Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus defined eternal life
in very different ways from which most believers
even understand it.
If someone were to ask you, what is
eternal life?
Many people would think of living eternity in
heaven.
That's eternal life.
But Jesus described it in John 17 verse
3.
It's got nothing to do with length of
life.
Absolutely not.
It's got to do with quality of life.
See, as human beings we always think of
quantity.
Eternity with God.
How wonderful that would be.
Millions and millions of years.
But in the scripture, quantity is never emphasized.
You know, there's a verse in Psalm 91.
It says, with long life I will satisfy
him.
Did Jesus live a long life?
Yet he could say, I finished my course.
And so many great saints have died in
their 20s and 30s.
Godly men.
What is eternal life?
John 17 verse 3.
Eternal life is to know God.
It's got nothing to do with length of
life.
It's got nothing to do with heaven.
You can have eternal life right now.
The more you know God, the more you
have eternal life.
And that's why Paul told Timothy.
And Timothy was about 45 years old, having
walked with Paul for about 25 years.
Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 6.
I want to give you an exhortation.
1 Timothy 6.
He says, 1 Timothy 6 verse 12.
Take hold of eternal life.
What's that?
Is he telling Timothy to be born again?
Is he telling Timothy to take hold of
the fact that he's going to live for
eternity in heaven?
No.
Towards the end of his life, Paul tells
Timothy, remember, Timothy, if you want to really
serve God, take hold of eternal life.
Get to know God better.
That is eternal life.
And that's the thing that we need to
ask ourselves, like we heard Jeremy saying in
the beginning, to know what God is really
like.
That is to know him.
And there, if you're like that servant who
buried his talent in the ground, then you
need to know God is a kind, loving
Father.
Like you saw in that picture, embracing the
prodigal son.
And the Bible speaks about two aspects of
God in Romans chapter 11.
And it tells us to look carefully.
Whenever you read the word, behold, Romans 11
32, it means look carefully.
Here's an exhortation.
Romans 11 32.
Look carefully and intently at the kindness and
the severity of God.
That servant who buried his talent kept on
concentrating on the severity of God.
And he messed up his life.
He wasted his life.
That talent is like the one life God
has given us.
And you can bury it.
Burying it on the ground means using our
life for earthly things.
I'm going to heaven when I die.
So it doesn't matter.
I can spend my life for earthly things.
You haven't understood God.
You think God is a hard taskmaster.
He'll demand more from you.
But there's the opposite also of people who
are so taken up with the severity of
God.
They're afraid that they don't see his kindness.
We need to see both.
So it may be a different need in
each of our lives.
It's not a standard message for every one
of you listening.
You need to ask yourself, what is the
natural tendency of your heart?
When you think of God, do you think
of his severity?
Or do you think of his kindness?
We need to see both.
Because God is kind and severe and says,
look carefully at both.
And there may be times when we concentrate
on his severity.
Then we need to switch and meditate on
his kindness.
And how do we know which we are?
For example, if you concentrate on the severity
of God, if you have fallen away from
him or sinned like the prodigal in the
country, you'll never come back.
Because you'll think God is like the elder
brother who didn't want the younger brother back.
You can think of God like that.
You'll never come back to the father's house.
You'll always think that he's a person who's
always standing there with a whip.
But if you see him as a kind
God and loving father, that's what made that
prodigal son come back.
But equally, if our understanding of God is
so kind, think of his, don't think of
anything else, think of his love.
I believe what has led the charismatic movement
astray.
Most of its leaders, they hardly ever speak
about sin.
They hardly ever speak about the severity of
God.
It's always kindness, kindness, kindness, kindness.
And look at the condition of, I would
never want to be a part of that,
of most Pentecostals.
There are some godly men there.
But as a movement, because they're concentrated on
kindness and kindness, maybe it's a reaction to
some other holiness movement that kept on emphasizing
severity.
And whenever our life is a reaction to
something else, we go off to an extreme.
Our life must be based on scripture.
And if we ourselves are going in one
direction, then I need to see the other
side.
And there's that constant need.
That's why Jesus said the life, the way
is a narrow way.
