0:00 [Music] So today I want to take a Bible study which is something that is very important in the 0:20 Christian life and I call it paradoxes of the Christian life. Now, some of you may not know what the meaning of paradox is. Paradox is something that looks exactly opposite but is true. 0:40 It's like left can't be right and right can't be left. You know, up can't be down and down can't be up. And yet in the Christian life there are some things like that which are opposites and we say it can't possibly be true but 0:53 it is true in the Christian life and if you understand it can make a difference in your life. So I want to I've written down here seven things that I want to mention. Um to begin with let me read a verse in Isaiah 55. In Isaiah chapter 55 1:14 and verse 8 and 9 what the Lord says my thoughts or my way of thinking is not your way of thinking and your ways are not my ways. Your way of doing things is not my way of doing things. And if you want to know the difference 1:33 between your way and my way and your thoughts and my thoughts, it's here. As the heaven is higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. And my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. So the way we think is not the way God 1:50 thinks. And the Christian life is a a growth into thinking more and more like God thinks. You know, you know, we take actions based on our understanding, right? Children act without understanding. But 2:08 as we grow up, we act on the basis of understanding. We don't just do something without thinking what are the consequences or what are the result of it. So if our understanding is not in line with God's way of thinking, we're 2:23 going to do a lot of wrong things as a Christian. The world may accept it, but we'll make a mess of our life. If you want to live the most useful life you can ever live on the face of the earth, you must align your thinking more and 2:38 more with God's thinking. The devil doesn't want that. And that's why he has succeeded in preventing many of you from reading the whole Bible. You know who's done that? The devil. 2:57 Because there is no book in the world that describes God's way of thinking than the Bible. And um if you read through it casually or it's not as important for you as your books for your profession, okay, so be 3:16 it. It's exactly like that. You know, a person who doesn't study for his profession is not going to do well in his profession. Think how hard an engineer or a doctor or a teacher studies in order to prepare for their profession and it's all to make money in 3:30 order to survive in the world. A true Christian will study the Bible. Exactly like that because he knows that in the long run even if he doesn't make much money in the world the way he lives and the choices he makes in his life in 3:48 different situations is going to determine his eternal destiny. Not just whether I go to heaven or die or hell rather. I'm not interested in that question because that's already settled long ago in my life and in many of your 4:02 lives. My question is when I get to heaven, will I have any regret about the way I lived on this earth? And I'm convinced that millions and millions of believers who do make it to 4:20 heaven are going to have regret about the choices they made on earth, about the way they lived on earth. And I personally believe that regret will be there for eternity. How are you going to get over it? 4:39 Because Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." And supposing I didn't do that in all my life on earth. I just sort of accepted Christ and lived a fairly decent life and just attended church regularly. Never took anything 4:54 seriously because I just wanted to go to heaven. And main my main aim in life is to get on in the world. And okay, I made it to heaven, but the memory of my life on earth will keep coming back to me. And I can't believe 5:13 that that will not bring any regret when I see Jesus and how much he loved me and how little I loved him in return. How little I sacrificed for him on this earth. You think that's not going to bring any regret to me? It's bring 5:27 tremendous regret in my life when I see Jesus and I see boy how little I sacrificed for him. How easily I complained about little things, how easily I fought with God's children for little little things, how much I sought my own. So if we 5:43 understand God's ways, it's a makes a big difference in my our life. So God's ways are different from our ways. So I want to mention seven things. First of all, in order to become righteous, we must first acknowledge that we are 6:00 sinners. Acknowledge that you're a sinner, then you'll become righteous. See, this is a paradox. You have to mourn for your sin if you want to be comforted. You remember what Jesus said. This is also a paradox in 6:18 what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5. Blessed are those who mourn because they will be comforted. And uh verse Matthew 5 and verse4. So let me show you another verse which 6:37 seems like a contradiction. Who are the type of people who go into heaven? We must acknowledge that we are sinners before we can go into heaven. Matthew 21 and verse 31 says in the last part, the crooked tax collectors and the 6:54 prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you religious Pharisees who know the Bible so well. That's such a contradiction that prostitutes are going to get into God's kingdom before people who know the Bible. That's a paradox. But yet Jesus said 7:14 that. So this is something we have to acknowledge and recognize. And these are truths that we must remember all our life. Okay. In Matthew 20, 7:33 we read about I have to show you a number of references in scripture. We read about sorry not Matthew 20. You know the story of the dying thief. 