0:00 [Music] To God be the glory. Great things he has done. So love he the world that he gave us his son who 0:18 he adornment for sin and open the life gates that all may go in. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise 0:35 the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the fire through Jesus the son and give him the glory. Great things he had done. Oh, perfect redemption. The purchase of 1:01 God to every believer, the promise of God, the viest who repents and believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. 1:19 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the father through 1:35 Jesus the son and give him the glory. Great things he had done. Great things he had ordered. Great 1:51 things he has done. and great are rejoicing through Jesus the son. But pure, higher and greater will be our wonder are transformed when Jesus we 2:10 sing. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the Father through Jesus the 2:28 Son and give him the glory. Great things he has done. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. 2:48 Oh, come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory. Great things he has done. Please be seated brothers and 3:04 sisters. Sing praise and glory, wisdom and thanks, honor and power and strength. Raise your voices and sing to our God. Be to our God 3:23 forever and ever. Be to our God forever and ever be to our God forever and ever. 3:41 Amen. Salvation belongs to our God who reigns upon the throne. [Music] Salvation belongs to our God who reigns upon the throne and unto the Lamb. 4:09 Praise and glory, wisdom and thanks, honor and power and strength. Be to our God forever and 4:28 ever. Be to our God forever and ever be to our God forever and ever. Amen. And we the redeemed shall be 4:56 strong in purpose and unity. Declaring our love. Sing praise and 5:13 glory. Wisdom and thanks. Honor and power and strength. Just the voices. Let's sing. Be to our God. Be to our God forever and 5:30 ever. Be to our God forever and ever. Be to our God forever and ever. Amen. [Music] Let's continue to praise his name 5:53 together. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Wonderful grace of 6:10 Jesus. Greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall it praise begin? Taking away my 6:28 burden. Setting my spirit free. For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the matchless grace of 6:45 Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountain. Sparkling like a fountain. All sufficient grace for even me. Gorder than the scope of my 7:03 transgressions. Greater than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Wonderful grace of 7:23 Jesus reaching to all the Lord. By it I have been part to the outer walls. Chains have been torn 7:40 a giving me liberty. For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the matchless grace of 7:57 Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains. sparkling like a fountain sufficient grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my transgressions. Greater Father than all 8:17 my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Wonderful grace of 8:35 Jesus reaching the most defiled by his transforming power making him God's dear child purchasing peace and 8:53 heaven for all eternity and the wonderful grace of Jes. Jesus reaches me. Just the voices. Let's sing. Wonderful the matchless grace of 9:10 Jesus. Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. It's higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain. All sufficient grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my transgressions. 9:29 Greater far than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Unto 9:47 him unto him. Unto him, unto him, unto him be glory in the church, both now and 10:06 ever. Clap your hands and sing. Unto him be glory in the church, both now and ever more. Unto him be glory in the 10:24 church. For now and ever more. Unto him unto him. Unto him, unto 10:40 him, unto him be glory in the church both now and ever more. Unto him. Unto him. Unto 10:59 him. Unto him. And to him be glory in the church. Both now and ever more. All the glory, honor, praise, 11:16 worship belongs to him. He's worthy to be praised. So let's shout to the Lord, all the earth. Let us sing. Power and majesty praise to the 11:34 king. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your 11:53 hands. Forever I love you. Forever I stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have in you. Brothers and sisters, let's stand 12:12 up as we sing this song. As the words say, all of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. Let's put aside everything else. Fix our eyes on him. Give him a shout of praise this morning. There is none like you for all 12:31 that he is to us. My Jesus, my savior. Lord, there is none like you. All of my 12:50 days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my 13:08 shelter, tower of reuge and strength. Let every breath all that I am, never cease to worship you. Shout to the Lord, all the earth. 13:35 blessing power and majesty praise to the king. Mountains fall down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the words of 13:58 your hands. Forever I love you. Forever I stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have in [Music] 14:20 you. Let's continue to praise. Give thanks to God. Give glory to him. Think about his awesome majesty as we sing this song. My God, how wonderful thou art. Thy majesty, how bright, how beautiful thy mercy, Satan, depths of burning 14:39 [Music] light. My God, how wonderful thou are. Thy 14:57 majesty, how bright, how beautiful thy mercy see in depth of 15:14 burning light. [Music] How dread art are thy eternal years. Oh, everlasting 15:36 Lord, by proceed spirits day and night incessantly adore. [Music] 16:02 Lord, how wonderful, how [Music] beautiful the sight of thee must be. Thine endless 16:21 wisdom, boundless power and awful glory. [Music] 16:37 Oh, how I fear the livinging God with [Music] deepest rest fears and 16:54 worship thee with trembling and penitential tears. [Music] Yet I may love thee too, oh 17:20 Lord, Almighty as thou are for thou has stood to ask of 17:35 me the love of my pure [Music] heart. No earthly father loves like 17:54 thee. No mother so mine. [Music] There's and forbears as thou has done with me thy 18:14 sinful child. Just the voices. Let's sing. Mother of Jesus loves reward. What 18:34 rapture will it be? Pro straight before thy throne to [Applause] 18:48 life and gaze and gaze on thee. And all within me falls at your throne. 19:09 Majesty, I can but I lay my all before you now in royal robes. I don't 19:28 deserve. I live to serve your majesty. Let's sing just the first verse. King of kings. King of kings, [Music] 19:47 majesty. God of heaven, living in me. Gentle savior, closest friend, strong deliverer, 20:06 beginning and end. All within me falls at your throne. Majesty I can 20:23 but I lay my own before you in royal robes I don't 20:38 deserve I live to serve your majesty. [Music] Ste Sunday school children can leave for 20:59 Sunday school. Shall we bow our heads in prayer? We just now sang. My God, how wonderful 21:41 thou art, thy majesty, how bright, how beautiful thy mercy seat in depths of burning light. How dreaded are thine eternal ears, O 22:00 everlasting Lord, by prostrate spirits day and night, incessantly adored. No earthly father's lo father 22:20 loves like thee. No mother ever so mild bears and forbears as thou hast done with me thy sinful child. Father of Jesus love's 22:40 reward. What rapture it will be. prostrate before thy throne to lie and gaze and gaze on thee. My God, how wonderful thou art in thy 22:58 majesty. We bless you this morning, Father, that thou are so majestic in our sight. You are great and greatly to be praised. Father, we worship you, bow down before you, give you all the glory that's due unto you, Lord. You have purchased us 23:17 with your precious blood, Lord Jesus. Cleansed us and washed us and made us your children. Lord, we thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit whereby we can call you our father. Thank you, Lord, that there is no condemnation to them 23:33 though to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now we've been redeemed by the blood of the lamb. We've been washed and made kings and priests unto God. Thank you, Father, that you loved us with an everlasting love. Lord, we thank you. We 23:50 bow down before you in our spirits this morning. Join with the hosts of heaven this morning and shout hallelujah to you, Lord, because you're worthy, worthy of all praise, glory, and honor. Brothers and sisters, lift up your 24:04 voices. Lift up your hands if you feel free. Shout praises unto the Lord for he's worthy of our praise. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Worship you. Glory to you. Praise you Jesus. Hallelujah. 24:30 Dear Lord, we look up to you this morning as we come with expectation. Dear Lord, we pray that you'll break the bread of life as you broke the bread at the Sea of Galilee for your disciples this morning. We 24:48 are waiting to hear what you have to speak to us. We pray that you will anoint your servant, fill him with your Holy Spirit, give him grace and strength and clarity, liberty. And Father, we pray that you will help us to be receptive to receive 25:07 what you have to speak to us this morning that we may receive your word with meekness and that it may bear fruit in our lives. We pray that you'll be glorified in our midst and exalted today. bless you and worship you for 25:23 Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. We'll just look at our last week's memory verse and learn a new one today. Last week's memory verse was from 25:44 Isaiah 40 and verse 8. Is it there? Last week's memory verse was from Isaiah 40:8. Shall we all say it together? The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word 26:03 of the Lord stands forever. Shall we say it again without looking at the screen? The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Isaiah 40:8. And today's verse is from 1 Corinthians 26:22 14:1. 1 Corinthians 14:1. Shall we all all say it together with I mean loud and strong, please. Pursue love yet desire earnestly 26:38 spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1. Shall we say it once more? Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 26:57 Corinthians 14 verse1. Now I request brother Zach to minister the word. Let's turn to Genesis in chapter 1. 27:45 [Music] I believe there's a lot of significance in uh what is written here symbolically. As you probably heard me say before 28:03 that chapter 1 of Genesis is in a nutshell the message of the whole Bible. That is when God created man just like he created the earth. It was 28:21 perfect. But something happened between verse 1 and two that made the earth lose its shape, became empty, and became dark. That's the message of the gospel really. The spirit of God immediately 28:40 began to work upon this fallen man who had lost the shape of God and became dark and empty. And the first thing God said was, "Let there be light." And the light of the glory of Christ shone into our 28:55 hearts. And then there is a progressive work day by day by day. Every day something was done. Now you got to see this as a process of sanctification. That's what I see in the 29:13 first chapter that every day something was done. There wasn't any day missed out. If there's a day missed out in your life where God could not sanctify you, you have missed the will of God that day. Something is lost which you can never 29:32 gain again. It's gone forever. So every day and not only that at the end of every day it says God examined and say yeah that was good and I see that like that from my own life that at the end of the day God 29:50 must examine me say well everything is good today. In other words if there was I slipped up somewhere I immediately confessed it or if I hurt somebody I immediately confessed it at the end of the day. He says God saw that it was 30:08 good. Then the day closes. I hope it will be like that in your life that at the end of every day God can look at your life and say it's good. 30:25 It's very easy if we are humble enough to acknowledge our faults and failures, the foolish things we did during the day and the foolish things we said and we repent of it so that the next day will be a little better than 30:42 the day gone by. God will really say it's good. See many many people in the church ask me why aren't we making progress? I'll tell you because you don't take each day seriously. Why why aren't we uh overcoming? Start from today to take 31:00 every single day seriously and to ask God to certify at the end of the day that it was good. Why does the Bible say don't let the sun set on your anger? You should not finish the day with anger in your heart against anyone 31:15 or a bitterness or an unforgiving spirit. You remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6:34, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. That means one day's evil. Let's turn to that verse. If you're not familiar with it, it's a very good verse 31:34 because it speaks about seeking the kingdom of God first. In the previous verse, you seek God's kingdom first. That's how we must live every day. And all our needs in that day will be added. And don't be anxious about tomorrow. 31:49 Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow's problems you can wait till you wake up in the morning. But today you had a certain amount of trouble. Enough. Each day has enough trouble of its own. That means God has allotted a certain amount of trouble each 32:08 day. And the purpose of it is not to trouble us but to sanctify us, to test us. and to enable us to overcome. So today there's been enough trouble for me and I overcome it and the end of a day I 32:25 settle all matters with God and men and God says it's very good then I don't have to worry about tomorrow. So many of us are worried about what's going to happen tomorrow, what's going to happen next week. I'll tell you, start worrying 32:40 about what you did today and then all these other things will take care of themselves. We're far too worried about what's going to happen tomorrow and next week and next year instead of being concerned about what we did in the situations we 32:55 face today. So here is a little exhortation just take it seriously which you get from Genesis chapter 1 that at the end of every day let God certify about your life he saw that it was good every sin is settled every matter is every person 33:12 is forgiven there's no bitterness there's no complaint against anyone for what they said or did to you during the day this is some practical advice and the other thing we should not think that what can happen in the fifth 33:31 day can happen on the first day. That's a little thing that we got to bear in mind. You look at some other brothers who are ahead of you where you can't get there that he may be in the fifth day and you're in the first and sometimes 33:43 you want to be there where he is. You can't be there. But if you're patient, you'll get there. See, we we don't have a spirit of competition here. We're not in competition with one another to see who's most spiritual. You got to let God allow you to grow at 34:01 at his own pace. The only thing you got to be careful is that you don't lag behind that what was supposed to be accomplished in one day was not accomplished. The one difference here in Genesis 1 compared to our life is that 34:18 here God was dealing with inanimate objects. That means objects that had no will of their own. If God says it happens, if God says let the uh earth sprout vegetation, it happens 34:36 because the earth doesn't have a free will. That's the difference between the all these objects here and us. In our case, when God says do this, we think about it and nothing happens. we waste the day or when God prompts you keep 34:52 your mouth shut there don't say that we still open our mouth and say something or God says you should be bold there and w be a witness for me we keep quiet so we are people whom God has created with a choice and it's because we don't respond 35:09 to God that's the other thing we can learn from here everything here responded to God immediately there was no delay there was no thinking about it or praying about it or any such thing. As soon as God said something, it was 35:23 done. And that is the lesson we learn from the first chapter of Genesis. How this corrupt, dark, filthy earth became perfect. So when we look at our life as unconverted people, Genesis 1:2 is a perfect description. The shape 35:40 of God is gone completely. We're completely empty and dark. From there if you want God to make you so beautiful but at the end of that week you read that we are made in verse 27 in the 35:59 image of God. That's where God wants to end us. You know we've always said the goal of our life is not some ministry