There's a cliff on either side.
And we're not always bent in one direction.
There are times when we are moving towards,
oh, God's so kind, and I begin to
take advantage, or God's so severe, and I
get all condemned.
Then I need to move back.
Always think of the way as a narrow
way.
And if I find myself drifting to the
left or right, turn towards the other direction.
There is no fixed answer to this.
God is kind and God is severe.
And if we ask ourselves, the other thing
that Jeremy mentioned was the importance of living
by faith and not by sight.
And faith, again, is not just in terms
of believing that God has given me the
Holy Spirit or filled me with the Holy
Spirit.
That's very important.
We do not live by feelings.
We live by faith in God's word, not
faith in our imagination, faith in the word
of God.
If we have a clear word of God
to stand on, that's a solid foundation.
You know, Jesus said, he who hears my
word and does them is on a solid
rock.
He'll never shake.
But it also, I believe it implies that
we believe that God, for example, faith, to
have faith in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13,
that's faith.
God will never allow me to be tested
beyond my ability.
This is the father I worship.
It's a perfect assurance in a loving father
who will never, never, not in a million
years, allow me to face some situation for
which he will not give me grace.
I want to ask you, my brothers and
sisters, do you have that confidence?
This is to know God.
You have that faith.
It'll change your life.
It'll bring a rest into your heart concerning
your family, posing your problem in some of
your children.
And you think, how will it be like
that?
Will I die soon and leave my children
helpless?
What a wonderful thing it is to have
faith that my father in heaven, who has
numbered my days, according to Psalm 139, will
never allow me to face something for which
he will not give grace.
David said, I've seen, I've been young and
now I'm old.
I've never seen a righteous man forsaken.
I've never seen a seed begging for bread.
Do you believe that?
I believe it.
It makes a tremendous difference because a lot
of anxiety and fear, particularly in the world
today, the Bible says, I mean, Jesus says
that some terrible things, you read in Luke
21, some terrible things are going to happen
in the world that people are going to
shake in fear.
The opposite of fear is faith.
When faith comes in, fear goes out.
When fear comes in, faith goes out.
Fear and faith can never live at the
same time in your heart.
Please say this.
Remember this always.
If there's fear in your heart, you can
be absolutely sure faith is not there.
Faith is being pushed out.
And the only way to drive out fear
is by faith.
Faith not in some promise.
I mean, for example, you know, we heard
about the son of Solomon.
To me, that's a very precious part of
scripture is the first book of the Bible
that the Lord told me to study or
led me to study when I was born
again.
I didn't know anything about the Bible, but
I was all alone in a ship.
And the only commentary I had there with
me was on son of Solomon.
And I didn't know how to study the
Bible.
I read that commentary and I went into
the son of Solomon and it really blessed
my heart because it showed me that the
Lord wanted me to have a bridal relationship
with him, a bride-bridegroom relationship.
And I don't believe that every believer has
that.
They should have it.
Every single born again believer should have this
bridal relationship with Jesus.
So when you read these wonderful things that
the bridegroom says to the bride, it's so
comforting.
But you need to ask yourself also, is
he saying that to you?
Do you have a bridal relationship with him?
Think of a wife who only has eyes
for her husband.
She doesn't have eyes for any man.
There may be many attractive men, rich men,
but she has eyes for nobody, even if
her husband is not good looking or not
so smart or not so clever.
She has no eyes for somebody who's cleverer,
smarter, richer.
She only has eyes for her husband.
That's a loyal bride.
And if you have that type of relationship
with Jesus, Lord, money will not attract me.
Never.
My eyes are on you.
Any amount of money is not going to
attract me.
I will not do something if it's going
to make more money.
It's going to take me away from you.
No, my mind will not be on some
other man and that some other man is
money.
It will be on you, Jesus.
It will not be on some dirty movie
or pornography.
No, it will only be on you.
If you are that type of bride, every
single thing that the bridegroom says in the
Song of Solomon is for you.
It's a wonderful relationship to be in.
But if you're a sort of a careless
type of Christian and you say, ah, I'm
living in the Song of Solomon, you live
as you like, you're fooling yourself.
