0:00 [Music] 0:49 I want to speak today on the most important thing in the Christian life. There's a phrase called majoring on minors. You probably heard it. 1:09 What it means is that among a lot of things that we have to do in life, some very important, some not so important. If we spend a lot of time doing the things that are not so 1:28 important, we won't have time to do the things that are really important. I mean that applies in all areas of life whether in our home or in our work and a lot of people major on minors 1:46 and that's very true in the Christian life too. You know when you look at all the Christian denominations there are so many of them and uh many of them have got something they major on and if that thing you major on they 2:05 major on is not what the Bible majors on and they are majoring on minors and uh that can happen to us too. So it's very important to find to see from scripture not from our own understanding. 2:22 When we come to the word of God, we must recognize that our human understanding that we've got from Adam is corrupted by sin. It's worldly in its thinking 2:41 because those are the values we have acquired from childhood. And we have to change our way of thinking if we want to understand what the Bible majors on. Have you ever wondered why there are some Christians you have met 3:01 in your life who never seem to lose their passion for Jesus Christ and to serve him ever? Every time you meet them, they are as it were on fire for God. I'm always delighted to meet such 3:20 Christians. Have you ever wondered why there are some sins that even after 20 years you never seem to get rid of? There's a reason for both these things. 3:38 It's because you're majoring on minors. And that man whom you see who has a growing passion for Christ and to serve him has learned to major on majors. And that man who's got victory over sin 3:57 in areas where you are continuously defeated. The difference is you're majoring on minors and he's majoring on majors. So it's very simple. It's just like in the rest of, you know, in the world. Why is it two students of equal intelligence 4:13 go to school and one tops his class and the other does pretty badly and one goes on to do well professionally and the other is mediocre. Both are of equal intelligence. 4:31 It's because one majored on majors and the other chap with equal intelligence majored on minors. So what is the most important thing in the Christian life? Only God can tell us that. 4:51 I want you to turn to Romans chapter 8 and verse 29. Romans 8 verse 29. Here is a word called predestined. Predestined. 5:15 Predestination means you know that pre means before destination you mean you know when you get into a train and you want to go to Delhi that's your destination and when you get your ticket 5:35 you have determined beforehand you have predestined where you're going to land Delhi God also Oh, it says in the word of God, before we were born, before Adam was created, 5:54 before the worlds were created, God who knew the future, knew each one of us by name. He knew where we would live. He knew what century we would be born in, which year we would be born in. Jesus says he even knows the number of hairs on your head. 6:13 He knows every detail concerning us. And knowing everything, he predestined something. He determined a destination for you. He got a ticket for you on this train of life to reach a particular 6:33 destination. And I want to tell you that destination is not heaven. A lot of people think it is. It's not. It says here, he predestined us verse 29 to become like Jesus Christ to be conformed 6:51 to the image of his son so that Jesus Christ in heaven might be the firstborn among many brothers who look just like him. You know, heaven, God was so delighted with his son 7:10 that he wanted to populate heaven with a whole lot of people who look just like Jesus. That was his goal. He said, "I want to be h I want heaven to be full of people who are like my son." And he chose different ones in different centuries, 7:27 from different countries. You there and you and you and you and you. You're chosen to be like Jesus to populate heaven. That's your calling, brothers and sisters. 7:45 Now, if you get sidetracked from that onto something good, but which is not God's destination, you can miss the goal. And the sad part of it is this train runs only once. 8:04 If you missed it in this life, you've missed it forever. And all you can do is spend the ages of eternity regretting regretting even if you're in heaven that you did not live on earth 8:23 for the things that God chose you to live for. It's not enough to go to heaven. I'll tell you honestly, I'm not interested in just going to heaven. I want to accomplish what God created me for before I leave this earth. 8:41 Many times I have prayed to the Lord and said, "Lord, as much as it is possible for a human being, a child of Adam who is born again to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ 8:57 on this earth. I want to do that as much as it is humanly possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. I want to do that and I'm willing to pay any price. I want to go as far as I can in being conformed to the likeness of 9:17 Christ in my character, my speech, in my actions, in my attitudes to people, in the thoughts I think when I'm by myself. In my prayer life, I want to preach like Jesus. I want to pray like Jesus. 