or any such thing but to have the image of Christ in us completely. And that's where it finally ends on the sixth day 36:13 that made in the image of God. It was a progressive development to the image of God finally. And that's where God wants to bring every one of us. And he'll do that. And at the end of it, he says in verse 31, it is very 36:31 good. And when he's completed that work, you read that then the seventh day God rested. And that will be when Christ comes back and eternity has begun. and God will rest with us for eternity. So Genesis chapter 1 is a actually a 36:49 picture of our whole earthly life. There are a number of lessons that we can learn from there. Mainly that every day God wants to do something in our life and we should respond immediately in obedience and in faith. Faith meaning to faith is simply 37:05 to believe that whatever God has said for me to do is the best for me. See all all of us we seek the what is best for us. Every sensible human being seeks what is best for them. In everything in your life, don't you make a choice like 37:18 that? This is good for me. The day you understand and are gripped by this truth that whatever God has said in his word is the best for me. You won't have any hesitation in obeying. You won't be questioning as should I do this or should I do that. 37:37 Faith means to believe that God is my loving father. Will earthly fathers give bad things to their children? No. But there cannot be anything that my heavenly father says to me that's not good for me. So I'm going to just 37:52 respond to it. I don't have to think twice about something God has said. Just like all earth and heavens and everything just responded immediately. There was no question in their mind whether God has said what God has said 38:03 is good or not. The other thing we need to learn from the first chapter of Genesis is what Jesus said. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of 38:23 God. And that's the other thing we see here throughout this six days that every day God spoke. Nothing happened without God speaking. If one day God was silent, it would have been written and that day, that day nothing happened. On the fourth day, God 38:40 did not speak. If it was like that, the fourth day nothing happened. And the day you do not do not hear God speaking to you, the whole day went by and you never bothered to hear what God had to say to you. You had to write about that day. 38:55 This day, nothing happened. Something was supposed to happen but it didn't happen because I was too busy and I didn't have time to hear God. We need to realize the truth of what Jesus said. Man shall not live by food alone. I think all of us remember 39:11 to eat our food but by every word of God. This is one of the things that distinguishes the truly spiritual Christian from all others. There are lots of people who say they are born again. I sometimes question it because 39:25 they don't have time to read the scriptures, have plenty of time to do a lot of other things, plenty of time to be on their cell phones, plenty of time to send text messages, but when it comes to the Bible, they're not so serious. And they 39:39 wonder, why are we defeated by pornography? Why are we struggling so much with these things? I'll tell you, you'll be struggling with it for the next 100 years if you live. Because God honors those who honor him. And if you don't honor him, he's 39:52 not going to honor you. And if you find somebody else is honored by God, it's because God, he's honored. He's honored God himself. And you can go that way, too. Genesis 1 is written for all of us. So that's the other thing that every 40:07 single day God speaks. There wasn't a single day when God did not speak. And I believe that was how it was in Jesus life. There wasn't a single day in his life where he did not hear the father. every day. See this verse in Genesis, sorry, 40:25 Isaiah chapter 50, Isaiah 50 and verse 4. Uh in the middle of that it says, "The Lord God wakens me morning by morning. Every morning he wakes me up and 40:48 uh to listen, wakens my ear. In other words, when I get up in the morning, I have to say, well, God has now woken me up to hear him. That's the first thing I need to do today to hear what God has to say to me. Can you 41:06 start? You probably didn't start today like that, but can you start tomorrow onwards like that? As soon as you wake up, think, well, God has woken me up today. He wakens me morning to 41:24 listen before I run around doing 101 things. How long does it take to spend a few moments to listen? Lord, what are you trying to say to me today? And I'll tell you this that the voice of 41:41 God will be clearer to you if you spend time reading the scriptures. The more you read and memorize and meditate on the scriptures, you wake up in the morning and there'll be something God has to say to you. 42:00 But if you don't have the habit of disciplined reading of the scriptures, you'll wake up and all types of thoughts will be in your mind in the morning and then you have all those other things in your morning. Well, God wants what God wants to do in your life 42:13 is not accomplished. And I'm not asking you to spend half an hour in the morning. You may not have some mothers with small children don't have a half an hour in the morning. Some people have to rush to work early in the morning. 42:26 It's an attitude that you need to have from the time you wake up that you need to maintain throughout the day when you're traveling and other people are just gabing around and talking to be listening. We can be listening while we 42:43 are doing our work. So when it says that the Lord woken me up in the morning to listen, it didn't mean that he shut down the ear after 5 minutes. He had his ear was open throughout the day. And when you develop the habit of listening 42:59 listening throughout the day, you'll find that God speaks to you at night as well. It's a wonderful way to live. And it's not difficult. You don't you don't need money. You don't need anything that other people in the world think is 43:13 necessary. Just develop this habit of listening. Of listening. And it says here in Genesis, sorry, Isaiah 50:4 that because he listened unexpectedly when somebody a weary person is again in Isaiah 54, the 43:31 first part unexpectedly some weary person comes across your path that day and that can happen every day. Maybe somebody who visits you, maybe somebody who calls you on the phone, maybe somebody who sends you an email or 43:49 every day some weary person wants is discouraged and God will give you not a big sermon but a word to bless that person and to release him, to set him free, to encourage him. I want to say to all of you, my brothers 44:07 and sisters, if you're born again, if Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, this is not for those who have not made Jesus Lord of your life. I mean, if you're just a nominal Christian or you just like CFC and come here or you just like 44:20 listening to messages, this is not for you. But if you have made Jesus Lord of your life and you've turned from your sin, then this is for you that God wants to make you, even if you were born again today, to be a blessing to other people 44:33 from today onwards. Not to be blessed by God alone but to be a blessing to others. Take that seriously that because Jesus had the habit of listening listening listening suddenly when somebody landed up unexpectedly he had a 44:52 word. And I want to urge you that as you grow spiritually, you must have more and more have a word when unexpectedly you come across people who are weary. And if you say you don't have a word, I would say to you without any 45:09 doubt, you're not a listener. You're not listening. That's why you don't have a word. Anyone who listens will always have a word. You may not become a preacher. You don't have to be a preacher to give somebody two sentences 45:22 to encourage him. No, preachers are very, very few. I think God calls one in 10,000 people to be an anointed preacher of the word. You may not be that one in 10,000, but to have a word in season for the weary. Every one of the 10,000 can 45:40 have that. everyone even little children if you develop the habit of reading the scriptures and listening to God and I believe it's one of the things we must really encourage our children from a very young age to read the Bible and to 45:55 hear God from the scriptures they can bless one another. So turning back to Genesis chapter 1, remember