If you think all those things that the
bridegroom says in Song of Solomon is for
you, it's not for you, it's for the
bride.
Who is the harlot?
The harlot is the one who pretends to
love the bridegroom, but has got eyes on
other things.
And so faith is not just believing that
God loved us.
You've got to take the whole of Scripture.
See, for example, the Apostle Paul towards the
end of his life, he said, I want
to know him more.
I told you, knowing God is eternal life.
And Paul, who had known God for 30
years, known the Lord.
Towards the end of his life, he gives
his testimony in Philippians 3.10. I want
to know him more.
Just like he told Timothy, lay hold of
eternal life, get to know the Lord better.
Dear brothers and sisters, is that the passion
of your life?
I want to know Jesus better.
That's the only way to come to rest.
You don't come to rest by reminding yourself
of some promise.
Ah, this verse, that promises rest.
No, it's by knowing the husband.
I mean, for example, you wives, when you're
in some trouble and you need help, and
you don't know whether your husband will help
you, what do you remind yourself?
You say, ah, I remember 30 years ago,
when I got married, he made this promise.
This is the vow he made.
I will forsake all and follow you.
Is that how you find faith in your
husband?
Reminding yourself of some vow that you heard
him say 30 years ago?
That's like trying to remember a verse and
saying, I'm going to put my faith in
that verse.
I put my faith in the vow that
my husband made 30 years ago at our
wedding.
No, it is in the person of your
husband.
You know he's reliable.
You know he will not let you down.
You don't even remember what he said on
your wedding day.
You don't remember the vows, but you know
your husband.
You know, for 1,400 years, people didn't
have a printed Bible.
They couldn't remember verses like we have.
There was no question of having a memory
verse for 1,400 years of Christianity.
Why did God not allow the printing press
to be invented 100 years before Christ, so
that people could know the Bible and have
a printed Bible right from day one on
the day of Pentecost?
No.
God wanted them to depend on the Holy
Spirit.
He wanted them to know him more than
they knew the Bible.
The Bible is only a means by which
you get to know the Lord.
So dear brothers and sisters, please make sure
your knowledge of the Lord is, if you
find yourself moving towards severity, meditate on his
kindness.
If you find yourself taking advantage of his
kindness, remember that he's also strict.
A good father is strict and kind.
I remember when I went back to India
once many years ago after I had grandchildren.
One of them in the church asked me,
Brother Zach, you've been a very strict father
with your children.
What would you do if you see your
little grandson being disciplined by his father?
I said, I'll go for a walk and
come back hopefully when it's all over, because
I don't want to see that.
But when my grandson comes crying to me,
I'll say, listen, that's good for you what
your dad is doing.
I haven't changed my opinion on it, but
I said, I'm a grandfather.
I will never discipline my grandchildren.
And then I said to those brothers, that
is the proof that God is not a
grandfather.
No, he's not a grandfather.
He disciplines his children and he loves them.
So we need to understand that.
Paul said, I want to know him.
And the father is the resurrection.
And he says, I have not yet attained.
I have not yet obtained.
I've not yet got to know God, Philippians
3.12, as I should.
My knowledge of God is not perfect.
So what do I do?
Every day I'm pressing on.
Pressing on to what?
To bring more souls to Christ?
That's what a lot of world talks about.
No, I'll tell you honestly, I'm not trying
to press on to bring more souls to
Christ.
I'm pressing on to know my savior better,
to be more intimate to him.
And the results will flow from that.
I'm not going to do great things for
God.
I've never had that interest.
I say, Lord, I want to have a
relationship with you.
And from that relationship, results will come without
my efforts.
That's how it's been through the years.
And I can see that that is how
it was in Paul's life.
What is God's ultimate goal for you?
And you know, when he created Adam, he
had a plan.
That plan got disturbed by sin.
And so what we see in the old
covenant is God's permissive will.
That is such a thing as God's permissive
will, what he permits.
Not his perfect will.
His perfect will is what we see in
the new covenant.
In the old covenant, what we see is
God's permissive will, what he permitted.
He permitted divorce, for example.