7:52 Now, one would think a person who's lived all his life killing people, stealing from people, harming people. If there's anybody and who he's punished by the Romans, they think that the crime is so bad that even human beings think it's 8:10 so bad that he's not fit to live. Completely unfit. He must not only die, but he must be crucified. And yet that dying thief went to heaven. Isn't that a paradox? And Jesus said, "Today you'll be with me 8:29 in paradise." I hope that teaches us that God's ways are not our ways. Now, a human being, if he were asked to judge that dying thief, he'd say, "If there's anybody who should go to hell, that's the guy who should go to hell." 8:44 And there you see the tremendous power that repentance has that if a person sincerely acknowledges that he's a sinner and doesn't try to justify himself. It's so difficult for many people. We're always trying to justify ourselves. Please 9:01 remember this. The only difference between the two thieves hung on the cross. One said was said bring me down from the cross. Why should I die? I'm not such a bad person. The other person said virtually said I deserve to die. Just have mercy 9:16 on me one day and many years later Lord when you come into your kingdom please think of me. And the Lord said not many years later today you will be with me in paradise. That is a paradox. That's one of the examples of a paradox. 9:32 A person who acknowledged he was a sinner and immediately got into God's kingdom. So sometimes we think of people who are appear to be very righteous and we think they'll have great place in God's kingdom. That's what everybody 9:49 thought about the Pharisees. But it is not true. So we have to change our way of thinking. Okay. Number number two, we must seek the heavenly first in order to get the earthly 10:08 in a permanent way. many people and the verse I'd like to show you is Matthew 6 and verse 33. Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first and all these earthly things that you 10:28 need will be added to you. So it's not by seeking for these earthly things that you get get it. It's by not seeking for the earthly things but seeking for the heavenly and God's kingdom and his righteousness. these earthly things will 10:42 be added. It's another paradox because in the world nobody will believe that. You say if you want a comfortable life in this world you might have worked hard to seek for the earthly things. And yet there are numerous stories in 10:58 human history of people who spent their life accumulating wealth and died poor. Even famous Hollywood stars who made millions and who die poor. Many people who made a lot of 11:15 money who die poor, they didn't get what they sought after. And many people have businesses failed and they commit suicide. But those who seek the heavenly first, they never lack anything. They may not become the richest people in the world, 11:33 but you don't need to be the richest person in the world to survive, but they everything they need for their earthly life will be added. That is an absolute truth of God. And so if a person is believes it, he will really seek the 11:49 heavenly because not only he does he get everything he needs on earth, but he's going to get a rich reward in heaven, too. I mean one got to be an absolute fool not to choose the heavenly first. So seek the kingdom of God first and 12:03 don't worry about the earthly things. He says these will verse 33 will be added to you. Added means you don't work for it. You just get it. And I believe that all of us must be a living demonstration to the world that we sought God's kingdom first. Think if 12:22 somebody were to write the record of your life and if they could examine every aspect of your life. Most of us know only about 1% of each other's life. I'll tell you honestly I don't know the people I know very well. I don't know 12:36 what they're seeking in their life. I don't know what all of you are seeking in your life. I mean you come here every Sunday you appear to be spiritual but I don't know what you're living for seven days of the week 24 hours of the day. I 12:48 don't know what the motives are and I don't know how you handle different things in the life. I don't know. We can appear to be spiritual. But it's the person who seeks God's kingdom first who gets everything that's 13:06 earthly. And I've thought that one day when we come to the end of our life, if the entire record of our life is exposed and on a video, it'll be a tremendous testimony in our final day when we stand before the Lord for people to see every 13:22 detail of your private life. The thoughts that went through your mind, what you lived for, the choices you made in your life in different different situations every day. So many choices. And they see that on the video and they 13:34 see how you never sought for the earthly but in every decision you sought for the heavenly the heavenly and you became a spiritual person but not only that by not seeking for the earthly but living for the heavenly you God provided you 13:50 for every single one of your earthly needs. He provided you with physical health. He provided you with food and clothing and he provided you with children and blessed you and blessed your home even though you didn't seek 14:03 for all that. What a testimony that will be at the end of our life to the truth of God's word. I wonder whether you have a passion. I had I have that passion that at the end of my life I pray that every detail of my life will one day be 14:18 exposed for the whole world to see. It will be done. I know at the judgment seat of Christ. And then whatever opinion we may have of each other in that day it'll be seen. It should be that's my desire that they here's a man 14:30 who never sought to make money never sought to even just preserve himself on this earth in some way for a long life and God provided everything for him in his earthly life and for his family and at the same time gave him the best in 14:48 heaven too. That's the best way to live. That is the most sensible man who's living on the earth because he gets the best on the earth and the best in heaven. He may not be the richest man on the earth. He may not own so many things 15:00 like other people own. And he may not be able to enjoy earthly things as much as other people do. But he lived a comfortable life and he lived the entire length of his life that God wanted him to live even though he didn't seek for that. That 15:14 should be the testimony of every single person sitting here. family. That's a testimony of many, many people. And for example, Hebrews 11, there's a big list of people, the really godly people. They did not seek for the earthly. Think 15:30 of a person like Noah. Noah had I feel Noah had a lot of fields and lands and all that because he had to use his own money to build a ship. God never told him to get money from anywhere. He had to sell his lands. People around 15:47 him thought he was an absolute fool. Selling his lands, selling his property, and he whittling it down to almost nothing by the time he had completed the ark. He spent all his money building the ark. And the whole world called him a 16:01 fool. And then one day when the flood comes, they discovered that this is the only wise man on the earth, one who lived totally in obedience to God. He ended up, I believe by the time he built the ark, he had nothing left of his earthly 16:14 property and possessions. because he spent it all on building the ark. Was he wise or foolish? These are the examples in the Bible. Abraham who was told to at the age of 75 when most people are retiring God said leave your country and leave your 16:30 relatives and come to another land which you don't even know foolish on a human standpoint from a human standpoint but he did that look at the blessing that came from his life. So there are many examples like that we see in the scriptures and that's why the 16:48 Bible says let me just read this verse in this connection. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 3 says uh Colossians chapter 3 and verse two 17:09 sorry set your mind that means fix your mind. This is something that's attached to something that it cannot be detested. Fix your mind on the things that are above and not on the things of the earth. The example I've used is often of a 17:28 rubber band. The rubber band is attached to something above and we stretch it down to do our earthly work for 8 hours or 10 hours. But the moment it's our earthly work is finished, the rubber band springs back to above. Now with many even many 17:45 Christians, it's not like that. The rubber band is fixed to the things of earth. We're always occupied with money and comfort and possessions and all many Christians and then they stretch it once on Sunday morning to heavenly things and 17:59 once the two three hours on Sunday is over it swings back to the thing of earth. Where is your rubber band attached? Is it to the things of earth and occasionally stretched maybe for 10 minutes to read the Bible on the morning 18:11 and then back to the things of earth and then on Sunday a little bit to the heaven and spring to the earth. The rubber band is attached to the things of earth. Whereas a Christian has a rubber band attached to the things of heaven 18:23 and stretched even maybe for 10 12 hours. Think of a mother with little children. It has to be stretched for probably 20 hours a day to the earthly things. But when it's over, it swings back to heavenly things. That is a true 18:35 disciple of Jesus. God provides for him. Seek the heavenly first and then the earthly will find itself in will come to place itself. Okay. Now number three, we must be weak 18:55 if we want to be strong. It's a paradox. It's another paradox of the Christian life. Paul says in 2 Corinthians in chapter 12, you know, Paul was so eager to serve the Lord and to be effective and anointed 19:13 and powerful. And you know how God made him powerful? By giving him a sickness. Is that how you make a person powerful? You go to a doctor and you say you want to be useful to to serve people and he makes you sick. No. God doctors don't do 19:29 that. God does it. It says in verse 7, he had a thorn in the flesh, which means some type of sickness. And I see from Galatians 4, I think it was a problem with his eyes that Paul had some type of pus coming out of his eyes that was so repulsive 19:45 that he told the Galatians, you saw that and you felt sorry for me and you were willing to give me your eyes. That's how much the Galatians loved Paul. And he said, that is a thorn in the flesh. He calls it a thorn in the flesh and it is 19:58 definitely he says it was not God who gave it. God doesn't give evil things. It was a messenger of Satan. God allows it. Sickness is not from God. He allows it. The thorn in the flesh is never from God. Pass in the eyes is 20:16 never from God. But God allowed it even in the great servant Paul. And why did he allow it in the great servant Paul? It was to keep him humble, to make him weak in his own eyes. He says it was a messenger of Satan that 20:34 tormented him. Verse 7, think of a Just read that verse carefully, dear brothers and sisters. 2 Corinthians 12:7, a messenger of Satan, the sickness that tormented him. Torment. Torment is a very strong word. Do any of you have a 20:51 sickness that is tormenting you? You've tried healing. You've tried medicines. You gone to this doctor, that, the other doctor, and has never gone. It's tormenting you, tormenting you, and I don't know how many times Paul prayed 21:03 endlessly. He was not healed. All these people who say that if you're faithful to God, you'll be healed of all sickness. Well, the God's greatest servant in the first century, Paul, was not healed of a terrible sickness that 21:17 tormented him. And he says the reason was to keep me from exalting myself. Paul was used so mightily that there was a tremendous danger of him exalting themselves. Many of us don't need such sickness because we are not so used so mightily around the world 21:35 like Paul was. And so we don't need that but Paul needed it. And the more God uses you, the more God has to do certain things to keep you humble. Otherwise, you'll get so puffed up because God is using you that you'll be destroyed in no time at 21:49 all. So God's that's God's way with all his servants. All of us want to be used by God. All of us want to be useful in God's kingdom. But the more you are used, the more God has to puncture you now and then so that the balloon doesn't 22:04 fly up into the sky. It comes down to earth because God can give his grace only to the humble. So he has to make us weak in order for us to be strong. It's a paradox in the Christian life. 22:21 the great apostle Peter in order to be become the mighty apostle that would preach the first sermon on the day of Pentecost and he'd preach a 15minute sermon and bring 3,000 Jews to Christ to bring one Jew to Christ. You and I, I don't know 22:40 whether you've ever brought a Jew to Christ. I have never. It's very difficult because they are so stubborn in their faith. to bring 3,000 Jews to Christ in 15 minutes sermon. What a powerful anointing that must have been. 22:52 But how did God prepare Peter for that? I'll tell you. He called him Satan. Can you imagine if how you would feel if Jesus called you Satan? He knows your name, but he calls you Satan. You're an instrument of Satan. 