9:35 I want to live like him. I want to use money like Jesus used money. I want my attitude to everything. I want to treat my enemies like Jesus treated his enemies because I've seen my destination. A lot of exciting things along this way and 9:50 along the journey, but I don't want to get sidetracked. I don't want to jump off at some station which is not the final goal. a lot of things along this way you know and you can get excited with something which is which is good but 10:06 which is not the ultimate goal. For example, take something very good like evangelism. Can you think of anything better than that? Reaching lost people with the gospel. Such a good thing. And I'll tell you what I have seen through 44 years of 10:25 being a Christian. Um, a lot of people have made evangelism their goal and they're not Christlike. They're reaching people, reaching people, and they're behaving in such an uncristlike way that people are being 10:44 turned off. They say, "Your life speaks louder than your words and the name of Jesus dishonored." But they have a tremendous passion for evangelism to give out tracks to reach people. They don't realize that the way they live, their 10:59 family life, the way they behave at home and the way they conduct themselves, their attitude to money and so many things are canceling out the message they preach. So you see the danger of even being involved in evangelism 11:15 if you don't make your goal becoming like Christ. It's like a station and you get excited with evangelism and get off at that station. Well, I don't want to get off at that station. And you come to another station where 11:29 you find somebody laying hands on people. Everybody's falling down on the platform and say, "Boy, this is an exciting station to get off at to see everybody falling off like that." And the train moves off and you're still 11:39 falling down and getting up on the platform. I Well, I people want to do that can do that, but I've got a destination to reach. I want to tell you that. And I don't want to get sidetracked to all these exciting things that I see on 11:53 various platforms along the way because I see that God determined a destination for me and everything I do must be in the light of that goal. Must I do evangelism? Definitely. Like Jesus did it, not any other way. 12:11 Must I be filled with the Holy Spirit? Of course, like Jesus was. All the things in relation to in scripture to me are like you know a jigsaw puzzle. Supposing you trying to 12:27 make a jigsaw puzzle with 200 pieces and each of those pieces I mean it it doesn't have any picture or meaning to it but when you put it all 12:46 together if you can see the face of Jesus you got it right. So to me, evangelism, gifts of the Holy Spirit are all little pieces in this big puzzle. You know, serving others, worship, praise, everything. Even worship and praise was such a good 13:05 thing. I know people who are so taken up with it that they don't think that that's a spirit that must continue all through their life. They praise the Lord on Sunday morning and then go home and yell at their wives Sunday afternoon. I said, "That's not 13:25 Christianity. That's a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that you take out all by itself and concentrate on that on Sunday morning. I don't want to concentrate on that. I want to put that piece of the jigsaw puzzle called praise and worship 13:41 into that face of Jesus and find its proper place there." That's what I mean. I believe in praise and worship. I believe in serving the Lord. But I say the whole jigsaw puzzle is the face of Jesus. And if I don't see the total 13:58 picture, I can get taken up with one favorite piece of my jigsaw puzzle. And different people have got different favorite pieces. And each thinks we've got the most important thing because that's the thing they like. 14:15 majoring on minors. And when God himself has made a destination for me that that picture on the jigsaw puzzle must be reproduced in my character, I say, "Lord, that's what I want. Everything in life must fit into this 14:33 overall goal like a little piece of the puzzle to make me like Christ." And it says here in the previous verse, verse 28, that God will help me in this because he's going to cause 14:51 everything that ever happens to me to work together for this good purpose. Those who are called according to his purpose means this is the purpose described in the next verse. So God is going to make 15:10 everything around me over which I have no control to work in an amazing way to bring me to this goal, this destination 15:28 of becoming like Christ. He's going to arrange difficult people across my path to teach me humility and patience. He's going to put me along 15:45 with irritable, annoying people, neighbors, and co-workers because I have to become like Christ. I have to learn patience and I have to learn longsuffering. He's going to put me through difficult 16:04 financial circumstances so that I learn to be frugal like Jesus was. He's going to make the meal that's cooked in your home one day not so tasty 16:22 so that he can deliver you from the love of food and gluttony and make you like Jesus who was not a lover of food who used food for health but didn't worship it like a lot of people do. See, God is sovereign. 