the ultimate goal is that we might be made in the image of God. And the other thing uh which I believe happened every day even though 46:14 it's mentioned only on the beginning is it says in when verse two the spirit of God moved over this cursed spoiled earth. I believe it was spoiled because between verse one and two, the 46:32 head of the angels, Lucifer, fell and became the devil. That's why the earth became chaos. Just like in Genesis 3, when Adam fell, the earth was cursed. That's what happened between verse one and two. Because God never creates 46:47 anything formless, void, and dark. Some people say that uh and there are believers who believe that when God made the earth, he made the earth formless, void, and dark. That's completely wrong because James 1:17 says, "Every good and 47:05 perfect gift comes from the father. He never makes anything that's not perfect." When he creates something, let there be an earth. The earth doesn't come up shapeless, empty, and dark. You got to be crazy to believe that. There 47:18 are people you know who say they are against man's evolution from being an ape and becoming a monkey but who themselves believe in the evolution of the earth. The earth when God created was formless, empty and dark and gradually day by day by day it evolved 47:35 into the perfect earth. God made it. It's absolute nonsense. There was no evolution of man and there was no evolution of the earth. It was whenever God creates something is perfect. And when Adam was created it was perfect. 47:47 When the earth was created, it was perfect and it becomes corrupt through the work of the devil. And that's why Genesis 1:2, it became corrupt. But immediately the spirit of God. So we thought saw the importance of the word 48:00 of God listening to us. The other thing we see here is right in Genesis chapter 1, the importance of the Holy Spirit. Right at the beginning of scripture, you see the importance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If this 48:16 um shapeless, empty, dark human being is to one day become in the image of God, it's not enough to listen. You must be open to the Holy Spirit. It's through the Holy Spirit that you know, you can read the word of God and hear God, but it's quite a 48:36 different thing when the Holy Spirit takes that word and speaks it to your heart. That's why whenever you read the word of God, you must be open to the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, you'll be reading it like a history book or some 48:49 other textbook in your school or college. Well, you get some information. That's not the way we must read the Bible. The Bible's different because Jesus said that the truths of God are hidden from the clever and the intelligent but revealed to babes. 49:08 So can you think of any book in the world which only babies can understand and clever intelligent people can't understand? I mean go to any bookstore and try and pick out a book which only babies can understand. Clever people 49:20 can't understand. There's no such book. But there is one book. It's the Bible. You can understand the facts of the Bible by being clever. But you can't hear God through the Holy Spirit if you don't have the attitude of a baby which 49:33 is humility and simple trust. Those the two qualities I see in a baby humility. Jesus said that if you humble yourself like a little child and the other is a child has simple trust in its parents and if I come with that attitude 49:51 to scripture then God will speak to me and the Holy Spirit will speak. So just like you we say we must give an importance to reading the scriptures. I want to say equally you must give an importance to the holy spirit's ministry 50:07 in your life. Jesus was the second person of the trinity and he was on earth for 33 and a2 years and as I said the other day if you heard that the second person of the trinity was visiting some land on earth I mean wouldn't you do everything save 50:25 up money and go there and to meet him I would if I felt that the Jesus the second person of trinity was visiting only one part of the earth I'd travel anywhere to go there well now that the second person of trinity has gone up to 50:38 heaven the third person who trinity is on the earth and you don't have to travel anywhere. Are you keen on meeting him? Are you keen on meeting the third person of the trinity? Because it's exactly like the second person of the 50:52 trinity on the earth. And when Jesus was with those disciples, they could solve every problem. They'd live without fear. Everything was okay. Now, it's exactly the same to have the third person of the trinity with us all the 51:05 time. It's so very important. the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. The spirit of God moved upon the surface of the waters and that's how I believe he he worked on that cursed earth all the time and ultimately that's how finally the earth 51:24 became perfect and I believe that God wants to do that as well in all of our lives so that on the last day it'll be written and we were made completely in the image of God that we became like him completely. So coming to 51:41 that it says here that he was made in the image of God. We can ask ourselves what is the image of God that he wants to make us in. We know it's not a physical image but a spiritual. So if we have an idea of the goal, we'll know 52:00 whether every day we're getting closer to that goal or not. It's like if you're, you know, making a completing a jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces and every day you put a piece in and becomes clearer. The 52:19 picture becomes clearer, clearer, clearer till one day the whole jigsaw puzzle is completed and you see the full picture. There's something we have to put into that jigsaw puzzle every day. So what is the final picture? It's very 52:31 important for us to see that because if we don't see the final picture clearly is the image of Christ is the image of God. But that's a vague statement. We need to be more practical and see what it means. So let me show you two verses 52:48 that show us what the image of God is. In John's one John there are two statements made about God. One John we read 1 John chapter 53:17 1 and verse 5. God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. So the image of God in which he is 53:35 seeking to make us is where there'll be zero darkness in my life. And darkness can refer to sin but I think more than that it refers to a lot of hypocrisy. Darkness is where I want to 53:55 hide something. People go into the dark because they want to hide something. You know, thieves and adulterers and all do things in the dark. They don't do it in the light. It's when you want to hide something that you're in the dark. If 54:08 you don't know how to hide anything, you're out in the light. So, it refers to hypocrisy. In God, there is no hypocrisy. And the image of God that God is going to work in my life, in your life to such an extent that there'll be 54:21 zero hypocrisy in my life. what people see in me will be exactly what I am inside. And I want to ask you today, is that true of your life? I'm not asking you if you're perfect. No, nobody's perfect. I'm not perfect. But are you giving an 54:40 impression to people about your spirituality which is not real? That is darkness. And if you do that deliberately, you're going against God's plan for your life. You're frustrating God's plan. And then I'll tell you this, 54:59 if it has been going on for a long time, your spiritual growth has been tremendously hindered all these years. That's why Jesus hit out at hypocrisy more than anything else. Where do you hear him in the gospels condemning murderers and 55:12 adulterers like the way he condemned hypocrites? We got to see the seriousness of hypocrisy. this absolute seriousness of pretending. The first sin that was judged in the early church was not murder, not adultery, but hypocrisy. It was not even giving money. 