0:15 There's a phrase that's been on my mind. It's a little phrase that comes in Ephesians chapter 5. And if you have a Bible, please turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. And I want you to think about this 0:35 phrase. I believe that it's something that you will probably think about for the rest of your life. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 10. trying to 0:55 learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Just think of that phrase. Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And in the margin of my Bible, it says proving what is pleasing to the Lord. In 1:13 other words, it's something that we don't arrive at straight away. We try and maybe we discover that did not please the Lord. Then we try some other way and over a period of time we prove what is pleasing to the Lord. Just 1:31 like a scientist does some experiment in a laboratory and ultimately discovers some through many trial and error. That's usually the way we discover what is pleasing to the Lord. Because none of 1:49 us, if we are honest, none of us ever stray away from the very first moment do everything pleasing to the Lord. But if we are willing to really 2:05 pursue it over a period of time, we will discover what it is that is pleasing to the Lord in the way we live. And if you've got any type of ministry, whether in your ministry also, 2:23 you're doing it the way that's pleasing to the Lord. Now a person who is proud will automatically will think that well I don't need anybody to tell me I already I'm doing it the right way. But if we are humble we will acknowledge that 2:39 there are many things in our life which are not pleasing to the Lord. And perhaps the way we are serving God may not be the way he wants us to. You know we can be very sincere in our intentions and still be completely mistaken. 2:55 Think of the story of Martha. Very well-known story of her working in the kitchen. Don't you think she was sincere? Don't you think she was hardworking, sacrificial, and completely free from seeking anything for oneself? She was 3:13 cooking in the kitchen in Luke chapter 10 38 onwards, 100% for the Lord and his people. And I think she deep down in her heart she was really convinced that she was pleasing the Lord. I mean what greater thing can you do than deny herself sweat 3:32 away in the kitchen to make food for the Lord and his 12 disciples. And can you imagine the shock that she got when she came and stood before the Lord and the Lord says I'm not bothered about so 3:48 many you completely missed it. Mary who doesn't seem to be working so hard, who's not sweating like you are, has chosen the good part. And that's the one thing that's needful. You know, God's ways are not 4:08 our ways. There's a great verse in Isaiah 55:8 and 9 which says, "My ways are not your ways." It's very difficult for a proud man to accept that. It's very difficult for a 4:26 proud preacher to accept that the way he's serving the Lord may not be the way God wants him to do it. Martha certainly didn't feel that way. And who would think that just sitting at Jesus' feet and listening like Mary was the most important thing? 4:45 Don't we realize that sacrifice is a great thing? We appreciate Christians who sacrifice for the Lord. We appreciate people who've gone to missionary fields and laid down their life. We appreciate even someone like 5:03 Mother Teresa who is sacrificed her whole life to help poor beggars and others on the street. And we value them more than people who sit comfortably apparently like Mary not sacrificing anything outwardly. But that principle of 5:21 sacrifice even non-Christians, Hindus, Muslims appreciate that. Even atheists appreciate someone who sacrifices this peculiarly Christian group. But in scripture there's a great teaching about 5:39 sacrifice which we need to understand both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's just one area trying remember this expression trying to prove to learn or proving what is pleasing to the Lord. In the Old Testament there's a 5:59 story of a king Saul. One day God told him, "Go and kill all the Amalachites and all the sheep." Now to human reason, we may wonder why God does things like that. God says, "My ways are not your 6:14 ways." And King Saul went and killed among the animals. He killed the bad sheep. And he kept the good sheep. He claimed he kept it to offer sacrifice to the Lord. And he told Samuel the prophet when Samuel came and asked him, "Have 6:33 you obeyed the Lord?" He said, "Yeah, sure." Then Samuel says, "What what is the bleeding of the sheep I hear?" He says, "Oh, that was I know God told me to kill all the sheep, but I thought I could sacrifice the good sheep to the 6:46 Lord. Doesn't God appreciate sacrifice?" And Samuel said these words which we must remember. 1 Samuel 15 and verse 22, the last part. To obey is better than 7:05 sacrifice. Have you understood that? To obey is better than sacrifice. In other words, what the Lord is looking for in your life, my brother and mine and sister, is not how much you've sacrificed. 