed me, 54:29 declared me righteous before God. You need to be convinced about that. Even if you lost your temper this morning, you don't have to be in remorse for a few days before you get back into fellowship with God. You can come back 54:46 into fellowship with God in a moment. But you say, "If I take it like that, won't I take sin lightly?" No. You think 10 days of remorse is going to make you take sin seriously? Rubbish. It's when you look at Calvary and see 55:06 what Jesus suffered for your sin, that's what makes you take sin seriously. Not 10 days of remorse because you lost your temper today. No, when you say that that temper is why Jesus had to suffer on the cross, that'll make you take sin 55:22 seriously. So don't be deceived by the devil. Discouragement and self- condemnation are no entry roads. And we don't want to lower the standard in the church. In the church, we're always aiming towards perfection. Let us 55:39 press on to perfection. In our in our church back home, we've got these words written in front of our pulpit. Let us press on to perfection. Which reminds everybody who comes there first of all that the man standing behind the pulpit is not 55:52 perfect. He's still pressing on to perfection. And secondly, he's not satisfied with his present state. He's pressing on to perfection. And that's what you need to do as well. It's a great word. It's in Hebrews 6:1. Let's press on to 56:10 perfection or press on to maturity as it is in some translations. Hebrews 6:1. Let's press on. Let's not always remain with fundamental teaching and kindergarten level. Let's press on to perfection. Just like you tell your 56:22 children, hey, listen. I don't want you to stay in the kindergarten all day. I don't want you want to finish stay in school all the time. I want you to go on to college, man. Press on. And that pressing on comes through 56:36 continuously walking through this veil, this new and living way. And and there's no discouragement there. And the other great danger that we can face in a church like ours where we have really sought to break away from dead 56:55 traditions and is to look at other churches and compare ourselves with them and like the Pharisee in the prayer say Lord we thank you that we're not like other churches and that attitude itself 57:14 self drives you away from God. I'm not supposed to compare myself with other people or other churches. I disagree with them. But I'm not here to compare my 57:33 church. I mean, even all churches we planted, I say we thank God for what has God has done, but we don't compare ourselves with other churches. I've said this before how a man once came to one of our to one of our conferences and said, "Brother Zach, I'm 57:50 fed up with Pentecostal Church and I want to join your church." I said, "Please don't because you'll get fed up with us. We are also imperfect and we have hypocrites in our church. Surprise you. We have hypocrites in our church just like every other 58:05 church." But I said, "We are fed up with ourselves." And when you get fed up with yourself, come and join us. We are a bunch of people who are fed up with our own defeated life who are longing to be really like Jesus, walk like Jesus. And when you get 58:24 fed up with yourself, then you're ready to join us. Not when you're fed up with some church. Jesus said, let me paraphrase it. Come unto me all you who are fed up with yourself. and I will give you rest and 58:42 victory. Why is it we don't get that rest and victory? We're not fed up with ourselves sufficiently. We're fed up with a lot of people around us. It doesn't solve the problem. I say for my in my life, the Christian life is a my life is a life of 59:01 continued dissatisfied satisfaction. That means I'm uh discontented contentment. I'm perfectly content with my material circumstances and aches and pains in my body that I can't get rid 59:21 of. It's okay. I'm perfectly content with all that. But I'm not content with how much I become like Jesus. That I'm constantly discontented with because I want to be more. I want to be completely like him. But all my external circumstances, I'm perfectly 59:37 content. I'm content with my physical state. It may not be perfect. It doesn't matter. Content with my financial circumstances. I'm not hankering always for more and more comfort or a more luxurious standard living. Not at all. 59:50 I'm quite content with the brothers and sisters whom God has given me. They're not perfect, but neither am I. But I'm quite content with them. I'm content with all the externals of my life. People, the church I'm in, material circumstances, physical 1:00:09 health, the type of children God's given me. I'm content with all of that, but I'm not content with how much I've become like Christ. That's what I mean by dissatisfied satisfaction or a discontented contentment. So, and I'm not comparing myself with 1:00:26 other believers. I can honestly say that I'm not jealous of a single believer in the whole world, whatever ministry they may have. God bless them. It doesn't matter to me if other ministers or preachers are doing great job and other churches are 10 1:00:42 times better than ours. Praise the Lord. I'm very happy. If God says that church is much better than yours, I say great Lord. I'm so happy about that. I'd like to be a little more like Jesus in my life. You know, that can come that 1:00:55 attitude towards other believers. and that I disagree with them, but I don't compare my church with theirs. That's not my business. It's for God to decide where we are. I want God's best in my life in every area. And if I walk this way, the way of the 1:01:18 cross, I believe that I can like Jesus, choose the joy and say the cross is nothing. Like Paul said, I count it all as rubbish compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. In our battle with the devil. 