55:30 God is not interested in money. But don't pretend. That's what God was telling Ananas. You come to this church, don't pretend. If you want to pretend, go to some other dead church or some other religion. But don't come here to the church of the 55:44 living God and pretend to be spiritual when you're not. That brings death. It'll certainly bring spiritual death to you even if it doesn't bring physical death. In an's case, it brought physical death because God was determined to get rid of 56:03 hypocrisy. You know all that ananas had to do that day was come up to the front and say Peter we sold our house for 100,000 rupees but but my wife and I felt we shouldn't give the whole thing like all the others. Praise God all these others 56:18 are giving everything. We felt we should give only 50,000. Peter say great I mean that's great that you're willing to give 50% of your sale value to God. I mean how many Christians would do that? Great. God bless you, Ananas. He'd have gone 56:33 healthy and lived a long life. But just because he pretended, I am as spiritual as all the others in CFC. Uh-huh. Then you're in for danger. I am as spiritual these other brothers. 56:50 Really? I hope you are. I'd be delighted if you are. But if it's a pretense, you're going the way of ananas. And I have to tell you that in the image of God, when God makes man finally in his image and perfect at the end of the sixth day, there will be no 57:09 darkness. And there's a lot of darkness in us, you know, sin and hypocrisy and all that. But if we eliminate hypocrisy first, sins will gradually get eliminated. And I believe the reason why many are struggling and never seem to 57:27 make much progress is because they are not dealing with hypocrisy in their life. They're always wanting to pretend and appear spiritual and talk spiritual language instead of I mean if you have a need in your life I don't care if you've 57:40 been a believer for many years and I don't care if you think you're a senior believer. Go to somebody who and say, "Brother, a lot of people think I'm a senior believer, but I'm in desperate need spiritually. I want you to help me." Are you humble 57:57 enough to go and ask for help like that? It doesn't matter who you are. If people think you're a older brother or older sister, why not be honest about your need? If you can manage on your own, that's best. You don't have to go to 58:11 anybody. Go to the Lord himself. But if you need help, go and ask somebody. There are a lot of people who will be willing to help you. But hate hypocrisy is one of the things which I have sought particularly in the last 40 years before we started 58:26 CFC. You know, you've probably read my testimony that I had a period of backsliding and it was mainly hypocrisy. But I decided in the last 40 years that I'll never be a hypocrite. And that's made a tremendous difference in my life. 58:42 I said I'll never speak about that's what's not not real in my inner life. I'll never never seek to give an impression of myself which is not 100% true. I am what I am. If people think I'm crude, I'm crude. I don't want to 58:58 pretend that I'm very gracious and gentle. I am what I am. I'm not. The work is not complete. Uh God is still working on me. But I'm not ashamed of that. But I can't expect to be on the fifth day when I'm on the third day. I'm 59:11 willing to wait but no hypocrisy. On the third day the work was not complete and the earth acknowledges the work is not complete but we are progressing. We're better than the second day. The next day it'll be still better. 59:27 So remember this the image of God means first of all there is no light. Sorry there's no darkness. God is light. And so it says here that in verse 6 of 1 John 1 that if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we are 59:45 liars. We are liars. There are two places where John says in this episode we are liars. And you got to listen to that. To be a liar is to be in the dark. If you say you're in fellowship with God and there's some area in your 1:00:02 life which you have to cover up. Oh, I hope the brothers don't discover this area of my life. I hope the brothers don't discover how I'm handling money in this area. I hope they don't discover this transaction I made with 1:00:15 this person which is not absolutely straightforward. You are in darkness and then you the right name for you is not believer or born again. Call yourself by what the Bible says liar. You're giving an impression to people which is not true. 1:00:35 The second thing the Bible says in 1 John about uh God in 1 John chapter 4 in verse 8 it says God is love. So these are the only two statements you read about God. God is light and God is love. Keep this in mind all the time because this is the image 1:00:54 of God in which he's seeking to make us. Start with light. determine that by the grace of God, you will have no area dark in your life. As soon as you spot it, you're going to shine the light on that and eliminate it. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not 1:01:12 asking you to go and publicly confess your sins before others. That is an artificial humility, which is another form of pride. When people try to confess their sins to other people to show how humble they are, that's a lot of 1:01:29 humbug. If you have sinned against somebody, go and confess to him. If you have sinned in privately against God, don't go and burden somebody else with that. Go and confess it to God alone because you sinned only before God. So 1:01:42 I'm not by honesty. I don't mean confessing all your sins in public. But it means you don't give an pretend to be more spiritual than you really are. And the second is God is love. 1 John 4:8 like you if you're walking in 1:02:00 darkness you're not in fellowship with God. It says here if you don't walk in love you're not in fellowship with God either because God is love. And that's the second place where it says you're called a liar. See it says here in verse 20 if 1:02:17 someone says I love God and he hates his brother he's a liar. So the two people whom the John says or the Holy Spirit says are liars. One is those who are hypocrites who pretend to be something they are not. And the second is those 1:02:33 who claim to be spiritual but they can't love somebody. I'm not asking you to agree with everybody. There are millions of people in the world I don't agree with. The millions of people Jesus didn't agree with but he loved them. There was 1:02:45 not a human being on the face of the earth whom Jesus did not love. But he disagreed with 99% of them. I find myself in the same category. I disagree with more than 90% of born again believers in many many things they do 1:02:59 which are completely contrary to scripture. I disagree with them but I love them. But lots of people believers in other churches in Bangalore. I love them. I don't agree with them. Not by my standard but I say hey the word of God says this and you're not 1:03:14 doing it according to this. Why do we have such a strong stand on money in CFC that uh we don't want to draw people to our church to serve the Lord who are serving for money employing a pastor saying we'll 1:03:33 offer you so much salary. I say show me that in scripture. You show it to me in one place in scripture where an elder was promised a certain salary and then he was employed in a church. I'll accept it. one instance is enough. And yet, you 1:03:47 know, 99.9% of churches do that, but they don't think it's serious. I think it's serious because if you don't do it according to scripture, you're going according to the opinion of man. It may be more convenient. Like uh when the Philistines 1:04:03 sent the ark of God on a bullock cart, that's the way of the world. And David thought, "Hey, that's a great idea. Why make people carry it? Carry it on a bulockart." And if you read in 2 Samuel 7, that's how death came into that situation. And one of 1:04:19 David's servants died because David modified God's plan. He thought God's torturing people, carrying people carry it on their shoulders. Let me find a better plan. Put on a bullet cart. And that's exactly what people say. How can you expect a 1:04:34 man to serve the Lord if he's got to worry about where he's going to get his money from? So let's ease that burden from him by giving him a salary. put him on a bullet cart. That's how death comes into the church. It's exactly the same 1:04:47 today. Why does God allow a person to go through struggle uh to experience financial difficulty? I don't know how many of you have been in full-time work. As far as I know, only Ian and I have come into full-time work at some time in our life. But you ask 1:05:07 him, and my testimony is the same. We've been through tremendous financial struggle in the early days. And that's where we learned faith. And faith is one of the most important things we need to serve God. And if we had got a salary every single 1:05:23 month of our life without a problem, we wouldn't need faith. Some man would be guaranteeing my salary every month and guaranteeing his salary every month. Why? He doesn't need to trust God at all. Where would we have a ministry? 