That wasn't his will.
God didn't want a man getting married and
divorce his wife, but he permitted it in
the Old Testament.
He said, just make sure you give a
certificate when you divorce your wife.
Was that God's perfect will?
Not at all.
It was God's permissive will.
And the Ten Commandments, you think that was
God's perfect will?
No.
That was God's permissive will.
When a Christian lives by the Ten Commandments,
he's living under the old covenant.
When you come to the Sermon on the
Mount, you see how Jesus explained that and
explained what God's perfect will was.
Not don't murder, but don't get angry.
Not don't commit adultery, but don't lust after
women.
That's God's perfect will.
Permissive will was, okay, you can lust after
women, but don't commit adultery.
You can get angry, permit it, but don't
murder.
And it's a great danger of even Christians
living by God's permissive will instead of his
perfect will.
If you want to know God's perfect will,
you remember what the Lord told the Pharisees
when they said, why did God permit divorce?
He said, was it like that in the
beginning?
That's what he said in Matthew 19.
Did God make two women for Adam and
say, okay, if you get fed up with
them, choose the other one?
No.
He made one woman.
Divorce was never permitted by God at any
time.
I mean, he permitted it in the Old
Testament, but it was not his perfect will.
What about God's perfect will for us today?
You got to go back to the beginning
like the Lord told the Pharisees.
How was it in the beginning?
How was it in the beginning when God
made Adam?
He said something, which he never said when
he created anything else.
I want you to see that four times,
four times, something is repeated.
Sometimes we don't see the value of something
repeated four times.
Turn with me to Genesis chapter one.
When God made the animals or he made
the trees or the plants, he never said
beforehand, this is what my purpose in making
trees or plants or planets or fish or
animals or anything.
But before he creates man, he says specifically,
this is my purpose.
Have you read that?
Before he made man, he said something that
he never said before he made anything else.
And that's in Genesis 1 26.
Let us make man in our image.
Okay, we got it.
No, the Lord says I've got to repeat
it.
According to our likeness.
Yeah.
That is God's original purpose.
Not that you might bring souls to Christ.
Not that you might attend meetings and sing
songs of praise.
No, that you and I might reflect his
image.
That people who see you, the way you
behave, the way you handle different situations, will
know what Jesus is like, what God is
like.
And then, then it's the event is recorded
in verse 27.
God created man in his own image.
Got it.
No, it has to be repeated.
In the image of God, he created him.
You notice that emphasis four times in verse
26 and 27, not just once, once would
have been enough.
Four times it is repeated in his image,
in his image, in his image.
And in those words, you have God's original
purpose for man.
And if you are not increasing in likeness
to Christ, we are frustrating God's purpose.
No matter how many meetings you attend, no
matter how well you sing, no matter how
much you serve God, no matter how well
you share in the meetings, it's all worthless.
If we are not increasing in the image
of God and the likeness to God in
our personal life, in the way we live
it at home with our wife and husband
and children, and in the way we work
in the office and the way we treat
people whom we meet casually anywhere, the likeness
of God, that is God's passion.
That was his passion when he made man.
The angels didn't have it.
I want to make someone who, when people
look at them, they'll know what I'm like.
And that's what Jesus said was the greatest
thing about him.
He told Philip, if you'll see me, you'll
see the father.
Turn with me to John's gospel.
And we read in John 14 verse
9, he tells father, if you have seen
me, I'm in the father, the father is
in me.
John 14 verse 9 to 11.
Have I been so long time with you?
Not only Philip verse 9, you have seen
me, I've seen the father.
There's no need to see the father if
you've seen me.
And then Jesus said, as the father sent
me, I send you.
He later on said after the resurrection.
Why did the father send him?
So that he could say to people, if
you've seen me, you've seen the father.
Now listen to this.
Put that verse next to what he said
in John 20.
As the father sent me, so I send
you.
My brother, sister, what is your primary calling
as a Christian?
So that you should be able to say,
if you've seen the way I behave, you've
seen a little bit of what the way
Jesus behaves.
If you've seen my attitude to material things,
you've seen a little bit of Jesus attitude
to material things.