23:10 That is what God Jesus told Peter when Peter said, "Lord, don't go to the cross." Peter said it out of a good heart. Why? Why should you suffer? Don't go to the cross. And Jesus recognized that. The voice that tells me not to go to the 23:26 cross to redeem humanity from hell. That's the voice of the devil. Because on the cross, Satan was going to be defeated. Peter didn't know all that. Jesus calls him Satan. And then he says, "You know, I know you're going 23:43 to deny me three times today, Peter. I don't have time to point you to that passage." But if you knew that somebody was going to deny the Lord, what would you pray for him? Lord, don't let him deny you. Please don't let him deny you. 24:01 But Jesus did not pray for that. Peter, you're going to be denying me three times, but I'm praying that after you fail, you will repent and you'll be able to strengthen your brothers. See that passage? It's very interesting 24:21 how God deals with his servants, his most useful servants. This is what prepared Peter for the day of Pentecost. Luke 22:31. Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you as wheat. But I prayed for you, not that you won't deny 24:40 me, that your faith will not fail, and then when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Now, I would have thought, Lord, please don't let him deny me. Don't let him deny you. That's not God's prayer. What do we learn there? That God has to 24:57 sometimes allow us to fail. Lead us not into temptation, we pray. Don't let me fall. And he allows you to fall. I'll tell you why. Why did God allow Peter to fall? Because Peter was such a proud person 25:16 that he thought, I'm the leader here and God allowed him to fall. And I'll tell you something my dear brothers and sisters your failure is always 100% of times because of pride. If ever you have fallen into sin you didn't want to think those lustful 25:36 thoughts and you did. You did. I'll tell you the reason. You're too proud. You didn't want to get angry. You did. I'll tell you. You prayed much but you did fall because of pride. And God allows us to fall so that we humble 25:53 ourselves and recognize how weak we are. This is what happens even in a home. Please remember this husbands and wives when you find yourself you didn't want to fall but you fell in the words you used which you didn't never wanted to use those words 26:09 and all of a sudden those words came out of your mouth even though you prayed. It's because you're there's a pride in you which you yourself don't recognize. And therefore, God has to allow you to be to fall and fall and fall and fall 26:23 till that pride is shattered and there's no pride left in you. Then God's grace will be abundant. Even Timothy, you read in 1 Timothy 5, he had a stomach's problems which I don't know how many times Paul would have prayed for him. He never got 26:38 healed. You know all these people who preach that Jesus will heal all your sicknesses. They're absolute liars that Jesus does heal sickness. Yes. That Jesus heals every believer's sickness. Wrong. Paul, Timothy, these are the greatest 26:56 servants of God mentioned in the New Testament. They are the ones who had so many sicknesses. Paul had Timothy had such frequent stomachs, infirmities. We read in 1 Timothy 5. I must sure Paul could have prayed for him numerous times but 27:12 he was not healed. So we have to be weak in order to be strong. Okay. Then I go to number four. We must acknowledge that we are foolish 27:29 in spiritual matters if we want to be wise. All of us want to be wise in spiritual things. Well, here's the way to be wise. 1 Corinthians in chapter 3. Here's the fourth paradox. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 18. The last 27:48 part. Let's read the whole thing. Let no man deceive himself. 1 Corinthians 3:18. If any one of you thinks you're really wise in this age, and I think a lot of people sitting here because you're so good in your profession 28:04 and you're so smart in the way you're able to make money and how you excel in the work that you do, you have pretty high thoughts about yourself. Acknowledge it. Acknowledge it that you have pretty high thoughts about yourself because you can do so many 28:20 things so smartly when you compare yourself with other human beings. You think, "Boy, I'm pretty smart compared to them." Well, I'll give you some advice, my dear brother, sister. You must become a fool in order to be wise spiritually. 1 Corinthians 3:18. 28:39 He who has ears, let him hear. Because you know our intellect is not going to help us to be make us spiritual. The cleverest people in Jesus' time were not the disciples. The cleverest people were the scribes 28:57 and the Pharisees. Brilliant Jewish people have got a very brilliant minds, many of them. And these were some of the most brilliant people who were the Pharisees and the scribes. And when Jesus came into their midst, they called 29:14 him Bilbo. This must be the devil. You see how human cleverness thought that Jesus was the devil and there are millions of clever people today in the world in all types of religions who think Jesus is the devil or a false 29:33 prophet very very clever people brilliant minds and they studied about Jesus and they say he's a he's a false deceiver he's a deceiver he's a false prophet Turn to one Corinthians in chapter 2. 29:59 Verse seven, we speak God's wisdom in a mystery. Verse eight, the wisdom of God which none of the great clever rulers of this age understood. Because if they understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 30:19 And as it is written, the things which, let me paraphrase it, the things which clever people's eyes have never seen and which clever people's ears could not hear and which clever people's hearts could not understand. 30:38 God has revealed it prepared. God has prepared it for those who love him because God has revealed them through verse 10 through the Holy Spirit. So this is very important to understand this. If the Bible if you can't 30:57 understand certain parts of the Bible, it's not because you're clever, but because you're proud that you're so clever. God doesn't say because you're clever you can't understand the Bible I'm going to reveal the Bible only to stupid 31:11 people. God doesn't say that. There's no partiality with God. He's not partial towards the stupid people. He's not partial towards the clever people. He's completely impartial. There's no partiality with God. But he does reveal things to those who 31:26 are humble. And the great danger and I want to say this to you my brothers and sisters. The great danger when we are very clever and very capable and very intelligent, we live in constant danger of pride. So we must acknowledge that we are 31:44 foolish if we are to be wise. Let me repeat that verse again. 