God's desire is to bring us to the
place where rivers of living water flow out
from us, every single one.
Let's turn to that verse in John chapter
7.
So one time in the Bible where we
read that Jesus shouted, most of the time
Jesus spoke very softly, gently.
I think the whole Sermon on the Mount
was like that.
But here it says in John 7 37,
he stood.
Most of the time Jesus sat and preached.
If you look through the Gospels, almost every
time Jesus preached he was sitting down.
Even when he was in a boat or
in the mountainside, he sat down.
In the temple he sat.
But here he stood.
One of those rare occasions where Jesus stood
and preached.
And he cried out saying, if anyone is
thirsty let him come to me and drink.
And that is the type of thirst which
is not like, oh well I'd like a
glass of water right now.
It's not that.
But I'm willing to pay any price for
water.
You know like a man who's wandered in
the desert for many days and is dying
of thirst.
He'd be willing to give his whole fortune
for water.
See many people don't seek for the power
of the Holy Spirit like that.
They seek for the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Yeah I wouldn't mind a glass of water
right now.
You're not going to get it.
But if you thirst like this way, you're
willing to pay any price.
Then you can come to him and drink.
And he who believes, and if you can
believe in him, if you trust him, that
he keeps his word.
As the scripture has said, from his innermost
being will flow rivers of living water.
And this he spoke of the Holy Spirit,
which those who believed in him were to
receive.
For the Spirit was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified.
And yet the Spirit was upon Moses, David,
all the Old Testament prophets.
But here it says he was not given
in this way.
In which way?
Where he would work, verse 38, from the
innermost being.
That's the difference in the New Covenant.
In the Old Covenant it was like this.
There was a lid on top of man's
heart.
The Spirit could not come inside.
So when the Spirit was poured out upon
all these Old Testament prophets, the rivers of
living water came from over.
It never went inside.
It came upon them and flowed and blessed
millions.
Imagine two million people got water through Moses,
smiting the rock.
But Moses' heart was not changed.
He sinned by disobeying God.
When God told him to speak to the
rock, he hit the rock.
But the water still flowed, because it flowed
from over him.
God could use Samson as a mighty judge,
but inside, inside, the Spirit could not go
to clean him up, the adultery inside his
heart.
But in the New Covenant, the veil was
rent and the way into the most holy
place was open.
And God, the Holy Spirit could now come
to the innermost being and then overflow from
the heart to bless millions.
That's God's willful.
How many people?
Verse 38, He who believes in me.
If you really believe and lean upon the
Lord and say, Lord I want this life,
it can happen for you.
But it has to begin from within.
It's not an external thing.
There are a lot of people seeking for
a ministry.
Lord give me ability to preach, give me
ability to heal.
You can be like Samson, full of adultery,
even if God gives you a gift.
There will be people like that.
The Bible says in the last days, many
will come in the last day.
Many will come before the Lord and say,
Lord, Lord, we did miracles in your name.
We healed the sick.
And Jesus said, right, but get away from
me.
I don't know you.
Go to hell.
Imagine people who heal the sick in Jesus'
name being sent to hell by the Lord.
You read that in Matthew 7, verse 22,
23.
So I'm not so keen on healing the
sick.
I mean, I have compassion for the sick
and I'd be praying for any sick person.
But that's not my goal in life.
My goal in life is to fulfill the
ministry God planned for me.
If it includes raising the dead, I'll raise
the dead.
But if it includes no miracles like John
the Baptist, who never did a single miracle
in his whole life, so be it.
I want to fulfill God's plan for my
life, not those spectacular things which I would
like to do.
Don't seek God for spectacular things.
Don't seek God for a spectacular ministry.
The greatest thing you can do on earth
is to do the will of God.
And if the will of God is to
be hidden away somewhere, unknown and unheard of
by men all your life, because you've got
a quiet, hidden ministry in the body of
Christ, something like the kidneys in our body.
You know, the kidneys are very essential.
But who sees them?
But the day your kidneys pack up, you
pack up too.
And there are many gifts like that in
the body of Christ which are hidden.
We don't value them so much.
One day we'll discover when Christ comes again
how important they were.
Are you satisfied with the ministry that God
wants you to have?
Or do you want a public ministry that's
spectacular and people will talk about, appreciate you,
particularly when you hear a very gifted preacher
and you say, wow, I wish I could
speak like that.
Don't ever wish that.
Never, never, never.
In my young foolish days, I wished like
that till God opened my eyes and said,
no.
If you want to follow somebody, follow a
godly man and say, I wish I could
live like him.
That's okay.
Not I wish I could have his ministry.
That is honor-seeking.
That is pride.
It'll destroy you.
Never, never seek to have a ministry like
somebody else.
Seek to live like somebody else.
The Apostle Paul said, follow me as I
follow Christ.