If you've seen my attitude to people who
treat me badly, you've seen Jesus attitude.
If you've seen me, you've seen Jesus.
Paul says I'm not perfect, and you have
to say that too.
All of us have to say, we can't
say that fully yet.
My question is, are you pressing on to
God's original purpose?
And I want to explain what that is.
What is God like?
What does it mean, the image of God?
We wanted man to reflect his image.
We immediately think of holiness.
God is holy.
In one John 1, it says God is
light.
In one word, it's described, God is light.
And we would think light refers to holiness.
But no.
In one John 4 and verse 16, it
says God is love.
And so light is love, primarily.
God is love.
God is light.
It means the same thing.
If we walk in the light, as God
is in the light, we have fellowship with
one another.
If you can walk recognizing all the time,
God is perfect love.
And that's why he hates sin.
It's because a mother loves her child so
much perfectly, that she hates any disease in
that child.
She wants to heal that child of sickness,
even a small injury.
The mother wants the child to be healed
because the mother loves the child perfectly.
And that's the way God wants to free
us from anything in us which is sinful.
A sinful attitude to someone.
An unforgiving attitude.
God hates it just like a mother hates
some sickness in his child.
God is light.
God is love.
If we walk in the light, we have
fellowship with one another.
You recognize all the time, God is trying
to perfect me in love.
And that means, first of all, to be
rooted in the fact that God loves me
perfectly.
I've often said when people ask me, what
do you think is the most important verse
in the Bible?
To many Christians, it is John 3.16.
I say I believed John 3.16 for
many years, and I was very insecure.
Very insecure in the 16 years of my
Christian life.
After I was born again, I was insecure.
I believed John 3.16 completely.
But one day, God showed me John 17
.23. To me, that has become the most
important verse in the Bible for me.
To me, it has become the central verse
in the Bible.
The Father loves me as much as, and
exactly as, he loved Jesus Christ.
I got that revelation.
It changed my life 45 years ago.
It's on the basis of that that I
wrote that hymn, what he's done for Jesus,
he will do for you.
As he cared for Jesus, he will care
for you.
As he helped Jesus, he will help you.
It changed my life, and that's how I
wrote that hymn.
John 17.23, that the world may know
the last five adverse, that you sent me
and that you love them as you love
me.
And I say, as I live in the
world, and the world is my meeting with
people like you and meeting with unconverted people,
do they get the feeling that this is
a man whom God loves so intensely?
He's a peculiar man.
He's a peculiar, she's a peculiar woman.
She must be one whom God loves intensely,
not because she's rich, not because she's good
-looking.
No, no, no, no.
But she's so secure and so full of
joy, never murmuring, grumbling about anything, no matter
what trial comes into her life.
Such perfect peace, radiant, radiating in their face.
This must be a man or woman whom
God loves intensely.
That the world may know that you love
them as you love me.
I used to, in the early days when
I understood that, I told it to everybody.
When I read John 17, I discovered that
it's not for everybody.
In fact, in John 17, Jesus said, I'm
not praying for the world, John 17 verse
9, but those whom you have given me,
those who forsook everything to follow me, those
who have chosen me as the bridegroom, it's
for them.
It's not for everybody.
Your husband will tell you things that he'll
never tell any other woman.
There are secrets between a husband and wife
that no other woman will know.
The secret of the Lord, Psalm 25, is
with those who reverence him.
When you have a bridal relationship with Jesus,
he will whisper things into your heart, he'll
never whisper to anybody else.
And one of the things he whispers is,
I love you, and I love Jesus.
Everything I did for him, I'll do for
you.
Everything I did for him, I'll do for
you, if you walk like he did before
me.
Not in perfection, but in faith and simple
trust.
As I cared for him, I'll care for
you.
Nobody could kill Jesus, even though they tried
so many times, until the right time came.
Same for you.
I'll tell you what a tremendous security it
has brought into my life.
I used to be a very discouraged Christian
for years.
It removed discouragement from my life completely.
Not some verse in scripture that I had
to remind myself of.
No, no, no, I don't have to remind
myself of verses.