1 Corinthians 3:18 say, "I say to those who are wise in this age, become foolish so that you may be wise." Now, how do I 32:02 become foolish? See, our intelligence is not something we developed. Education and knowledge you have developed. But your intelligence is something you were born with in your mother's womb. Before you came 32:20 out of your mother's womb, God gave you a mind which was very intelligent. I know that I I don't believe I'm I'm not the cleverest person in the world. Certainly not. But I'm not dumb. I'm I've got a certain amount of intelligence which God gave me in my 32:36 mother's womb. And it's not because of anything in me. It's just some people born born intelligent and some people are born not so intelligent. That's why some people do so well in their profession or in school and college and 32:51 others seem to fail all the time. So I don't know the reason for all that but it's God who determines that. So the one who is very intelligent has a tremendous handicap in the world. They say this the foolish person who's 33:06 handicapped. He can't get a proper job. He's always failing and wherever he goes, he gets goes to a job and he gets fired pretty soon because he can't do his job properly. But in God's kingdom, it's not like that. In God's kingdom, it 33:21 doesn't make any difference whether you're intelligent or dumb. I personally believe that among the 12 disciples, who do you think was the most intelligent? I have no doubt it was Judas's Scariot. I mean he could have beaten 33:38 uh Peter in any intellectual competition. He was the cleverest because he succeeded in deceiving those 11 people for three and a half years that he was a disciple of Jesus when he wasn't. You have to really be clever to live with 33:51 people for three and a half years and fool them about your intentions in life. So these are things written in scripture to teach us not that you see I I I remember when I understood this for the first time. I said Lord what shall I do? 34:07 I wish I were born dumb. And the Lord said no I made you intelligent but you have an opportunity to humble yourself. The dumb person doesn't have to humble himself. He's already dumb. But the intelligent person has to take a 34:21 step of humbling himself. Lord, I am no better than that dumb person. Then I get grace and I I'll tell you honestly, I have to keep doing it. Or because I know the Bible so well, I can look down on someone who doesn't know 34:36 the Bible and the Lord says that'll make you proud. There's so many things even in the Christian life that can make you proud. Maybe you go to a good church and you're happy that you're proud to belong to good church. Humble yourself. There's 34:48 absolutely nothing in the spiritual life that we should be proud of. Everything is of grace. Everything is of grace. Grace means God freely blesses us. And the reason why so many people start so well and then don't don't end so well is 35:06 because they receive grace in the beginning but then they become puffed up that they are becoming spiritual or they are becoming respected for their Bible knowledge or respected because they preach so well. That can happen for 35:17 people who come and sit up here in this pullpit and preach. You can begin to get proud that people respect you for what? God's grace can be withdrawn from you in a moment. So let's always humble ourselves and never 35:36 exalt ourselves. I'd like to read another verse in this connection and that's Matthew chapter 11. And verse 25, have you ever ever understood this truth, 35:53 Jesus said, I praise you, father. What do you praise God for? Here's something that Jesus praised the father for. And I want to praise the father also for the same thing that Jesus praised the father for. I praise you, father, that all 36:08 these wonderful spiritual truths you have hidden from the clever, intelligent people on earth. Aha. And you have revealed them to little babies. Can you tell me anything? Any earthly subject 36:25 that a baby cannot baby will understand but the old clever person won't understand. Think of something which clever people cannot understand but a baby can understand. It's only God's word. So I fear that some of us come to the 36:43 Bible with all our cleverness and try to understand it and that's why you don't understand it. And that's why God can't use you to minister God's word in power to other people even when you're in personal conversation because you come to the Bible with 36:58 cleverness and pride in your cleverness. Yeah, I can understand this. I'm clever. And that's why you don't understand it because God reveals the truths to those who are helpless. Acknowledge Lord, I don't know anything in the spiritual realm. I'm very clever 37:17 in earthly things, very capable and clever in so many earthly things. But when it comes to spiritual truth, I know zero. Brother, sister, these are practical lessons. If you follow my advice, you will get to 37:37 know the scriptures in a way that you've never understood till now and you'll get revelation. Lisa once I understood it many years ago I said Lord I want to go this way all my life and I'll tell you I found myself in contradiction to so many Christians born 37:54 again believers all from my the time I was born again almost every assembly I went to I found myself in contradiction with it there were things that were wrong there I initially went to the brethren assembly they did not believe in the baptism in 38:11 the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues or any of those things. I was there for many years and they were all very clever people there who knew so much of the Bible. But I said, "Lord, there's something missing. There's something 38:22 missing in my life. I'm not getting it here." Then I went to another group and there also a lot of people with a lot of Bible knowledge, but they didn't seem to lead me into a life of victory over sin. They also didn't believe in the baptism 38:34 of the Holy Spirit. And then I didn't know what to do. I was a young Christian and I moved around in that church and moved into another and moved like that. I said, "Lord, to me the only way is to seek you." And I began to seek God in my 38:49 desperation and defeat. And the Lord met with me. So I looked around and said, "Which church shall I go to? Which church will teach people not to be proud of their cleverness? Which church will teach people that in order to know the Bible you must be come 39:07 like a little child? I never heard that message once in my life in any church. So which church shall I join? That's how we ended at starting something on our own where we we would teach people that in order to become wise you must be like a little child. 