16:41 And I'm excited when I think that Almighty God, who runs this universe, can look down on this small speck of dust called planet Earth. And on that speck of dust, find an even smaller 16:59 minute speck of dust called me. and takes so much interest in me to plan everything so that I can become like Jesus. Isn't that exciting? And when you see it, I say, "Father, 17:17 I how you love me." I mean, you you don't put me in a class with 50 students and teach me. You give me personal private tuition. Each one of us, the Holy Spirit gives you personal private tution. And that's why your experiences 17:36 are different from the experiences of other believers around you because you're not in the same class. He doesn't put 50 people in the same class and give them all the same homework. No, that's in worldly schools. In God's school, every student has got 17:56 private tuition. Only God can do that. And I'm thankful that I am getting private tuition. That's why I don't compare my lot with yours and you shouldn't compare your lot with mine. No, cuz I'm in private tution. And I 18:14 have certain weak subjects. So, he gives me extraution in those things. And you've got certain weak subjects. and he'll give you some extra tution in those subjects. I mean, if your weakness is physics and mine is math, why should 18:27 um God give me extra tution in physics? He's got to give you extra physics. He's got to give me extraution mathematics or English or something like that where I'm weak. That's where I need to not ever compare myself or my lot with 18:44 anybody else's in the whole world. That's why I'm not jealous of anyone. That's why I'm not in competition with anyone. I'm having private tution. See the folly of believers who wonder why God's dealing with me like this and 18:58 why other people are having an easy time. It's because he loves you, brother, sister. He wants to make you like Jesus. There's a verse in one Corinthians chapter 15. Here's what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and about Adam. 19:17 Now, we came from Adam, but we've been cut off and put into Christ. We've been fixed into this tree called Christ. We've been transplanted, taken out of 19:34 Adam, put into Christ. And if so, just like the characteristics of Adam were ours when we were part of that tree, now is these characteristics that should now be part of ours. 1 Corinthians 15, it speaks here about uh verse 47. 19:57 The first man is from the earth. Earthy, that's Adam. The second man, Christ, is from heaven. And verse 48, this applies to us. As is the earthy, 20:16 so also are those who are earthy. Uh we know that very well that we all lived for so many years as unconverted people with the character of Adam coming forth from us gushing out like rivers of living wa not living 20:34 water sorry dead water uh you know anger and bitterness and jealousy and all the filthy things that gushed out of us and now we've been planted in Christ. Why are you content with trickles 20:52 of goodness and trickles of patience and trickles of humility and trickles of purity? Why are you happy with that? As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy. And verse 48, as is the heavenly, 21:11 so also are those who are heavenly. And just as we have, listen to this. This is a promise. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly, verse 49, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I want to take that as a 21:31 promise from God. Lord, just as for so many years I have borne the image of the earthly of Adam so faithfully, I believe your promise is true that I shall bear the image of the heavenly 21:50 that there are that things are going to change in my life as I allow the Holy Spirit to get me focused on my destination and major on that while I do all these other secondary things. It's very important. It's the most 22:09 important thing in the Christian life that in everything I never lose sight of my destination. If I got to go to Nagpur, I'm not going to get off at Hyderabbad or if I'm going to Delhi, I'm not going to get off at Hyderabbad or Nagpur or 22:24 Itari or Gualier. No, I want to get off in Delhi. Whatever interesting things there may be along the way, I can enjoy them. I don't lose sight of my final destination, and I'm not going to get off the train and branch off into some on some tangent 22:43 into some side issue, which, however exciting it may be, is not God's final destination for me. God bought a ticket for me, and I know where that ticket is for. It's for my final destination to be like Christ. And the Bible says that if 23:00 I have this hope in me, 1 John 3:3, I will purify myself as he is pure and everything I do will be in relation to that total picture of Jesus. So when I look at Jesus, I see a 23:20 heavenly man who lived on this earth and he spoke and lived bringing the values of heaven before people. I am to bear that image. People who meet 23:40 me, talk to me, must see that this man's interested in something outside of this earth. Do people get that impression from you when in your place of work that your sense of values is different? I'm not 23:59 saying that we preach the gospel to everybody at our place of work. That may not be appropriate. There may be a time and a season for that. We got to do it only when God opens a door. But I'm talking about your whole value system. 24:11 Do people see your value system is different? I remember when those uh refugees from Sri Lanka some years ago came to the refugee camp in Tamil Nad 24:31 and some of our brothers contacted them and many of them a number of them were converted really gripped and then in that refugee camp one day one of those brothers they're hut caught fire and he was not there 24:49 and his hut caught fire and everything in his hut was burned and you know these refugees had come from Sri Lanka with all the everything they owned there they converted into cash and brought it as currency in Indian rupees and they had 25:06 it in their hut and I don't know whe how much he lost 50,000 rupees or something in currency notes all burnt everything gone. And when he came back from where he had gone, people told him, you know, your hut is burnt. 