7:22 You can pat yourself on the back that you have sacrificed money for God's work. You've given up this and given up that and given up the other thing for God's work. And you know secretly lot of Christians they act very humble but 7:37 inwardly they congratulate themselves. I have done this. I've sacrificed this. I gave up this for the Lord. I did that for the Lord. And the word of the Lord is to obey is better than sacrifice. If you have not obeyed God's 7:55 commandments, all your sacrifice doesn't amount to much before the Lord. God doesn't appreciate sacrifice as much as a lot of non-Christian religions do. Every non-Christian religion appreciates sacrifice. 8:14 I mean India is full of non-Christian religions that appreciate I mean you know if they see a Christian person like Mother Teresa was not even a non-Christian she was a Christian they give her the paratra they give her the Nobel prize what for not 8:31 because she obeyed God's commandments maybe she did but that's not what she got the Nobel prize for sacrifice sacrifice is appreciated by the world. Does that mean that the world has understood God's ways? No. Let's look at the New 8:52 Testament. We come to the New Testament. I mention this because so often our thinking is formed by our own ideas of what we think pleases the Lord. But Ephesians 5:10 says, "Prove what is pleasing to the Lord." And I'll 9:10 tell you this, there is only one book in the whole world, only one book in the whole world that will tell you what is pleasing to God. And if you have not spent your life studying that, I might as well tell you, you will not discover what is pleasing 9:29 to the Lord. God is my witness. I have spent 55 years studying the Bible because I want to prove what is pleasing to the Lord. And very often that does not meet with 9:47 the approval of men. Men don't always appreciate the things that God looks for. Think of the one person who walked on this earth most perfectly pleasing the Lord every single second. Jesus 10:06 Christ. Did the world appreciate him? No. The religious world did not appreciate him. The people who had the Bibles did not appreciate him. It says he came to his own and the world did not receive him. Wasn't there a sacrifice in his 10:23 life? Why did the world not accept the one who pleased the Lord 100%. Do you think of Jesus the prince of peace came into the world today that the world would accept him? We may think that the world will accept him because 10:43 everybody respects Jesus Christ. You mean to say the world has changed? You mean to say the devil is no longer the prince of this world? You mean to say that the world 2,000 years ago is much worse than the world today? I think in many ways 2,000 years 10:59 ago the world was much better than what it is today. I want to tell you if the prince of peace came into this world, he will not be given the Nobel Peace Prize. No, he will be crucified. Maybe they do it in a more decent way now today because 11:17 they hate crucifixion. They just reject him. That's all we need to understand that that the world does not accept Jesus Christ. He came to the world and the world rejected him. So let me show you this verse. We saw one verse 11:35 in the Old Testament to obey his sacrifice. Now I'm going to show you the New Testament teaches the same thing. Hebrews in chapter 10. In Hebrews chapter 10 it says here when g verse 5 Hebrews 11:52 10:5 when Jesus came into the world referring to Jesus Christ here he says and he's quoting an old testament verse from Psalm 40 and this is the old testament verse which is prophetically referring to 12:10 Jesus Christ. And what does Jesus say when he comes into the world? sacrifice and offering. Oh God, you don't desire. It's the same thing. God doesn't want sacrifice. You take no pleasure in 12:26 that. But verse seven, Jesus says, "I have come not to make sacrifices, but exactly as written in the role of the book that is the Bible, to do thy will, oh God." That's 12:45 obedience. So what is he saying? He says, "God, I know you're not looking for sacrifice. You're not asking me to come here and make sacrifices." If sacrifice was the main thing that God wanted Jesus to do, he should have gone to some 13:00 difficult remote place in Africa. Israel was a comfortable place to live relatively speaking compared to the rest of the world. And out of his 33 years, 90% of his life he lived in the comfort of a home where he lived an ordinary life. 13:19 There wasn't much sacrifice there. Humanly speaking, if you had looked at Jesus' life for the first 30 years in Nazareth, how much sacrifice was there? And even in terms of physical suffering and pain, he has suffered for about 18 hours 13:39 of his life physically. That's all from about 9:00 p.m. in the garden of Gethsemane till 3:00 next afternoon. That's about 18 hours. That's the only period where people whipped him or hurt him or finally killed him. But there was 13:57 never any other time. There are Christians who suffered much more than him. People have been in prison for many years. And humanly speaking, we could say that some Christian who was imprisoned in a communist country for 14:09 14, 15 years has suffered more for God than Jesus who suffered only for 18 hours, not even for 24 hours in one day. But you really believe that a