Jesus said, follow me.
Where do we have to follow him?
On walking on the water?
Turning water into wine?
Raising the dead?
Who can do that?
How many people have you met in your
life who have done any of these things?
There's never a man in the history of
Christianity who walked on the water or who
turned water into wine.
But he said anyone can follow him.
So what did he mean?
Follow him in his life.
That's not so spectacular, isn't it?
To serve the poor, to care for the
needy, to do a hidden ministry that nobody
knows.
Think of all the wonderful things Jesus did
in 30 years in Nazareth.
It's not even written down.
You know what all he did in the
30 years in Nazareth?
It says that in one little sentence in
John chapter 21, verse 25.
There were many other things that Jesus did,
which if they were written in detail, the
whole world, I suppose, would not be able
to contain the books that are written.
You want to know what all he did
in those 30 years?
What's written in the Gospels is only the
three-and-a-half years.
The way he served people, blessed people without
supernatural gifts.
He didn't have any supernatural gifts for 30
years.
He never cast out a demon or healed
a sick or preached powerful sermons in those
30 years.
But I'm sure he comforted many widows and
picked up little children and encouraged them and
occasionally made some furniture for some poor person
and gave it as a gift and so
many little little things that if he saw
somebody discouraged, he'd go up and cheer him
up.
You want to follow him in that ministry?
Or do you only want the spectacular things?
That's why you get nothing.
Say Lord I want to follow you in
your life.
When Paul said follow me, he wasn't asking
you to be apostles.
He's asking you to live as he lived.
Then rivers of living water will flow from
our innermost being.
You know there's a verse in the Old
Testament in Psalm 23.
It says when the Lord is our shepherd,
when we allow him to lead us as
our shepherd, he leads us to green pastures,
that is into the Word of God.
He brings quietness in our heart and restores
my corrupt soul back into the likeness of
God.
Psalm 23.
I'm reading it in the New Covenant version
of it.
I shall lack nothing because the Lord is
the one who leads me.
I only want to follow him like a
sheep who does not know the way.
He leads me and I seek his guidance.
I don't wander off on my own.
I'm a sheep.
The Lord is my shepherd and every day
I follow the shepherd, go where he wants
to lead me and he leads me beside
the pastures of his Word that he speaks
to me through the scriptures.
He leads me beside quiet waters of peacefulness
and he restores my soul which is that
soul that was spoilt ever since Adam disobeyed
God and guides me always in the paths
of righteousness.
He never allows me to go outside that
straight and narrow path of righteousness in every
area and he does that all not for
my glory.
He does it for his namesake and so
even if I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, it could be spiritual
death, physical death, any type of thing, attacks
of Satan, I will fear no evil because
I've got somebody with me.
Not somebody with me alone but in me
and your rod and your staff, they comfort
me.
That is to protect you know the sheep
from wild animals.
God protects us.
Also he uses his rod to discipline us.
So to protect us and discipline us.
Are you willing for that?
Then even if your enemies are there, you
won't have to worry about them.
You don't have to go fight for them.
You can sit and have breakfast while the
enemies are there.
They can't touch you.
You eat with the Lord at his table
and then he anoints my head with oil.
His own new covenant.
My cup overflows rivers of living water.
There it is in the Old Testament and
it'll overflow in goodness and loving kindness in
front of me and behind me all of
the days of my life.
When it says goodness and loving kindness will
follow me all the days of my life,
what it means is if I go into
a home, when I've left that home, I've
left some of God's goodness and loving kindness
there behind me.
I speak to a brother or a sister
or a family and when I leave, I've
left the fragrance of God's goodness and loving
kindness behind me.
What a way to live.
And I will dwell in the house of
the Lord.
To me that is the church.
I will all my life be a part
of the church forever, now and for all
eternity.
It's not talking about heaven.
Heaven is not my home.
Church is my home and I will dwell
in the church forever.
I will never be an individualistic Christian living
by myself.
With all the blessings of the Lord, I
find my home in the house of the
Lord forever.
It's the only place I want to be.
I don't want to be in a church
where I'm just someone warming the seats, sitting
there every Sunday and going away.
I want to be an integral part.
I am part of that house.
David could really say, I'll be in the
house of the Lord today.
I say, I'm part of that house of
the Lord forever.
But the way he leads us to this
place of overflowing, you know, I was studying
the Bible with a concordance once.
I discovered that the word, my cup overflows,
is a Hebrew word called Reviah which is
used only in one other place.
I don't know Hebrew.
I found it in the concordance.
It's used only in one other place in
the entire Old Testament.
That word overflows and that is in Psalm
66.
And there in Psalm 66, it is not
translated as cup of flowing.
It's translated with a slightly different word.
In Psalm 66 verse 12, the last part,
you brought us into a place of abundance.
Same word.