25:22 And they thought he'd be so distressed that all his life's earnings were burnt up, and he wasn't. He said, "Well, in any case, I'm only a pilgrim, and if God allowed it to be burnt, that's fine. I can start working 25:41 again and earn something. He was a fisherman. Now he would not have said that two years earlier when he was not converted. But because he was born again and his born again was a thorough new 25:58 birth and he was radically gripped by the message of disciplehip that he heard in our midst. His life changed more in 2 years than other people have changed in 20 years. It's not a question of time. It's a 26:16 question of how soon we get focused on what is most important. He got focused on what is most important pretty quickly. What is the most important thing? So when when his mind was renewed 26:31 to think and to place a right value on earthly things and heavenly things, he didn't get so disturbed when that type of misfortune took place. It says in Romans chapter 12, Romans 12, you know, it says how this transformation into the 26:54 likeness of Christ takes place. It says in Romans 12 verse 2, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed that is into the likeness of Christ by the renewing of your mind. 27:12 So there it tells us that transformation begins in our mind. Just like conformity to the world also is first of all in the mind. You know when a person dresses in a very 27:32 worldly uh let's say a a sister dresses in a very immodest worldly way. The problem is not with her dress. No, the problem is with her mind. The worldliness is not in her dress. The 27:51 worldliness is in her mind. And if you get her to change her dress and wear a modest set of clothes, you haven't changed her. Not at all. Because her mind is still the same. It's the wolf in sheep's clothing. And first she was the wolf in wolf's 28:08 clothing. Now you get the wolf to wear sheep's clothing and you think she's a believer and make her sit there like a pious saint. She's not a pious saint. She's just a wolf. In fact, she's more dangerous when she's in a wolf in 28:19 sheep's clothing than when she's a wolf in a wolf's clothing. So changing the dress doesn't change a person. Now I want to say to you that you can come to the meetings in the church dressed in a particular way. But has it ch has it changed in your 28:35 mind? Worldliness is in the mind. If you don't deal with it there, you're just a hypocrite pretending to be holy on the outside. And the same way holiness is also in the 28:51 mind. From there it penetrates all our life. In other words, to paraphrase those words, it is in your value system. You see, in our mind, we have a certain value system. 29:09 a value system that we have developed through many years of living in this world. We went to school and developed a certain value system. 29:24 We learned in the world that winning is everything. That's a very popular statement in leadership circles. Winning is everything. Well, I say 29:43 winning is not everything for me. If I've got to cheat other people and trample on other people and win like that and I don't want to win. I certainly want to win, but not at the cost of exploiting others and depriving others of their rights and doing all 30:02 that and cheating and no to be upright and Christlike is everything for me and then by all means come first in your class by all means excel in your profession but not at the cost of losing Christlikeness and 30:20 uprightness of character. That's because of my value system. Now, another person doesn't have that value system. He says making money is everything and he doesn't care how he makes it. Well, I'm not against people becoming 30:37 rich or getting a good salary. It's all a question of how you do it. It's all a question of what you're living for. If it comes as a result of your seeking God's kingdom first and other things just being added to you, okay. But if 30:50 you spend your life pursuing that, you got the wrong value system. So in my mind, I have a certain value system. I place value on certain things and I don't place value on other things. For example, why 31:11 are you disturbed if you heard 20 people say bad things about you? Does it disturb you? You heard 20 people say some really nasty things about you which 31:29 are not even true. It disturbs you because your value system is this 31:41 man's opinion is very very important. It used to disturb me. It doesn't disturb me so much now because I have changed my value system. 31:59 I have changed my thinking and convinced myself from God's word which is true that man's opinion is fit for the garbage bin. Okay, 20 opinions, 20 pieces of garbage. And I've also convinced myself that 32:17 God's opinion is very important. Now 300 years ago in France, no 400 years ago, there was a man lady in France or 450 years ago or something like that um lady in France 32:36 called um Madame Guong I think in the 1600s she lived in right and she made this statement once listen to it carefully. I am more afraid 32:51 of one reproach of my conscience than of the outcry and criticism of all human beings. Boy, imagine if you can say that that I'm more disturbed by one 33:11 voice from my conscience than all the evil speaking of all the men in the world. If you can live like that, boy, I tell you, you'll be Christlike pretty quickly. Won't take long. You change your value system. Say the voice of my conscience is very 33:29 important. What people say not so important. Now, if the man who gives me his opinion is a very very godly man who loves me, then his opinion may be important because his opinion may also be God's opinion. 