Christian who suffered for 15 years in a prison was more pleasing to God than 14:25 Jesus Christ. And how did the father say about Jesus at the age of 30 when as far as we know what sacrifice did he make? He just lived a normal life in his 14:43 home and worked as a carpenter. And at the end of 30 years, the father says at the baptism, "This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. I'm delighted in him." Was it because of sacrifice? No, he did 15:02 everything which was written in the role of the book. Hebrews 10:7, "Sacrifice you did not desire, but what was written in the role of the book about me, I did your will, oh God." If our eyes can be open to see this 15:22 wonderful truth that to obey is better than sacrifice that sacrifice has no value before God if it does not lead to obedience to his will. It would appear as if if Jesus had left 15:43 his carpenter shop much earlier and gone to some difficult remote area and spent all his life caring for lepers and uh built homes for orphans and these type of things would have involved a lot of sacrifice but it doesn't look as if 15:58 he did all that and where do you find Jesus spending his life healing I mean cleaning the wounds of lepers and running an orphanage and looking after small children. These things require a lot of sacrifice. Imagine if you run an 16:13 orphanage for 100 children and you try to look after them. That requires a lot of sacrifice. Jesus never did it. He went around preaching and sleep at night and go on preaching for three and a half years. And how many lepers homes did he 16:31 start? What did he do that pleased the father so much? you know, we have to change our way of thinking from what we have been brainwashed into by the Christian uh heritage that we've got in whatever denomination you grew up 16:49 in. I tell you honestly, I had to change my way of thinking from what I heard and read in Christian books and what I saw around me and what I heard from preachers. I said, I can't take the 17:05 risk of missing out on God's will and standing before the Lord in the final day like Martha and hearing like Martha did. Zach, you were worried about so many things. You did so many things I 17:24 never wanted you to do. You sacrificed a lot, but I didn't want it. Imagine if I heard those words from Jesus on the final day. Imagine you heard those words. And we spent all our life thinking we did a wonderful work for God 17:37 on earth and we did this and we gave money for God's work here and we gave money for God's work there and we went on a on a missionary tour here and that and the other and the end of it the Lord says like he told mother Yard about many 17:48 things and there was just not interest in those things but Lord I sacrificed and the Lord will say to you didn't you read in my word to obey is better than sacrifice didn't you read in my word that I don't desire sacrifice Yes, I 18:04 want you to do the will of God, my will according to what I wrote in the book I gave to mankind. And that is why I say it's very important to read God's book. How many of you can honestly 18:20 say that you devote yourself to study God's word? It's quite possible that many of you spend more time watching television and reading God's word perhaps Christian 18:38 television and you soothe your conscience by saying it is Christian television but even in Christian television is the words of men you think that's superior to the words of God those men may be more entertaining and most of those men I've 18:57 seen a lot of Christian television they'll quote a verse here and And then most of the time they're expressing their own views, much of which is psychology and gimmicks and all types of things. Don't be fooled. I have your eternal interest at 19:16 heart when I say this. I say what I want to say to because I believe this that when I stand before the Lord He will ask me about every sermon I ever 19:36 preached. I believe that if there was anything I said to please or impress men or to get an offering or any stupid thing like that. So I'm very careful about what I say and I want to I want you to believe me that I've got your eternal interest 19:55 at heart. I remember speaking to a brother in my own church back in Bangalore once. I said, "Brother, you may think I speak some hard things, but I I'm not bothered if you appreciate what I say right now. 20:13 I know that at the judgment seat of Christ, you will thank me for teaching you the word of God and what was important in God's eyes, trying to prove what is pleasing to the Lord. And it's very important if you want to understand what's pleasing to 20:32 the Lord that we are willing to change our way of thinking. That's not easy. We're all such prejudiced people that most of us sitting here think we're right. I mean the denomination we belong to is the right one. Otherwise you wouldn't be 20:50 sitting there right and ours is the right group and our church has the right teaching. I think all the hundreds of churches in Dubai think like that. Our church has got the right teaching. Well, I hope so. If it's according to the word of God, it's 21:06 right. But if it's not according to the word of God, however many thousands of