39:26 That pride is the thing God hates more than anything else. That pride is what made an angel into a devil. And it is pride that made Eve reach out her hand and take from the tree of knowledge when God said you must not touch it. You must rather you must not 39:44 eat from it. It was pride that you got to see underneath her. Pride. I know God has said not to eat it but I think it's it's a pretty good tree. Imagine the arrogance to think that she knew better than God. So that was the origin of sin. 40:04 That disobedience came out of pride. And every disobedience to God's word in our life comes out of pride. To think that we know better than God. When God wanted to uh 40:23 tell Satan, I want to show you a verse which is very interesting. Who was the wisest person in the Bible? Edward, we say Solomon. But Solomon went astray. 40:42 Let me show you a verse which opened my eyes when I first read it. The the cleverest of the angels was Lucifer or whatever his name was, we don't know, who finally became Satan. And I I believe he was the wisest of all 41:01 of God's created beings and he became the devil. And that should be a warning to us that the wisest cleverest not wisest I'd rather say the cleverest person that most intelligent created being was this angel who is known as Lucifer. That's the one 41:20 who became the devil. And when God speaks to that angel years later, he says in Ezekiel 28, listen to this, it's God himself who says that 41:37 Ezekiel 28, he's referring to this Satan and says in verse three, verse two, thus says the Lord to the leader, the leader of Ty is the devil. Your heart is lifted up and you have said, I'm a god. I sit in the seat of God's. That's he's 41:54 speaking to that highest angel. And listen to this verse three. You are wiser than not Solomon. You're wiser than Daniel. In God's eyes, the wisest person in the Old Testament was Daniel, not Solomon. 42:13 Solomon's wisdom was a human cleverness. But when God wants to compare the intelligence of that fallen angel, he does not compare it with Solomon. He says, and I look at the world, I Daniel was the wisest man on earth. What where was Do you think Daniel could 42:32 have a competition with Solomon in intellectual wisdom? No. Solomon would have beaten him outright. Yet God considered Daniel the wisest person of all human beings that lived up to that time that he tries to compare Satan. He 42:44 says, "You're wiser than Daniel." Yeah, there's something there we have to learn, my brothers and sisters, that God's way of thinking is not our way of thinking. Okay, let me go to number five. Paradoxes of the Christian life. 43:02 We must learn to give if we want to receive from God. Luke chapter 6 and verse 38. 43:22 Give and then it'll be given to you. They will pour into your lap good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over. You know how people they put grain into uh into a container pressed down and shaken 43:41 pressed down some more running over poured into your lap because by your standard of measure in which you give it'll be measured to you in return this is another paradox in the Christian life in the world they think don't give accumulating keep 43:54 accumulating then you'll have plenty God says no it doesn't work like that give and God will give back to you in abundance and I can certainly tell you I've experienced that my life in a remarkable way. Let me show you another verse in 44:11 Proverbs and all of us should have that testimony that we were not stingy. Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs 11 and verse 24. 44:34 There's one who scatters or one who gives liberally and yet his wealth keeps on increasing. But there's another one who keeps on holding everything to himself and he ends up poor. Ends up in lacking. This is this is a paradox. One would 44:50 think that the one who's giving away everything will end up poor and the one who keeps holding on to himself will come rich. No. But he says the one who gives away like that increases. Verse 25. It is the generous man who 45:02 becomes prosperous. One would think the man who's very generous will end up poor. The generous man becomes prosperous. And he who waters others, you know what happens? God waters him. That's why he becomes rich. Here's a 45:18 person who keeps on giving, giving, giving, watering other people. And God keeps on watering him. That's this is the way God wants us to live and grow. And it's this is also mentioned in the New Testament 45:36 in 2 Corinthians and chapter 9 verse 6 onwards. He who sws sparingly will reap sparingly. But he who gives bountifully 45:55 will get from God bountifully. It's God's way. God loves a cheerful giver. So both in the old and new testament we see this principle or 46:14 see these words of Jesus which are not written in the gospels. I've always been wondered why the most one of the most fantastic statements of Jesus is never mentioned in the four gospels but is mentioned by Paul in Acts chapter 46:31 20. In Acts chapter 20, you read in the last part of verse 35, Acts 20:35, the words of the Lord Jesus who said, "It is more blessed to give 46:49 than to receive." I'm always amazed why Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John never mentioned that. I don't know, not inspired by the Holy Spirit. And yet Paul who never met Jesus in his life somehow heard these words of Jesus that it is more blessed to give 47:07 than to receive. I believe in the land of Israel there's a parable in the two seas. There are two seas in the land of Israel. One is called the Sea of Galilee in the north and the other is the Dead Sea in the south. 47:24 And the is a it's a parable. The Sea of Galilee receives water and gives it out into the river Jordan. The Dead Sea keeps on receiving from the river Jordan and becomes full of salt and is dead. It's a parable to the in the land of 47:46 Israel that the one who keeps on getting and keeps on giving out will always be fresh like the Sea of Galilee. And the one who keeps on receiving, receiving and never gives out is going to be dead. And that's a lesson that all of us need 48:02 to learn. How is your attitude in this church? You think only of getting getting. There was a great saint of God in India who lived in the early part of the 20th century called Sundar Singh. 