33:47 That's different. But if worldly people say something about me, I couldn't care less for that. The voice of my conscience to be far more important. That's what I mean by changing my value system. If I lose something spiritually, 34:06 that should disturb me more than if I lose money. I mean, we're all disturbed if we lost money. I don't mean five or 10 rupees. But supposing you suddenly lost 20,000 rupees one day. Well, maybe some people who can write it 34:22 off, but for most of us that would be a tremendous shock to lose 20,000 rupees. But what if we lost the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon your life? Would that also disturb you? God, I don't feel the 34:39 anointing today in my life. I don't sense the anointing of God in my service for you. I feel I've lost some of that fire, that passion, that devotion. God, it seems to have gone. Does that disturb you? Or is it only 20,000 rupees that 34:57 disturbs you? I'm not saying money is not important. I'm just saying we got to put it a little lower down in the scale than the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying money is garbage. No, money is very 35:08 useful. But put it a little lower lower down the scale than the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Change your value system. You know, Jesus had a proper value system. Judas's scariot was stealing his money all the time. It didn't disturb him. It's okay. 35:26 If he steals, what can I do? I'm not going to kick up a row over over that and fight with him. I hope he'll change. But Jesus lived. You know, you remember in the Gethsemane how he prayed, "Oh father, don't let me lose that 35:38 fellowship with you. Don't let me lose my fellowship with you on the cross. Can you take away this cup from me?" That's what disturbed him. The possibility that for 3 hours on the cross, fellowship with the father would 35:50 be broken. It disturbed him so much that he prayed and prayed and prayed for 1 hour in Gethsemane. And he didn't even pray for two seconds when Judas's carrot was stealing his money. That's value system. As is the earth, these so are the 36:08 earthly. As is the heavenly, so are the heavenly. And as we bore the image of the earthly, we are to bear the image of the heavenly. Why haven't we pursued this? Because it has not been a major in our life. We majored on minors. Coming 36:23 to meetings, good. But coming to meetings is much lower down my value scale than becoming like Christ. What if I'm locked up in a jail for preaching the gospel and I'm in jail? Like in communist countries, people were in jail for years. I can't 36:40 come to the meetings and I sit there for 10 years. Am I going to lose miss out in God's plan for my life? Impossible. Because going for meetings is good. But if I don't have the opportunity for it, that's okay. I can still be like Christ. 36:55 That doesn't stop. The reason why some people never lose the anointing and never lose the passion is because it's a top priority in their life. The reason why some people get victory over sin in their life and their home 37:10 life becomes smooth and peaceful is because it's a priority in their life. There's reason why some people's homes disintegrate even Christian homes is because their home life is not a priority. Other things are priority. 37:24 other things which are not a priority in scripture. Making money, getting on in the world, that's good provided it's lower down on the scale. Jesus was a carpenter for at least 12 years. He worked hard, but he didn't work hard to become the richest 37:43 carpenter in Nazareth. He worked hard to support his family. And his priority was not getting a name in Nazareth as a great carpenter shop. No, his priority was fellowship with the father and blessing poor people and helping widows and things like that and 38:03 you spend your life doing that, you're not going to be the richest carpenter in Nazareth. No. So, it's all a question of priority. and you get your priorities right and I guarantee my brother sister you will find more change in the next one year 38:20 than you have seen in your entire Christian life till now it's all a question of priorities have you is your destination and God's destination for you the same or have you got some other destination what is your primary aim in 38:42 the heavenly. You know, I thought about that when we were praising the Lord and that verse we read from Psalm 8. I want you to turn to Matthew 21 where that same verse is quoted. It says here that Jesus 39:01 on was rode on a donkey and entered Jerusalem and came into the temple in Matthew 21. And as Jesus entered the temple, it says here verse 14, the blind and the lame came to him and he healed them. And 39:20 then the chief priests, listen to this. Now you here you see the contrast between religious earthly people and a spiritual heavenly man. Sometimes we confuse a religious earthly person with a spiritual heavenly man. I mean we 39:39 don't confuse worldly earthly people with a spiritual heavenly man. That we can distinguish quite easily. Oh that's a worldly person. This is a heavenly person. But sometimes many of us can confuse being religious with being 39:52 spiritual. Now here the religious people, the chief priests and the scribes, the most religious people in Israel, they saw the wonderful things that he had done. And then they saw the children crying out in the temple and saying 40:09 hosana to the son of David. They became angry. They said children shouldn't be yelling in the temple like that. Nobody should be yelling in the temple like that. There must be dignity and decorum in the temple like a funeral 40:27 service. Right? And Jesus Jesus had quite a different opinion about this. He said to they said to him, "Don't you hear what these fellas are doing? ruining the decorum of the temple. And 40:46 Jesus said to them, "Haven't you read what it says in Psalm 8? Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes, thou has prepared praise for thyself?" And he said in another gospel, it says, "If these people stop praising me, the 41:00 stones will start praising me." Why did Jesus get so excited when he saw all those people praising God? Because I'll tell you why. Because he came from heaven. And heaven is full of people 41:20 yelling the praises of God with such a loud voice. It says it's like thunders. We're not even 1% of that. He came from heaven where people not just praised God, but praised God with such joy and radiance in their faces. And then he 41:37 came to earth and for 33 years he saw these long-faced glum sourlooking people uh complaining murmuring but would come religiously to the temple and talk about God and then he saw these children excited 41:56 and praised. Hey, he says that reminds me of heaven. And he got so excited while these serious long-faced, long bearded I mean the face is long enough but they had a beard as well. Uh looking at these uh children and and 42:15 Jesus took the sight of the children. I like that Jesus took the sight of the most unlikely people. He took the sight of a woman caught in adultery against all the self-righteous Pharisees. He took the sight of the children, against 42:29 all these so-called religious leaders. He took the sight of a thief on the cross. He was always taking the sight of the underdog, the person who was poor. He went and put his arms around lepers. And boy, I want to bear the image of the 42:44 heavenly in my life. I'm sick and tired of this false sense of dignity and decorum that the children of Adam have taught me. I want to change my value system. I want to think like Jesus. And if it offends people, well, it offends 43:02 people. Jesus spent his life offending people. He didn't start out his life saying, "Oh, I must tread very carefully, not offend anybody." You know once we read in Matthew 15 that the disciples came to Jesus once and said do you know that what you just said 43:21 offended the Pharisees. He said leave them alone. Every plant which my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted up. Why are you worried about them? They got offended. They got offended. That's it. Let's seek to please our father. I mean 43:38 we don't go out of our way to offend people. But if in the process of serving God, praising him and becoming like Christ and becoming more heavenly, we offend a lot of religious people, so be it. Let them be offended until they 43:56 change and become heavenly themselves. Then they won't be offended. We're not here to argue with anybody. But when we see that Jesus was this way, that's the way I want to be. cuz he is the only one who came to earth and 44:14 showed us what heaven was like. We've got all these crazy ideas of what a spiritual man should be like and they're all wrong. Jesus is the perfect example of what it means to be spiritual. I said, I want to be like him. I want to 44:30 be tender towards the leper. I want to be forgiving towards the woman caught in adultery. I want to be forgiving to the people who crucify me and assume that they don't know the evil of what they are doing like Jesus was. At the same time, I want 44:46 to take a whip and chase out of the church those who make money in the name of religion. That's what Jesus did. I want to be like that. Of course, that'll make you unpopular. So long as you're just comforting the widows and putting 45:01 your arm around the leper and washing their feet, nobody will be disturbed. But once you begin to shake their traditions, a lot of people get disturbed. But I say we're going to continue to do that. And if you continue doing that, they'll find they may 45:13 finally crucify you like they crucified Jesus. They crucified some of the apostles, too. Okay, fine. It's the best way to leave the earth. Can you tell me a better way to leave this earth than by being crucified? Try and think of that. 45:28 What? How do you want to die in an air conditioned hospital room with drips and all that type of stuff and every fellows coming there and saying prayers for you and then a grand funeral with a very expensive casket and all types of people saying things about 45:46 you which are never true in your life and you go I don't want to go like that. I want to go as a martyr for Jesus Christ. It's the best way to go from this earth. Uh, I'm not saying I'll get that privilege. I think it's a 46:00 tremendous honor to be a martyr for Christ. Not everybody gets that honor. But I said, Lord, if you give it to me, I'll take it. I hope you'll say that, too. That's the best way to go. Like Jesus, can you imagine a better way 46:12 to die than the way Jesus died? You know, they were going to crucify Peter, saying, you talk about you're this crucified master. Okay, we'll crucify you. And he had he said, I have one request. Please crucify me upside down because I'm not worthy to be 46:29 crucified straight like Jesus. So they put him upside down. Crucified him upside down. Can you imagine the reward these people are going to have in heaven. They they had a completely different value system. The things of earth, even life on earth 46:45 was not important to glorify God, to accomplish God's purpose before we leave this earth. Not just to get a great name and belong to a good church or make a lot of money and or even get a reputation as one who has served the Lord or done so many things. 