people gather together in your church, you could be wrong. There are more thousands of people who gather in mosques in the 21:22 world. They are not right. In temples, many will gather in gather in churches. Numbers don't prove anything according to the word of God. If it is not according to that, it doesn't please God at all. We 21:41 have to change our way of thinking. Romans chapter 12. I want you to look at this verse. Romans in chapter 12. And I want you to think of this verse in relation to what I'm talking now. God's way of doing 22:00 things. What is pleasing to the Lord. Romans 12 says don't verse 2 Romans 12:2 don't be conformed to this world and he's talking about our way of thinking but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So the subject is 22:20 changing our way of thinking changing the way we look at things. renewing of our mind of reorienting our thinking uh to see things not from the world's point of view or even the Christian 22:37 world's point of view or some eloquent pastor's point of view or your favorite preachers's point of view but renew your mind to prove what the will of God is that which is 22:55 good and acceptable and perfect. It's the same thing. Changing our way of thinking so that we don't think like the world thinks or the Christian world thinks but seeking to prove what is pleasing to the Lord. Now I'm telling you something. 23:14 There are certain basic principles here. If you want to find out what is pleasing to the Lord, you have to stop seeking for your own honor. It's very important. God will give 23:33 us his love, his power, his gifts and many many things. his nature, his life. But there's one thing God will never give us. It says in Isaiah 23:53 42 and verse 8, "My glory I will never share with another. I will never share my glory with another." So if you preach to get honor for 24:11 yourself, I want to tell you whether you know it or not, you're serving the devil. You may not have understood it today. Maybe no preacher told you that's straight to your faith. But I'll tell you that because you're touching the glory 24:26 of God, you are standing up in a pulpit preaching God's word to get honor for yourself. Wow. That's exactly what Lucifer wanted. Lucifer wanted all the worship that went to God to come to himself. He wanted to 24:45 turn the worship of God to himself. And that highest of angels, Lucifer, became a devil in a moment. And when you stand in a pulpit and preach, not to glorify Jesus Christ, not to seek the honor of his 25:04 name, but to get money for yourself, to get glory for yourself, to get a name for yourself. That is exactly the spirit of Lucifer. I know there are many many people you see we have one of the things God told 25:24 us to do was to put all our sermons free on the internet there are nearly a thousand sermons of mine on YouTube that keep increasing every week and it's all free and I know there are lots of people 25:40 who listen to it not for their lives to change but to get points for sermons to preach in their church to get honor for themselves. I say may God have mercy on 25:56 them. May God have mercy on them because they've got the spirit of Lucifer. They don't even know it. It's worse than stealing money from the offering 26:16 box. To take God's money is bad. To take God's glory is worse. Who understands that? My glory I will not give to another. These are little little things, my brothers and sisters, which you won't hear the 26:35 television preachers tell you. They're only interested in collecting your offerings. Change your way of thinking, trying to prove what is pleasing to God. And just because God answers your 26:54 prayers, does miracles for you, does not mean that you're pleasing God. Some people think that, "Oh, God's answered my prayer. I prayed and a miracle took place. somebody got healed or I got some supernatural provision. You know, there are many 27:13 preachers who boast about the fact that I've never made my known needs known to any man and God has provided my needs supernaturally and they give example after example after example where some somewhere a check came in at the right 27:26 time or somebody dropped money for the right times. It's all true. But is that proof that God is happy with you just because he provided for you? Jesus says he provides for the birds of the air. You think God's delighted with all this? What a 27:44 sparrow? Because he provides for the sparrows can say God's provided my needs. I never worked for it. I never kept a bank account, but God provided my needs. The sparrows say that. A lot of preachers say that too. That is not the 27:57 sparrows are not pleasing to God any more than the preachers who get God's provision. Let me give you an example. The story in 1 Corinthians 10 of the one group of people, a group of people who saw more 28:15 miracles than any people on the face of the earth since the time of Adam. Do you know who saw the greatest miracles over a period of 40 years? It was the 600,000 Israelites, men and women and children. There were 2 million 28:35 people. 