1:05:36 You cannot have a ministry if you have not learned faith. Now, I'm not saying therefore you've all got to become full-time Christian workers. All I'm saying is I'm 100% against this salaried type of ministry. We are against it 1:05:48 because it is not in scripture. I don't care if 99.9% of churches do it. I have a greater respect for scripture than you. You can accept it. I don't. If you respect the Bible as God's word, then respect it as God's word and 1:06:04 believe that God has laid down some standards there and everything contrary to that is darkness. And we're not saying we are better than other people. I remember once discussing some point where I disagreed with a very godly man, much 1:06:18 older than me, double my age, and I said, "Brother, I'm not trying to say that I am better than you. No, you are a much more godly man than I am. I acknowledge it. But I want to show you in scripture that what you're saying is 1:06:32 contrary to scripture here. And even though you may be much more godly than me and double my age, I put scripture above you. I've always adopted that position. And that's what's been my salvation. I've never never respected a man more 1:06:49 than scripture. I want to encourage you to do that because God's word is the only thing that can keep us alive and on the right track. And if I see something in scripture, I'm just going to go by it. So please keep that in 1:07:05 mind. God is light and God is love. So I shared a little bit about this matter of hypocrisy and God being uh that there should be no darkness in our life. I think we've spoken about that quite a bit and I think most of us understand 1:07:20 it. But this matter of love, you know, is very very important. When God gave a law to the Israelites, you turn to Deuteronomy and uh or maybe we can turn to Matthew 22. 1:07:42 That's clearer there because it was quoted to Jesus. We get the answer from Jesus' mouth himself. That's better. The Pharisees came Matthew 22 and verse 36. See, they were very particular to 1:08:00 know what is the most important commandment in the law. And if you ask one of the Pharisees what it was, they say Sabbath. Of course, keep the Sabbath. Don't do anything on Sabbath day. Don't carry your bed on the Sabbath 1:08:14 day. Don't plug grain on the Sabbath day. This is the greatest commandment. So they wanted to ask Jesus, "What do you say is the greatest commandment?" And he didn't pick out, there are 613 commandments in the law of Moses, 613. 1:08:27 He never picked out any of them. He picked out what was the foundation for all of them. He said the greatest command. Matthew 22:37, the greatest commandment is you shall love. And the second verse 39 is you shall 1:08:47 love. First, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. That means with everything in you. We can say with your money, with your time, with your energy, with whatever you are, with 1:09:02 your whole personality, you got to love God with everything in you. Jesus put it like this that you got to love me more than you love your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children. You can add many things to that to your job, 1:09:15 your car, your possessions, your bank account. You got to love God or love Jesus more than every other thing. And it doesn't stop there. He asked only for one commandment. But Jesus said, "I can't give you one commandment." There are two 1:09:33 sides to it like a coin. If I give you a coin, he says, "I can't give you one side of a coin. There is another side to it whether you like it or not." So one side is you shall love the Lord your God. That is the first side. But 1:09:46 connected to that is the second that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So based on that Jesus made what is called the golden rule. Treat other people the way you want to be treated 1:10:04 yourself. I tell you there'd be so few conflicts in homes between husband and wife if you follow this simple one rule. Treat your wife the way you want to be treated yourself. Speak to your wife in exactly the same 1:10:24 way as you want her to speak to you. Speak to your husband in exactly the same way as you want him to speak to you. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's part of the law of God. This is 1:10:42 the image into which God is making us. This is the sixth day. So if you want to get there day by day by day by day, you had to progress to that place where I love my fellow believers and I love human beings. Neighbor means every human 1:10:56 being. That I'm more loving and just more loving in my attitude. It's not that I'm going around expressing my love to everybody. Jesus didn't go visiting every neighbor's house and say I love you and give them cakes or something 1:11:08 like that. This is all human ways. It was an attitude that was manifest as soon as some situation came where he was confronted the love came out because there was only love inside you know like Amy Carmichael 1:11:26 uh that godly missionary in Tamil Nad 60 years ago or 80 years ago said if you you know sometimes we say that somebody provoked you and that's why you got upset and angry or irritated. And she says it's not 1:11:45 true. If a glass full of sweet water, orange juice or something is shaken, what comes out of it? Bitter water, it does not become bitter no matter how heavily you shake it. So if bitter water comes out, what 1:12:04 does it prove? All you clever people, it was bitter all along, but you discovered it now. So, somebody provokes you. You got to be immensely thankful to him that he showed you what was inside your 1:12:22 glass. You never knew it till then. You thought you had sweet water but somebody really irritated you in your place of work or at home and out came that bitterness and anger or um uh hurt feeling in your mind. 1:12:42 Sometimes we are good at yoga and control our mouths. That doesn't solve the problem because our heart and mind. Can you think of something that happened during the last week where somebody really said something to hurt you and 1:12:57 you got really upset within but like a good yoga practicer, you kept your mouth shut. Don't be satisfied with that. You kept your mouth shut. Your inside was still agitated. That's what the Holy Spirit wants to change. 1:13:17 a little better tomorrow. Should be a little better tomorrow. But if you find that you're the same thing is happening week after week after week, there's no progress. You're in maybe the first day of Genesis or the second day you when are 1:13:31 you ever going to reach go forward and God saw it as not good to be like that. So let's remember that the image of God we are finally going towards is to is the place where I love others as myself. That I will never want 1:13:48 to do something to another person which I will not want him to do to me. I'll never want to speak to another person in a way I'm not willing to let him speak to me. For example, it doesn't mean that we don't correct one another. 1:14:06 Jesus said, I'll tell you something about Jesus. The human love is so different from divine love. Human love is this sentimental wishy-washy thing that you see in the movies. Divine love is not like that. Divine love is very 1:14:19 strict. In Revelation chapter 3 and verse 17, verse 19, the Lord says, "Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline." Now, the world cannot understand that type of love. A little child cannot understand that a father is 1:14:37 loving him when he rebukes him. I hope you rebuke your children otherwise you don't love them. I hope you discipline your children otherwise you don't love them. God is the greatest lover in the universe and he says I those I love I 1:14:52 reprove. I discipline. We are to be like God towards our children. So uh it doesn't mean love doesn't mean it's a sentimental always hi I'm going to always say nice things to you that is a human type of love but I'm so afraid 1:15:11 of hurting anybody. If you're afraid of hurting someone I want to tell you this that you don't really love that person but maybe that you don't have a close enough relationship with that person then we shouldn't go around hurting 1:15:22 people whom we don't have a close relationship with. Definitely not. We don't go to strangers and neighbors. Hey, I think this is wrong with you. If you don't have a good relationship with your neighbor, keep your mouth 1:15:33 