In fact, sometimes as I get older, I
don't remember verses so well.
I know where they are, but I don't
remember it all well.
But one thing has increased in my life,
that I know my father loves me, just
like he loved Jesus.
Not one bit less, as much as he
loved Jesus.
That's what brought security into my life.
That's why I've never been interested in, since
that time, 45 years ago, as to how
much I earn, or how much there is
in my bank account, much or less, or
if there's a big loss or big gain.
It's all the same to me.
And whether I'm sick or healthy, I know
my father loves me.
That's all.
I don't believe he's a hard task master.
He loves me.
Eternal life is to know God, and to
know Jesus.
And God is love.
And he wants to put that love in
my heart.
You know, I believe another thing the Pentecostal
movement has led people astray is in the
matter of the evidence of being filled with
the Holy Spirit.
They all quote Acts 2-4.
I've spent my life trying to destroy that
teaching.
Acts 2-4 is not the mark of
being filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's history.
And the Acts of the Apostles must never
be taken to get a doctrine, because people
will be selected.
I'll tell you, I would say to a
Pentecostal man, you say that the mark of
being filled with the Holy Spirit is speaking
in tongues.
What about Acts 2-3?
When they were filled with the Spirit, there
were tongues of fire on top of their
heads.
What about that?
What about making that as the mark of
being filled with the Holy Spirit?
That everyone filled with the Spirit will have
a tongue of fire over his head.
Or, what is even more tough, Acts 4,
it says, all of them, all of them
sold their property and gave it to the
poor.
All of them spoke in tongues.
All of them sold their property and gave
it to the poor.
Why do you take only one verse and
not the other?
Why don't you say the mark of being
filled with the Spirit is you sell all
your property and give it to the poor?
Because the Acts of the Apostles is not
a book of doctrine.
It's all these people who were never called
to be teachers and begin to teach God's
Word to lead people astray.
If you've got a medical problem, you don't
go to a car mechanic.
If you want to understand the Word, you
don't go to an evangelist, you go to
a teacher.
It's the same thing.
So much, what is the mark then of
being filled with the Holy Spirit?
Don't go to the Acts of the Apostles.
Go to the Epistles and read in Romans
5, verse 5.
The Holy Spirit floods our hearts with the
love of God.
The mark of a man filled with the
Holy Spirit is he's secure in the love
of God.
I'm loved by my Father, just like He
loved Jesus, He loves me.
There's no greater security you can have than
that.
And in response to that, I love Jesus
with all my heart, like a bride who's
got eyes for no one else, but only
for her bridegroom.
I respond like that.
Lord, that's the Holy Spirit does it in
me.
First of all, He floods my heart with
the assurance that my Father loves me like
He loved Jesus.
And then He does another work to make
me respond to that love with a fervent
love for Christ, where that destroys every other
love in my heart.
I won't even love people like I love
Jesus.
I believe you'll be able to love your
wife a million times better if you love
Jesus more than you love your wife.
All the people who love their wives more
than they love Christ, one day they'll fight
and quarrel.
But if you love Christ more than you
love your wife, you will never ever fight
with your wife or quarrel or get angry
or upset.
To love Jesus with all our heart is
the main thing.
And from there flows everything.
That is God's purpose.
He made man in His image to be
a demonstration of love, of sacrifice.
And one of the important things, one of
the important aspects of that love, as I
often said, and which I would like to
repeat, is patience with others.
Love is patience.
Never upset and irritated.
But to begin with, forgives others.
More and more in the last year or
so, God's been emphasizing this to me.
Tell people to forgive everyone.
Tell my people to forgive everyone.
Examine their life to see whether there's one
person whom they've not forgiven.
And it's an act of the will.
You'll remember, I remember things that people have
done to me for years, evil things.
But I can say before God I've forgiven
them.
Because forgiveness is not a matter of memory,
it's a matter of your will.
I choose to forgive that person completely.
And to confirm that to myself, I say,
Lord, I wish the best for him.
I pray it'll go well with him.
I pray it'll go well with his family.
I pray that he'll be free from sickness
and harm and everything.
For my enemy, to pray for those who
despitefully use you.