2 million people experienced God's miracles for 40 years. Not ordinary miracles. They saw a sea being split open and they walked through it. The Red Sea. They got bread from heaven every day. Dropped from heaven. I mean, if you 28:54 got bread falling from heaven one day, you'd be talking about it for the rest of your life. These people saw it every day for 40 years. And if one of them and they got water coming out of a rock, not just a few trickles. How much water do 2 million 29:09 people need? Not a trickle. It was rivers flowing out of there with many tributaries flowing. And you see the camp of the Israelites must have been many square miles like a huge section of Dubai and water flowing all over. That's what 29:24 flowed out from the rock. And we read in scripture, I don't have time to show it all to you. Their sandals never wore out for 40 years walking in the desert. There was not one lame man among those 2 29:44 million people those 40 years. Imagine if one of those fellows had stood up here in a pulpit. He could tell you the most amazing stories of miracles. And we would sit with our mouth open wondering, "Wow, what a man of God this man must be." He used to get 30:01 bread from heaven every day. He used to get water from a rock and his sandals never wore out. Would you believe what it says here? Verse 5. But most of them God was not pleased. That's what it says here in 1 Corinthians 10:5. At the end 30:16 of all these miracles, it's written about them. God was not pleased with them. Teaching all Christians forever that when God does a miracle for you, it does not mean he's pleased with you. He who has ears to hear can hear. If God meets all your earthly 30:33 needs, food, clothing, shelter, sandals, he they even got non-vegetarian food there from heaven. The birds came and fell in front of them. How many millions of birds they could eat and God was not pleased with them. They prayed for non-vegetarian 30:51 food and they got it. God was not pleased. That teaches us that God's doing a miracle for us only proves what does it prove that he's a good God. It doesn't prove anything 31:09 about you. You remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5. He said God makes the son. And God Matthew 5:45, God causes the sun to rise on the 31:28 evil and the good and he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Now you know in those days most people were farmers and the most important thing that any farmer needs is sun and rain. And God, Jesus said here that God 31:47 sends sun and rain to the atheist farmer, to the rebellious, sinful, adulterous farmer, and to the god-fearing farmer. Equally, there's not more rain falling on the field of the god-fearing farmer than on the atheist farmer's field. What 32:05 does that prove? If the god-fearing farmer says, "My God gave me rain and sun." that atheist said, "I don't believe in God. I got rain and sun, too. It only proves that God is a good God." So, let's not fool 32:25 ourselves that material blessing is a mark of God's favor. No. Like I've often said in every religion, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, there are people who say, 32:45 "Our God blessed us, gave us plenty of oil in our land so that people from all over the world like you come here to work to earn their money because our God is the true 33:03 God." That's what they say. And the rich billionaire Hindu businessman whose name is in the fourth list of 10 most richest people in the world. He says, "I worship a Hindu goddess of wealth and she has blessed me and made me a 33:21 billionaire. Your Jesus does not seem to have put you in the Forbes list of 10 richest people in the world. Your Jesus doesn't seem to be so good. Do you think material wealth is a mark of God's blessing? That is the crazy thing that 33:38 so many people believe today because if that is the proof of God's blessing, then we cannot say that Jesus Christ alone is the true God. But I'll tell you what Jesus Christ can do which others cannot do. Teach you to obey 33:55 God in your thought life. in your words, in your attitudes, in your motives, to give you inner purity, love for your enemy, to bless those who curse you, to 34:14 do good to those who hate you. Those are the things which no other god can help you do. Jesus taught us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, that is in my 34:34 life, exactly as it is done in heaven. That is how Jesus lived. His life was not primarily the outstanding thing about Jesus' life was not sacrifice. It was obedience to every single command 34:53 of God. Everything written in the book and the role of the book, it's written about me. That's what we read in Hebrews 10. And that is why if you really want to come back to that first phrase that I spoke about trying to 35:09 prove and find out what is pleasing to the Lord, I'll tell you. I see the example of the Israelites in the wilderness and I learn that is not what is pleasing to the Lord. To get food from heaven every day, to get water from the rock, to be 35:27 healed supernaturally by looking at a bronze serpent or to see that my sandals are not worn out or God has given me clothing and food for 40 years does not prove I'm pleasing to the Lord. So all such testimonies don't impress 35:43 me. I got healed. Do you know the thousands of people