47:02 Who cares for these things? Many who are first will be last when Jesus comes again. We got to change our value system. We got to learn to praise God like the angels in heaven. Praise God. I'm trying. I'm trying to praise God like the angels in heaven 47:21 praise God because I want to bear the image of the heavenly. I want to change my attitude to money to the heavenly attitude. Um, you know, one of the clearest 47:40 differences in earth and heaven is in where they place the gold. Where do you find people place gold on earth? Usually on people's heads or on their neck or hand or something like Do you know where they place gold in heaven? How many of you know there's 47:57 gold in heaven? There's gold in heaven. Do you know where the gold is found? on the streets, under our feet. And do you know a heavenly man is a man who's learned to put gold under his feet 48:15 even now? Is gold under your feet? Then you're ready for heaven. If it's still on top of your head, brother, you better hurry up and push it down. Put it under your feet. Don't let it just come halfway down to your fingers or something. All the way down 48:35 to your feet. Not even on your toes, under your feet. That's a place for gold. I want to be ready for heaven. You know what I mean? That he doesn't rule me. It's It's a very useful servant with a 48:54 terrible master. I I want to have the same attitude to that Jesus had. How many of you are serious? How many of you are going to really not just go away from here and say, "Well, that was a good message, wasn't it?" It wasn't a 49:09 good message, brother. It was a challenge to your heart from Almighty God to change your whole way of life. It wasn't just a nice three-point sermon. It was a word from God to your heart to change your whole way of life so that 49:25 your life will change more than any three-point sermon ever did to your life. That you change your whole value system. Look at Jesus. And if you if you don't agree with something that I say, go to the Bible and see how Jesus was like. 49:39 His attitude to praise, his attitude to money, his attitude to sinful people, how he was merciful to them. He was not in competition with anybody. how careful he was with his speech. You know, a heavenly person is very careful 49:56 with his speech. An earthly person is absolutely careless. He doesn't care what rubbish comes out of his mouth. He's spewing out garbage morning, noon, and night. Jesus was very careful. You know, there were times we read when 50:11 he was just quiet. Once when they were provoking him, provoking him in the case of the woman caught in adultery. He took a long time to reply and he just bent his head and wrote something on the sand and he he hadn't didn't have a clear word from his 50:25 father. Then he got a word from the father. Just tell them he who is without sin cast the first stone. So he got up and said he who is without sin cast the first stone and they all went away. You know one sentence from the father 50:35 instead of preaching half an hour sermon. That's how we need to be. A heavenly man is like that. He doesn't speak immediately. He thinks and waits, which most earthly people do not know how to do, 50:53 and waits till he's got something useful to say. The Bible says in Colossians chapter 4, it's one of those words where you find the word always. I'll give you a good bit of homework. Those who are serious about Bible study, 51:13 take a concordance and look up the word always. Rejoice always. Always bear in your body the dying of Jesus. Pray always. There's certain things we must do always. And here's one of those things we must do always. 51:29 Colossians 4:6. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person. 51:49 Now, supposing you're invited for a meal somewhere, and as you put the first morsel of mouth of food into your mouth, say, "Hey, this doesn't have enough salt." And you say there's no there's no crime 52:06 in saying could you please pass the salt you know some people like more salt and some people like less. So you say please pass the salt and usually the salt is there on every table according to each man's taste and you put the salt and 52:20 then you enjoy the meal. You know how you can detect immediately when there's no salt. Our taste buds are so smart. It must be like that in our speech also. The same tongue that can detect no salt 52:40 or salt should also be able to detect in our detect in our speech in what comes out of our tongue. There was no salt in that word. That means there was no grace in it. Do you detect it? I mean if you can detect it before it comes out even 52:58 better. As you're about to speak something, say, "Hey, I think I should add a little more salt to that sentence before I speak it to this person." Maybe to your wife. You know how blessed your wife will be if you have a little salt in all your 53:13 speech. I mean, a little grace of how blessed your husband will be before the words come out. Just add a little salt makes a tremendous difference. Just a few grains, tremendous difference. 