48:20 I mean I've read his biography. He died in 19 29. But as far as I can, as far as my knowledge goes, he was the greatest saint that India ever saw. And I remember a story of his. He was a man who' frequently go to Tibet to preach 48:39 the gospel. And he'd walk barefoot across the mountains. He was a very rugged man spiritually. He was a non-Christian converted through a vision of Jesus. when he was just 15 years old, he saw Jesus face to face and he gave up his he's a person who had 48:55 torn the Bible and all but he gave up his faith and received Christ as his Lord and his own parents tried to poison him. God protected him and he became a great saint and a witness for Christ. I remember one story of his where when he 49:09 was going through the mountains, there was a Tibetan monk who was going along with him and it was getting more and more windy and they wanted to reach the village. They were aiming for to get there in time before the it becomes 49:25 sunset and the winds become very strong and they could die of cold in those mountainous areas. You know, it was the Himalayan mountains. And on while they were going, they saw a man lying on the ground, exhausted and weak, but not dead. They 49:45 looked at him and he was still weak, but just barely breathing. And uh the monk told Sadhusa Singh we can't afford to help him because if we stop here to help him we'll get delayed and both of us will also die before we 50:01 reach the place we need to reach with the winds will be so strong before we reach our destination the village we're going to but Sundra Singh was a Christian he said I can't see a person in need and not help him 50:20 and so you know what he He put him on his shoulder. That man, he lifted him and put him on his shoulder. And the tip monk said, "Goodbye to both of you. You're both going to die. I'm going to rush get to the village in time before 50:35 the cold winds come." And so Sunda Singh slowly plotted along with this heavy weight on his body on his back. And just before he reached the village, he saw that Tibetan monk's body there dead on the ground of the cold. The wind 50:54 was so strong, the cold wind. And then he wondered, I was also facing the same wind. How is it I didn't die? And this chap died. It's because the effort of carrying this body have made Sunda Singh's body produce 51:13 heat. You know whenever you car do a lot of work you heat is produced in your body that's why you persspire and then Sunda Singh realized that it's because I was carrying this person that heat was produced in my body and that protected 51:28 me from the cold and he used to tell that story to say he who tries to save his life will lose it but he who is willing to lose his life to bless Bless others in Jesus name. 51:45 They will save it. What a living example of that. Learn to give if you want to receive from God. Okay. Paradox number six. We must go down 52:03 if we want to be exalted. That's not what the world says. The world says struggle and struggle and push other people down and you'll go up. But the Lord says in 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter 5 52:24 and verse 6, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you at the proper time. This is God's way. If God wants to lift up people right up to a tremendous height spiritually, 52:44 the only way he can do that is if we are willing to go down and become nothing. And in the previous verse it says God is opposed to the proud. The proud person who wants to push himself up anywhere you can go to a church and try to exalt 53:02 yourself. try to show that you're very spiritual and want honor from everybody. I can guarantee God will push you down. And the more you exalt yourself, the more you'll he'll push you right down to the bottom. I mean, you may prosper. You 53:17 may become a billionaire financially. You may have a great job and you may own a lot of possessions and ride expensive cars and all that type of stuff. But spiritually, you'll be down in the dumps. You will be a person who is of 53:33 absolutely no use to God. God will not be able to use you to bless anybody. You'll be just a useless person sitting in the church forever because you're proud of your capabilities and your intelligence and you're seeking to exalt yourself. 53:51 You have to go down if you want God to exalt you. Please remember this dear brothers and sisters all your life. That is what we testify to in baptism. Right at the beginning of our Christian life, there's something we are 54:05 testifying to believe. What is after that? Be baptized. And what is the Lord teaching there in baptism? Right to the beginning of your Christian life, learn to go down. Allow other people to push you down. You don't get baptized yourself. You 54:24 don't dip yourself in the water. No. Baptist, somebody else is pushing you down and thereby you're you don't understand it perhaps but what you're acknowledging there is Lord I'm willing to let everybody push me down in this world. 54:39 The world is where everybody resists it but I'm willing to let people push me down and I believe that you will lift me up. The meaning of coming up from the water is God lifting us up. They and the greatest example is Jesus Christ. They pushed him down to 54:56 death and crucified him and humiliated him. God raised him up and gave him the highest place in heaven. So that's the meaning of I mean that's the example that Jesus has set and that's what we got to learn. We must go down 55:14 in order to be exalted. Okay. Lastly, the last paradox. We must die in order to live. 2 Corinthians in chapter 4 55:32 and verse 10. Always carrying in our body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. Whenever you see a Christlike person, 55:50 a person who reflects the nature of Christ, never getting angry, always patient, always a blessing, always having a word of wisdom for you whenever you go to him with a question. always patient, always kind, especially 56:10 at home when a wife can testify that my husband is like this. It's tremendous. I I remember hearing of one of John Wesley's co-workers was a man called Fletcher. He was one of John Wesley's closest 56:28 co-workers. And when he died, his wife gave a testimony at his John Fletcher's wife gave a