who were healed by Jesus Christ? Thousands who are in hell today. Some of them shouted crucify him. 36:03 the many thousands of people who were fed on loaves and fishes by Jesus Christ who are in hell today cuz they did not follow him. So I learned from all these examples those are not the things I 36:21 should think of. Did God do a miracle for me? Did he answer my prayer? but rather I look at Jesus and and I say did I do the will of God in my life and that's why God has given Jesus to us as an example see this is one of the big 36:40 differences between the new testament and old testament life or the new covenant that Jesus established and the old covenant that Moses gave in the old covenant it was commandments commandments thou shalt thou shalt not 36:54 thou shalt do this thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt do this. Thou shalt not do this. And that is, you know, it's like teaching a person to swim on a blackboard. You draw on a blackboard. Move your leg like this. Move your head like this. Breathe 37:09 like this. Move your legs like this. Okay folks, go and jump to the river. No one's going to learn to swim that way. The way people teach people to swim is come with me. Come with me to the swimming pool and watch me do what I do. 37:27 And the people have learned swimming out in the villages. They did not learn it on blackboard. They learned it from others swimming in the river. They watched what they did. It's an example. That's the big difference between the 37:40 old covenant and the new covenant. The old covenant was laws. Now, I'm sorry to say many Christians what they hear in churches is another set of laws. Not those Old Testament laws, but new laws. You must do this and you must do that 37:55 and you must do that and it's a burden. The Christian life was never meant to be a burden. If the Old Testament was struggling on earth, the Christian life is like a birds flying in the air. You know, the real Christian life is not a 38:12 bird trying to struggle climbing a mountain, but rather like the eagle flying in the sky. Have you seen the effortless way in which the birds fly? Look at Jesus life. Do you think he was struggling? Oh God, I have to struggle to please 38:31 you. No. There was a power of the spirit within him that helped him to deny himself and never talk about it. Today, if people deny themselves in some way, they write books about it for 38:51 everybody to read and appreciate. Jesus did it in secret before God. And he pleased his father. And so the life of Jesus is the example God has given us. So if you want 39:08 to prove what is pleasing to the Lord, I say don't look at the Israelites. Don't look at those who have experienced miracles and supernatural provision. But look at the one who pleased the father completely. And as far as we know, in 39:22 the first 30 years of Jesus life, he never did a miracle. He never experienced a miracle. He never preached a sermon. He never cast out a demon. He never healed the sick. And yet at the end of 30 years, the father said, "I'm 39:38 well pleased with you." Can God be well pleased with a preacher who has never healed a sick person? Never cast out a demon, never preached a sermon, never experienced a miraculous provision from heaven of mana or any such thing. Jesus never got it for 30 39:55 years. What are the things, my brother, sister, which make you feel that you are pleasing to the Lord, that your life is pleasing to the Lord? You quote examples where God answered your prayer here or did something for you. What would Jesus 40:08 say about 30 years? Though he went here and preached and went there and preached, have you got a wrong understanding? You think of the sacrifices you have made. He does not desire sacrifice. Lord, I come to do thy will, 40:25 oh God. And that's why it is so important to look at the life of Jesus, our example. And I say this because this is what changed my own life. I spent many, many years looking into scripture to see 40:44 Jesus, not to get a doctrine. Christian world is full of doctrines and people fighting over doctrines. Yeah, I believe in certain doctrines, but the doctrines are only little pieces of truth. You know, the way I 41:00 picture it is if I put all the doctrines together, I see the face of Jesus. That's how I see it. So I don't glory in this little small piece of the jigsaw puzzle and say this is my favorite doctrine. That's just one part. I want 41:17 to put the whole thing together and the whole jigsaw puzzle of many many doctrines and I see the place of Jesus. And if it is Jesus that's reflected in you and in your life. If your wife can say to you, darling, you behave like Jesus at home. 41:36 you got the right doctrine. Or if your husband can say that or your children can say that, "Daddy, you remind me of Jesus." Wow. It's 41:54 not what baptism speaking in tongues. Some of those people who insist on those things are the most unlike Christ I have seen in my life. I believe in these doctrines. I've taken water baptism. I've spoken in tongues for 40 years. That's not the main thing 42:12 in my life to be like Jesus. I remember years ago when God filled me with the Holy Spirit and I was so confused, but