53:29 Why don't we do it? It's so cheap. It's so cheap. So easy. Just a little grace. Always your speech must be seasoned. You know how our Indian curries, 53:47 it's terrible without seasoning. If you get a curry without seasoning, you'd say, "Well, no thank you. I'm not particularly hungry today, you know. The fact is you just can't stick the taste of that food without any seasoning. Our speech is like that. 54:05 Let it always be seasoned. Jesus was like that. He said, "Be careful with your mouth because by your words you'll be justified." We all know justification by faith. Jesus said in Matthew 12 36-39, "By your speech you'll be 54:19 justified. by your words. Out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks. It's very easy to find out what's in a person's heart. Just listen to a speech the whole day. I will tell you what's in his heart because he can't keep it 54:37 inside. You cannot keep I mean, you can sit here with a zip on your mouth in the meetings. Uh that's only for a little while. You can't keep it on for too long. But if I can secretly listen to what's going on in your home and 54:49 different places when you're in the bus, in the train, in the office, I'll tell you what's in your heart. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And Jesus spoke out of the abundance of his heart. So I'm not saying just 55:01 control your tongue. Watch your heart because it's from the heart. The salt must be in the heart. A heavenly man is a person who is very careful. I know the number of times I've had to repent. I've spoken to somebody and I just gone 55:20 away in two seconds. The Holy Spirit says to me, "That's not the way Jesus would have spoken." Or you could have said the same thing a little more graciously. And I feel like getting away somewhere by myself and having a little weeping session before 55:39 the Lord and say, "Lord, have mercy on me. Help me. when will I learn? But it's getting better because I want to major on majors. There are many many areas like this my brothers and sisters and you know the areas in your life 55:58 we need to seek God. Think how Jesus prayed for the anointing of the Holy Spirit when he was baptized because he wanted to go out serve the father in the power of the Holy Spirit not with all the good life he had lived for 30 years. 56:10 Many of us have lived good lives and we think we can serve the father like that. Jesus did not with a good life. He prayed for the anointing of the Holy Spirit so that he would have the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit to 56:22 serve the father. And perhaps you and I have failed depending on money, depending on music, depending on many other things other than the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. We need to repent of that. Jesus did not depend on 56:40 television broadcasting to spread his message. He depended on the power of the Holy Spirit. He didn't didn't depend on the newspapers giving him a good report. He depended on the power of the Holy Spirit. He didn't depend on, you know, 56:51 clever points in his sermons. He didn't depend on having good musicians to prime up people before he spoke. No, he depended on the power of the Holy Spirit. And I really believe we need to seek God and say, "God, help us to 57:03 depend on the power of the Holy Spirit." Once again, like Jesus did, heavenly people are like that. So, there are many other areas. I've just touched on a few. I just want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters, recognize the destination God has 57:19 already determined for you to become like Christ. To live the way he lived, to serve others the way he served others, to evangelize people the way he evangelized, to teach people the way he taught, to bless people the way he 57:33 blessed, to bless every home that you ever enter the way he blessed every home that he entered. Think if every one of us sitting here are going to change our value system from today. Can you imagine what our church is going to be in 57:47 another year? Can you imagine what's going to happen? It'll be like the burning bush. People will st stop and say, "Hey, this is different." May God help us. Let's bow our heads for a moment of prayer. While our heads are bowed, 58:06 I want you to forget about everybody else. Just think that you're standing before Jesus Christ today. Imagine that you're standing at the judgment seat of Christ right now and you're standing before him and he's asking you, 58:20 "What did you do with that message you heard that Sunday morning? This is the judgment seat of Christ. You're standing before. What are you going to reply to him? It's going to happen one day. You're going to stand before him." 58:35 And a lot of things that appear very important to you right now will not be important in that day. And a lot of things that you think are not so important today will be very very important in that day. Change your value 58:48 system now so that you don't have any regret in that day when you stand before Jesus Christ, our Lord and our master. Heavenly Father, I believe you have spoken to many hearts this morning and I pray that it'll produce a change in our 59:01 life. I produce I pray it'll produce a change in our homes and in our church. We humbly ask in the merit in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