shut. But in the church anyway, over a period of time, we should have built up such a relationship between ourselves that we are free to reprove, free to discipline if you have authority over that person. You can't 1:15:50 discipline a person who's your equal or someone who's above you. But you can discipline someone above over whom you have authority. If you're a father, you discipline those who are under you. If you're an elder, you discipline those 1:16:02 who are in the church, but not others. But reprove. We can speak straight to one another. Think of the love of Jesus for Peter to turn around to him and say, "Get behind me, Satan. How dare you say I should not go to the 1:16:20 cross. Was that a big sin that Peter committed when he said, "Lord, you shouldn't go to the cross. I don't want anybody to mock you and spit you and um you know kill you like that." I mean Jesus could have said that in a more gentle way, right? According 1:16:37 to our human understanding, he put his arm around Peter and say, "Hey, Peter, you don't understand." But God's ways are not our ways. He wanted Peter to see how serious a thing it is to avoid the cross, avoid the way of the 1:16:54 cross. And I'm very thankful that he used such strong words because it comes home to me today that if I ever try to avoid the way of the cross, the Lord will turn around to me and say, "Get behind me, Satan. You're choosing the 1:17:05 way of man and not the way of God." Thank you, Lord. I never realized the way of the cross is so important, but I get it from that one place. He rebuked Peter. And I want to tell you another thing. He rebuked him publicly. And a lot of people think that 1:17:22 uh love does not rebuke people publicly. What do you read in revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 say John write a letter to the leader messenger of the church. There were elders in every church but one among the elders was always the leading elder was 1:17:40 called the messenger. That's how it was in first century Christianity. And that's how it is in every New Testament church. There will be a plurality of elders, two, three or four, but one among them will be the messenger of the 1:17:52 church. And if it is a church that has come up to maturity, so to the messenger of the church, say, and it says here, read it out in the churches. You read Revelation 1 2 and 3. So you know what happened in those days? letter came from 1:18:09 John and the elder is sitting over there and the person from John's messenger gets up and says, "I want to read to you. You Sardis church, you have a name that you're alive but you're dead." Can you imagine how that elder felt when he 1:18:23 and his wife were listening to that? We are more gentle today, right? No, no, no. Don't hurt them. His children will listen to it. His wife will listen to it. Okay, brother. I hope you will learn the ways of God one day. 1:18:38 all the seven churches. You're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You elder in Leodysia. I'm sure a lot of people would have questioned John on that type of, "Hey, John, do you want everybody to hear that? Can't you just send a private 1:18:54 message to him that he judges himself quietly and secretly?" We have a long way to go to understand the ways of God. We are so human. So human. And we're not humble enough and honest enough to say, "Lord, I've not changed after all these years. 1:19:13 I'm human. My thinking is governed by psychology, not by scripture. I refuse to listen to psychology. It's a deception. Scripture is my guide and in everything." So, not only that church, do you know what the Lord told John? 1:19:33 Send it to all the churches. Let that church in Ephesus hear about this elder in Leodysia. Wow. Say, Lord, why should that guy hear about this other elder? Yes. Let them fear. It says if an elder sins, he should be rebuked publicly so that 1:19:52 others may fear. I'm just trying to tell you that God's way of loving is very different from this psychologist type of you know don't hurt anybody and don't let's let's be diplomatic and that's the reason why churches are in such a dead 1:20:10 state because they listen to psychology more than they listen to the God's word. I always tell me tell people show it to me in God's word I'll do it but don't tell me all these human reasonings you got to think about it you 1:20:25 know it's it's not an easy thing to come to divine love it's not an easy thing to have a relationship with a brother like Peter for Jesus get behind me Satan and there's such a good relationship that after that Jesus says to Peter do you 1:20:38 want to go away and Peter says Lord to whom shall we go what you spoke to me are the words of eternal life. He knew that that rebuke was his salvation. He had the humility to accept that and the result was he became the leader of the 1:20:55 apostles and Jesus wanted to make him the leader of the apostles and that's why he rebuked him so strongly. That's God's way. So I'm not saying that is the only mark of love. I'm just saying that so that we don't get our idea of love 1:21:08 from the movies or from human understanding or psychology or any such thing. Lord, we want to love. But I want to say another aspect of it which is in 1 Corinthians 13. If this is the image of God into which God is going to make us as we see 1:21:24 in Genesis 1, then it should be this Genesis 1 Corinthians 13. I want to just there are many things mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13. Take time to read it. But I want to mention two things. First of all, the last part of verse 1:21:41 five, love does not take into account a wrong suffered. Did somebody hurt you? Don't keep an account of it. That is to love your neighbor as yourself. Haven't you hurt other 1:22:00 people? Is there a single person who can raise his hand? You're saying, "I never hurt anybody." I can't. I've hurt lots of people. Do I want them to keep an account of it? On such and such a day, brother Zach hurt me. No. I sincerely wish they'll 1:22:15 forget it. Even in my bringing up my own children. I made a lot of mistakes. I'm not a perfect father. I made mistakes. But I wish my children would never remember the mistakes I made. Don't you fathers wish like that? I certainly wish 1:22:31 that. In the same way, remember that other person also wishes that you would not remember the way he hurt you or the wrong he did to you. Love does not keep an account of the wrong suffered. You're 1:22:50 growing in love if you find yourself forgetting the evils other people did to you. Not forgetting rather, but not keeping an account of it. We can't forget. Forgetting is a matter of the memory. God does not tell you to control your 1:23:03 memory. We cannot control our memory. The evil that people did to us, we'll remember all our life. But I don't take an account of it. The Bible's very exact. It doesn't say uh love forgets the wrong done. I'd say Lord, that's impossible. You're now telling me 1:23:19 to control my memory. I cannot erase my memory. But in my will, I can decide. I will not take into account. I love the exactness of scripture. It would have been torture for me if that verse said love forgets the wrong suffered because I'll tell you honestly 1:23:37 I haven't forgotten the wrong people to me but I can honestly say I don't take that into account when I deal with that person with not a single human being in the world I may be careful with people who are troublesome that I don't go near 1:23:52 them that's okay that's wise to be when you say pursue peace with all men I sometimes say sometimes the Best way to pursue peace with somebody is never visit their home because every time you visit it there's a quite a fight and a quarrel 1:24:06 and you want to pursue peace don't visit their home. So don't think don't have these false ideas of pursuing peace also. So does not take into account a wrong suffered. If you have not taken that word seriously, at least take it 1:24:19 from today onwards that from today onwards I will not take into account wrongs that other people have done to me. And you'll find that God blesses you that other people also begin to treat you like that. And the second thing I 1:24:32 want to say here is 1 Corinthians 13:5. Love does not seek its own. There are many things mentioned in chapter 13. I just wanted to highlight these two. God is love and he wants to make me in that image and that is he doesn't take into 1:24:51 account a wrong suffered. When I confess my sin, God says, "Okay, I