it was really something that changed my life. And I sought the Lord the next day morning. I said, 'Lord, if what I 42:31 experienced yesterday was really the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the New Testament should become a new book for me because the Holy Spirit wrote it. Please show me, give me revelation. And I started with Matthew 42:47 chapter 1 that day and I was reading trying to get an assurance. And I read there an angel coming to Joseph and saying that which Mary got in her womb is from the Holy Spirit. I said, 43:06 "Wow, Lord, that's a direct word to the question I was asking." And then the Lord began to say to me, just like the spirit of God came upon Mary to produce Jesus in her womb, not a doctrine. The Lord said to me, the spirit of God has come upon 43:26 you to produce Jesus in your life. Make that the focus of your life and your teaching, Jesus Christ. And the Lord went on to 43:42 say just like everybody misunderstood Mary and told lies about her. Some Roman soldier raped her or all types of stories. Even till today people tell those stories. The Lord said to me 40 years ago people will tell all types of false 44:00 stories about you. Just ignore them. You know what I did in your life? And the whole message that the spirit of God had come to make Christ real in my life and to make me more Christlike towards my 44:18 wife towards my four sons so that they could be drawn to Christ and towards other people. So as I then I began to study the life of Jesus more and more 44:35 everything I said Lord I don't want to preach the way American preachers preach running up and down the platform. I want to preach the way Jesus preached. I want to try and see even a little thing like preaching. I'm not criticizing anybody. 44:50 But I believe Jesus was the most perfect preacher that ever walked on this earth. And I cannot picture in my mind Jesus running up another platform and saying blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. No, 45:05 I think there was a seriousness and a sobriety. He was talking about eternal things. So many of us are imitating men. In my younger days when I was immature, I'm sorry to say I also admired some men and I wanted to be like 45:23 them. And the Lord delivered me from that and said, "Be like Jesus." And in every area, I said, "Lord, I want to be like him." He was the one who did the will of God. He was the one who pleased the father. He didn't go to Africa. He 45:34 didn't go to China, but he pleased the father. And I didn't please God without going to Africa and without going to China. I got God calls anybody to go there. We have to go. Jesus went where God called him to go. He once walked 100 miles to help one 45:52 soul, one woman who had a demonpossessed daughter. You read that Phoenician woman. If you look that in a map, you see he walked at least 50 kilometers, 50 km back or more just to help one person. That's how Jesus lived. But he never 46:09 talked about it. Just quietly did the will of God and moved on. It's a wonderful life and it brings such satisfaction and the Christian life becomes exciting. The Christian life is more I mean God called me to serve him 46:24 full-time when I live left my job in the Navy 50 years ago. He called me and I can honestly say my life is more exciting today than it was then. It just gets more and more exciting because Jesus is our example. Let me once read one last verse 46:43 before we close this session. We'll have a break after that and continue afterwards. In 2 Corinthians 3, it says the Holy Spirit shows us in God's word, which is like a miracle, not only our own need. When we read God's word, we see our own need. 47:01 But it says another thing here. The Holy Spirit shows us the glory of Jesus Christ. We all with unveiled face beholding in a mirror. And James 1:24-25 says that mirror is the word of God. We see the glory of the Lord. And I said, Lord, I want to study 47:20 the Bible, not to get the doctrine, not to stand up for what I call New Testament doctrine. I want to see the glory of Jesus in the scripture. I want to see how he forgave people who called him prince of devils. 47:39 how he forgave people who crucified him. How he cared tenderly for a adulterous woman. At the same time he whipped those who made money in the name of religion. He said Lord make me like 47:58 that. Make me make me compassionate towards people who have fallen into adultery or those who are divorced like that five time divorced Samaritan woman and give me a whip when I see people making money in the name of Jesus 48:16 Christ. Church, this is Christlikeness. It won't make you popular but you'll please God. Jesus is our example. And I believe in these last days, not only in India, but in Dubai and every part of the world, God wants men and 48:31 women who will reflect the glory of Jesus Christ as they see him in the scriptures. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads before God, our father in heaven. Thank you for your Holy 48:50 Spirit. It's moving in our midst. And I pray that the things the Holy Spirit impresses upon our hearts, we will never forget, not till the end of our lives. Help us, we pray in Jesus name.