Then you know you really love them.
But it's very, and that you're forgiving them,
is very, very important.
The mark of Jesus' love on the cross,
the clearest mark of it, was that those
people who killed him, he said, Father, forgive
them.
They don't know what they're doing.
It's very, very important, brother.
How often should we do it?
You know, that which is known as the
Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven,
is actually the disciple's prayer.
The Lord's Prayer is what I read in
John 17.
The disciple's prayer is, our Father who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
And even though we don't have to repeat
it every day, Jesus said, pray like this.
That's what he said in Matthew 6 and
9, not repeated.
But this should be the pattern of our
prayer.
Pray then in this way.
All our prayers should be primarily focused on,
hallowed be thy name.
In the name of Jesus, we glorify that
this kingdom come.
And then I should have this attitude every
single day in my prayer.
Give us this day our daily bread.
So it's a daily thing.
That's the one word in that prayer which
teaches us that this should be the attitude
of our prayer every single day.
Not give us this week our bread.
It's not something you pray on Sunday and
pray for the whole week.
No.
This day, our daily bread.
And this day, verse 12, next verse, Matthew
6, 12, help me to forgive others.
This day.
That's also daily, as you have forgiven me.
There's unconscious sin in our life every single
day.
We can be free from conscious sin and
live many days like that, but unconscious sin
is there every single day until we become
like Christ.
And I need to ask the Lord to
forgive me.
How shall you forgive me?
The areas of my life that are un
-Christlike until I get light on it.
The way I forgive others every single day.
That's not me anyway.
But my attitude of forgiveness is something I
need to have every single day.
And it's very interesting that out of all
the six requests in that prayer, it's only
one request that Jesus emphasized at the end
of it.
Out of all those six requests, he didn't
say, remember to pray for God's name to
be hallowed.
No.
Out of all those six requests, the one
thing he emphasized was forgive others.
And if you don't forgive, you will not
be forgiven.
I believe there are many, many Christians who
ask God to forgive them.
If we confess our sins, he's faithful and
just to forgive us, who are not forgiven
because there's somebody they are not forgiven.
Dear brothers and sisters, eternal life is to
know God.
And God is a God who forgives others.
I've heard of some super spiritual believers who
say, I'll be like God and I will
forgive them when they repent.
You have no right to say that.
We are not God.
We have to forgive people whether they repent
or not.
Our example is Jesus as a human being
on the cross.
Those people had not repented who killed him,
but he said, forgive them.
God Almighty, when he judges people, he's got
the right to say, I don't forgive you
because you don't repent.
But we have no right to say that.
If a man sins against you and he's
not repented and he's going to do it
again, forgive him.
If he sins against you 70 times, seven
in a day, forgive him.
Why?
Because we ourselves have been forgiven so much.
I believe one of the things that happens
when we come to know God is we
realize how much we've been forgiven.
And I tell you, that is the thing
that's made it very, very easy for me
to forgive others.
We don't have to commit a million sins
to know that you've been forgiven much.
You've got to see the gravity of the
sins to know that you've been forgiven much.
I often say one sin committed as an
unbeliever is equal to, sorry, one sin committed
as a believer is equal to one million
sins committed as an unbeliever.
In other words, if you tell a lie
today, that is like an unbeliever telling a
million lies because you're a believer.
If you hate one person today, it's like
an unbeliever hating one million people.
And then you realize how much God has
forgiven you.
When you multiply every sin by a million,
you didn't do that only once, brother, sister,
you did it a million times.
Then you see the gravity of sin.
Then you realize how much God has forgiven
you.
It becomes very, very easy to forgive others.
Eternal life is to know God and to
love.
It determines, I will say this in closing.
On earth, people are valued by their wealth,
which is in terms of dollars here in
the U.S. The number of dollars you
have in your bank account determines your wealth.
The currency of heaven is love.
Remember this all your life.
The currency of heaven is love.
The more love you have for Jesus, the
more love you have for others, you're wealthy.
The less love you have for the Lord,
the less love you have for others, you're
a poor person.
Your bank account is absolutely unimportant.
May God help us.