won't remember it anymore. It's it's certainly in God's mind. How can it be in my mind and not in God's mind?" It is not removed from God's memory, but he says, 1:25:05 "I choose not to remember." Which is different from saying, "I forgotten your past." God has not forgotten any of our past. If you have not forgotten it, how can God's memory be less than yours? But he says, I will not remember that. I'm 1:25:21 absolutely convinced about. I look back over a past as if I've never sinned in my life. It's not I have never sinned. As if I have never sinned. That's the exact way God looks at me. He doesn't say I look at you because 1:25:37 you have never sinned. He says I look at you as if you have never sinned. that's good enough for me. So I don't take into account a wrong suffered. I don't have a bitterness against somebody because he did something to me five years ago or 1:25:51 yesterday. No, I will deliberately say no to it. And it's an act of your will. Forget about your feelings. Feelings have got no place in this. I choose Lord not to hold this against that person. I'm not going to have a long face when I 1:26:06 meet him. No. If you have a long face towards somebody, ask yourself why. Do you know that is the first question that God asked man? Do you know that? Uh in outside the garden of Eden, Genesis 4, please look at that. Genesis 1:26:26 4, the first question that God asked man outside the Garden of Eden in the written in the Bible. Genesis 4:E 6, why are you 1:26:43 angry? That's inside the heart. Then the outside, why is your face fallen? Why are you long-faced? You know what is in the heart? The anger in the heart is visible on the face. That's what we learned from that 1:27:02 first passage of scripture where God says it's not only in your heart. It's on your face. And when you that meet that person whom you don't love, it's obvious on your face. Do you want to be made in the image of God? Do you wonder now why spiritual progress 1:27:23 doesn't come? You have to take these little things seriously. One last thing before I close. There is no such in one John, you know, he says, "And these things I'm writing to you, one John 1, that we 1:27:41 might have fellowship with one another." 1 John chapter 1, these things we have written unto you that we may have fellowship with one another. 1 John 1 3 and 4. And he's talking about fellowship. Fellowship, you can't have fellowship if you're 1:27:57 alone. That is why I say there is no such thing as lonely individual Christianity. There is no such thing. If you have a holiness which not does not bring you into fellowship with other people, it is a fake. It's a fake. 1:28:15 If you can't have fellowship with other godly people, your holiness is a fake. And that's why coming back to Genesis 1, it says God made the ultimate at the at the final end of creation. It's not just one 1:28:33 person. It's two people. Notice that God said, "It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good. It is good." And suddenly he stops and says it is not good. Oh, what happened now? Do you know that on the sixth day God said it is not 1:28:53 good? Yeah. 5 days he said it is good. It is good. It is good. And even on the first part of the sixth day, Genesis 1 vers 24-25. By the way, do you know that it's not only man that was created on the sixth day, the animals are also created on the sixth 1:29:09 day. The first part of the sixth day, God made the animals and he said, "It is good." Genesis 1:25. Then he made Adam and he said, "It is not good because this guy's alone." Genesis 2:18, "It's not good that man should be 1:29:28 alone." And then he made a woman. And then he didn't say it was good. He said it is very good. So you see what happens. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. good not good then suddenly very good what happened there were two people 1:29:44 in fellowship that is the ultimate goal of God so if you're an individual Christian who cannot fellowship with anybody there's something missing in your life and that also when God made man in his image it says he made them male and 1:30:00 female verse 27 why because in God there is a trinity father son and holy spirit in fellowship there's more than one person in the godhead And so when God created man in his image, he could not be alone. He had to have at least another. And 1:30:15 here's that beautiful expression of fellowship in Genesis 1, sorry, 22 25. By the way, the not good comes in Genesis 2:18. It comes in the sixth day, but it's mentioned only in Genesis 21:18. The not good part. You got to 1:30:30 insert it in the sixth day there. And then here's a beautiful expression of fellowship in Genesis 2:25. They were both naked and they were not ashamed spiritually. That means we are completely open with each other and 1:30:49 we're not ashamed. I'm not ashamed to let you see me as I am. In other words, I don't want to pretend to be spiritual. You be yourself and I be myself. We're all a work in progress. Christ is working in you and working in 1:31:08 me. I don't expect you to be perfectly like Christ. Don't expect me to be perfectly like Christ. We are all getting there. But we're not ashamed because the Lord's working on us. And if we are humble enough to acknowledge we are a work in progress 1:31:23 and something's happening every day. Yeah. I'm sorry. I should have showed this verse also to you of one man who lived like this. uh 2 Corinthians 4. It's good to have an example from scripture of someone who lived according 1:31:40 to what I was just saying. 2 Corinthians 4, he's talking about salvation in terms of creation. Genesis, sorry, 2 Corinthians 4, God who right in the beginning, verse 6, 2 Corinthians 4:6, in the first day 1:31:58 said, "Let there be light." as the one now who shone light into our hearts when we are born again. So he's going back to Genesis 1 and saying that is a picture of being born again. So exactly like we were thinking but then in our progress towards 1:32:17 sanctification he says in verse 16 we don't give up because we not yet become like Christ. We don't give up. But our inner man is being renewed on the first day, on the second day, on the third day, on the fourth day, in the 1:32:34 fifth day, day by day till one day we will become completely like him. That eternal verse 17 eternal weight of glory beyond comparison that's going to come into my life. But the renewal verse 16 is day by day by day by day. So, you see 1:32:53 how scripture fits in with all that I've said just now. Paul came to a life, we can quote the verse, but Paul was not quoting a verse. He was giving his testimony. It's very different from quoting 2 Corinthians 4:16 and um experiencing 1:33:13 it. Lord, I want to be renewed every single day. Make that a passion of your life. And I believe if you really do that, you'll see more progress in the next few months than you have ever seen in your life so far. Let's pray. Our Father, as we bow before you, 1:33:39 we thank you for your word that gives us clarity, understanding, challenge, encouragement, and faith. Forgive us our failures. cleanse us in the blood of Jesus from not taking our Christian life more seriously, from easily getting 1:33:56 offended and things like this. Lord, help us to move on, to progress quickly and not get stuck in the kindergarten. Give us grace, Lord. We pray every one of us here that we can be a strong Christian and thereby build a strong 1:34:11 church and a strong homes as well. Help us, we pray. We believe you will. We believe you are more eager to help us than we are to receive help. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen. It's not a burden to live one day at a 1:34:47 time and analyze it. God can say today is good. What I gone through is good. So let us sing one song. Little by little day by day I'll sing the song brothers. I'm not the same as I was last year. 1:35:53 Though the picture is not quite clear, I know he is changing me. He's changing me. My blessed 1:36:09 Jesus. I'm not the same person that I used to be. Although it's slow going away, this I'm knowing that one day like 1:36:27 him I shall be. Little by little and day by day, little by little, in every way, my Jesus is changing me. 1:36:46 [Music] Not the same as I was last year. And although the picture is not quite clear, I know he is changing me. He's changing 1:37:03 me. My blessed Jesus, I'm not the same person that I used to be. Although it slow away 1:37:21 this knowing that one day like him I shall be. [Music]