testimony at his funeral. He said, "My I was living with an angel." What a testimony. Think of it if your 56:48 wife can give a testimony about you at your funeral that she was living with an angel. That man was a saint and he learned the truth of godliness from John Wesley and lived it. And it came through dying to self. That's why we preach the message of 57:05 dying to self so much in this church because we want every one of us to live by the life of Christ. Here it says always carrying in our body the dying of Jesus. That means always 57:23 willing to die to self just like Jesus did. That is why it's called the dying of Jesus. because he was the first person in history who demonstrated what it is to die to self perfectly always consistently 57:42 from birth to death and because of that the divine life was always manifested in him now this is a great mystery it's a truth that many many Christians have not understood even though they have the same Bible as we I'll tell you my experience. 58:02 I was born again when I was 19 years old and I went to many different churches and through the years I've read the writings of many many Christian authors. I never found a church that I went to where they consistently preached death 58:21 to self. They preached so many other wonderful things all from the Bible. But I never found a brother who consistently preached that you got to die to yourself even though I see it as the most important thing in the Christian life. 58:38 Why is that? And therefore, I never saw in all those places I went to a person who could manifest the beauty of Jesus and the life of victory over sin and who would never taught me how I could live in victory over sin. I didn't go to those churches to know 58:55 the Bible. I went to those churches because I was defeated in my life. And I said, "Brothers, can you teach me how to overcome my dirty thoughts and my anger and my uncristlike ways? How can I overcome it?" And they would teach me 59:10 about the tabernacle and what the tabernacle meant and different expositions of Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians. But they never told me about dying to self. You can be a great Bible scholar. Go and listen to all the messages that there 59:24 are on on YouTube. There are thousands and thousands of them. Check up and see how often you hit up on a message that speaks about death to self. It's not there. And these are Christian preachers. What a work the devil has done. 59:38 We must die in order to live. And not only in order to live, it says in 2 Corinthians 4:11 that when we die to oursel, not only the life of Christ comes in us, but it'll come in others too. This is way we think that we can give 59:54 the life of Christ to others by preaching to them and sharing God's word with them. No, you will give them information. It'll go from your head to their head. And maybe they'll get it so well from you that they'll be able to 1:00:07 teach it to others and pass it on from their head to a hundred other heads. And that's how so much of Christian truth has gone from head to head to head to intellect to intellect to intellect. But all these people with all that intellect 1:00:19 they're not they're not freed from the love of money. They're not freed from sin in their life because the devil has hidden the truth of death to self. I believe that's the greatest truth that Jesus proclaimed. That's why he said, 1:00:38 yeah, let me mention this. Do you know that there's only one thing that Jesus said you must do every day? Only one thing. 1 Corinthians 9 9:23. If you deny yourself and take up your cross daily, 1:00:57 take a concordance and see what Jesus said we must do daily. Every day of our life, what should we do? There's only one thing he said. Die to self. Okay. There's only one thing that Jesus 1:01:16 said we must do always. You know what that is? Luke 18:1 pray always. There are people who say you should pray for half an hour. I say no. You should pray for two hours. No, you must pray always. That's what Jesus said. What does that mean? He was 1:01:34 teaching another type of prayer. We think prayer is what we speak speak. That's prayer. Okay, that's all right in public or when we pray to God in our with words. But real prayer is an expression of our dependence upon God. 1:01:49 And the best example of that is breathing. We must breathe daily. No, always. So I see from Luke 18:1 that prayer must be like breathing. Now there may be times when we go out and take a little 1:02:08 exercise and take some deep breathing exercises. That's fine. Those are times of prayer. But otherwise prayer itself is something that we must do all the time. like breathing and you really become spiritual when your prayer life is is a 1:02:25 constant dependence upon God whether you're speaking or not just like you're breathing all the time these are things that we discover if you're serious about following the Lord and when I see these things in scripture and I say why is it that so many 1:02:41 Christians never explain all these things clearly ask yourself many of you have been Christians for so many years. Have you heard these paradoxes of the Christian life anywhere? Why not? It's all in the Bible. Everything I said was in scripture. And 1:02:57 that shows how little of God's truth is being proclaimed in the world. It's all intellectual knowledge that is being communicated. We think we know, we are knowing the Bible just by studying it. If we don't practically apply it in our 1:03:12 life, we will not get revelation on the real truth of scripture. Everything I showed you was in scripture and you read it, but you probably never saw it. And I hope that you've seen something today that will show you that 1:03:26 the way to really live the Christian life. Now, actually, these these are truths that we need to study for years to really begin to understand it. I just sort of put a seed into your mind. I pray that seed will fall into good 1:03:40 ground and produce much fruit in your life. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads before the Lord. Heavenly Father, help us to understand truths that are hidden from the clever 1:03:58 and the intelligent of the world. Help us to have the heart and the mind of a babe, acknowledging that we know nothing of eternal heavenly truths. And help us to learn, Lord, we pray. Help us to humble ourselves and be open 1:04:15 to the revelation of the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. [Music]