1:01:41 And one other thing let me say and that is you know in this as I was saying that one of the dangers we face in a church like this is discouragement because we always such a high standard is being preached and I look at my life and my 1:01:53 maybe your family life and say oh god I'm not reaching there don't get discouraged don't press on you'll get there brother you will get there I assure you and the other as I said is pride where I can compare myself with other 1:02:06 churches that's a danger another danger a third one I'd say is The danger of hypocrisy of getting discouraged, becoming proud, comparing ourselves to others. And the other is 1:02:23 dangers of hypocrisy where when I realize everybody's talking this super spiritual language of fellowship with the father and eternal life and victory and all that and I see I also better speak that language so that I can be accepted 1:02:42 here and then you end up acting as though you have a level of life that you don't have. We have to be natural, be ourselves. We don't have to act spiritual. To act spiritual is, you see, 1:03:04 for example, I sometimes ask little children, uh, what class are you in? In India, we don't call them grades. We call them standard. Second standard, third standard, fourth standard. School is like that. Till today, I have never heard a child tell 1:03:22 me a lie that he's in the sixth standard when he's in the third standard. Never. But I've met lots and lots of believers who try to give you that impression that they're in the sixth grade when they're in the second grade. 1:03:38 Why? Why is a child not ashamed to say, "I'm in the second grade, uncle," or "I'm in the kindergarten, uncle." Why Christians are ashamed to say that? It's because we want to impress and that's what leads to 1:03:57 hypocrisy. It's very easy in a church where people are preaching pressing on to perfection that we can pretend that we've come to a life which we haven't come to. You'll never get there if you live in that pretense. Just be honest. 1:04:09 I'm not saying you're going to confess your sins, but say, "Lord, I don't want to pretend." If you want to make progress, let me assure urge you avoid. Steer clear of discouragement. Refuse it. I will not be discouraged. Jesus has forgiven me. He's 1:04:26 clothed me as righteousness. I'm a child of God. Maybe I'm still in the kindergarten, but I'm pressing on. And just refuse to compare yourself with other believers or other churches. That'll hinder your progress. And the 1:04:38 third is just determined to be yourself. That's the way of fellowship with God and with one another. You know, sometimes I've had the opportunity to talk to people and I sometimes I have to tell them, "Brother, just don't pretend. Ask me 1:04:57 yourself. You don't have to try and impress me. I'm not impressed. You don't have to try and impress me. I love you just as you are. The Lord accepts you as you are, and I can accept you just as you are." We're all struggling. We're pressing 1:05:12 on. And let's not pretend that. So, one last thing. Let me conclude with this. In the world in which we live with all the difficult circumstances and difficult things that happen around us, we we got to be realistic. There are many things for 1:05:33 which we don't know the answer. Many prayers we pray and pray and pray and looks as if God has not answered it. And I don't know why. But one thing I believe in that God is sovereign. I believe one thing with all my heart that my father runs this 1:05:51 universe and he controls all the circumstances that affect my life. And I find my rest in that. Even when I can't explain so many things, I can't understand why so many things happen. I can't understand why some prayers are 1:06:07 not answered. I prayed numerous prayers which are not answered. Not answered means God's answer was no or wait. It's not that he didn't answer it. But that's how people understand it. What I mean is that God said no. Or for 1:06:25 some things he seems to say wait the answer hasn't yet come. I don't know why. I really don't know why. I mean there a lot of things if I were God that I wouldn't do the way God does it. I do things in quite a different way 1:06:42 but it just shows that the truth of that word where God says my ways are not your ways far different from yours and I say I agree Lord a lot of things I mean I I think in a country like India where I live with so many non-Christian 1:06:56 religions I say Lord if I were God I would never allow these founders of these religions to have existed and have only Christianity all over the world 100% at least nominally Christian where I can work on them and bring them to salvation Why in the world 1:07:10 did you allow all these religions to exist? And um so many so many problems we have. People persecute Christians and all that. That's not the way I do it. But for some wonderful reason, God has chosen to do it in a different way. I don't 1:07:27 understand. But I bow and accept the sovereignty of God. And therefore, I don't have a complaint against God. Just like I don't have a complaint against human beings, I don't have a complaint against God either. I admit that my 1:07:40 little cup of my wisdom cannot contain the ocean of God's wisdom. And I always say, Lord, your way is better. Even if I can't understand it, I bow before you. I'm a small little speck in this universe. And I bow before you and I 1:07:55 accept you. My heart is at rest. Even when I can't understand some things that are happening, you can't understand why God has not solved some problem in your life. You can't understand why he hasn't healed that sickness yet. you I can't 1:08:08 understand why things haven't changed though you prayed so much rest in the sovereignty of God say to the devil my father runs this universe and you're not going to discourage me you are defeated Satan my father runs this universe and I 1:08:24 know he can make everything even the things that apparently are evil work for my good that will preserve my fellowship with the father that's part of living in the most holy place bowing down. Worship means I accept what I cannot 1:08:42 explain because I know it's God's perfect will. So, I hope you've been blessed by all my rambling thoughts. Let's just bow our heads before God. Thank you, Father, for giving us your word that brings 1:09:06 life. And I know that the Holy Spirit will remind us of it at the appropriate time. I thank you in Jesus