You brought me to the place where my
cup overflows.
So when I took that translation from Psalm
23 and put it here into Psalm 66
12, you brought me to the place where
my cup overflows.
And how did you bring me there?
Begins in verse 10.
First of all, verse 9, you don't allow
my feet to slip.
Thank God.
But you have tried me, tested me.
We are going to the place where our
rivers of water are going to flow out
from us, right?
And how does he do it?
By testing us, refining us like silver is
refined.
You know silver is refined by being put
in the fire.
There's no other way to refine silver.
Soap and water won't do it.
He puts us in the fire.
What's his ultimate goal?
That rivers of living water may flow out
from us, that our cups will overflow.
And then he brings us into the net.
That speaks of restrictive circumstances where I can't
move.
I'm in a net.
The Lord brings me into some circumstances where
I'm tied down.
Maybe I'm sick and I can't get up
and go or the circumstances of my life
are such.
Some sister tied down with the number of
children at home.
Her freedom is restricted.
You think that she's wasting her life.
She's not.
God's preparing her for living waters to flow
out from us.
Brought into a net or the circumstances of
my life, a very busy life, perhaps I
don't have much freedom.
And then finally you laid an oppressive burden
upon our loins.
Burdens which we come to us which we
feel it too much for me to bear.
And yet he'll give us grace because he'll
never allow us to be tested beyond our
ability.
And on top of that he allowed men
to ride over our heads which means accuse
us falsely, suppress us, push us down, kick
us out, lose our job, all types of
things.
He allows men to ride over our heads
in so many ways.
And then he puts us into the fire
as if all that you've gone through is
not enough.
Remember he's got a goal.
He's making a man of God.
He's making a woman of God.
He has to be put into the fire.
When they test aluminum for airplanes, they put
it into the fire and then immediately after
that it says he put me into water.
He puts me from the fire into icy
cold water, then into the fire again into
the icy cold water.
And if the aluminum crack, cracks, so you
can't use it for an airplane, you can
use it for children's toys.
What do you want to be used for?
If you crack when you're put into the
fire and then into the icy cold water
and back into the fire into the icy
cold water.
Have you had any experiences like that?
He's preparing you for to bring you to
the place of abundance where the cup overflows.
That's God's will and God uses all this.
Why does he use all this?
He doesn't have any delight in it.
But that's the only way he can break
down the pride there is that we've all
received from Adam and which he got from
the fallen angel.
The head of the angels in the King
James Version is called Lucifer.
That's not his name.
We don't know his name.
His name is never mentioned anywhere in the
Bible.
Lucifer is just a Latin word which has
got something to do with Morning Star or
but let's call him Lucifer since that's the
word used and many refer it to the
one who became Satan.
How did he become Satan?
The first sin in this universe, in a
perfect universe, was not some of the horrible
sins we think of, adultery, murder.
You know we'd be horrified if you heard
that some brother committed a murder and came
and sat in the church.
Or a brother was regularly committing adultery and
coming and sitting in the church.
But the first sin committed in the universe
was pride.
Would you be horrified if a brother was
proud and sat in the church?
Proud of some accomplishment of his or proud
of his wealth or proud of his good
looks perhaps?
Looks into the mirror and says, I thank
God I'm not like other men.
Would you be horrified if such a man
sat in the church?
No.
And yet that was the origin of all
sin.
Never forget it.
See Ezekiel in chapter 28.
Very important to understand.
Where the Lord speaks to, verse 12, to
the king of Tyre.
The king of Tyre was Satan.
He lived inside, verse 2, the leader of
Tyre.
And he tells this Satan, you had the
seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect
in beauty.
That was not a human being.
You were in Eden, the garden of God.
Do you know there was an Eden before
Adam was there?
In the original earth that was created in
Genesis 1, verse 1.
There was an Eden that was destroyed and
became corrupt.
Genesis 1, verse 2.
But God remade it and the Eden was
there again.
And when Adam came to Eden, Lucifer was
jealous.
This guy has come to replace me in
this garden.
I'm determined to get him out and he
succeeded.
He was in Eden, the garden of God,
the head of the angels.
He was full of wisdom.
Who gave it to him?
God gave him that cleverness, that brilliance and
he was beautiful, perfect in beauty.
And it says here in verse 13, the
last part, about in the margin of my
Bible, says your tambourines and flutes, the workmanship
of your tambourines and flutes.
He was a musical person.
Music was there.
That's how even today the devil controls a
lot of the music in the world.
It was there in the beginning.
People are proud of their wisdom, verse 12.
Proud of their beauty, proud of their position,
the head of the angels in the garden
of God and proud of their musical ability.
All types of things people are proud of.
It all began there.
You are the anointed.
You're proud of the anointing.
He was anointed by God and God placed
him there and he was blameless, verse 15,
until unrighteousness was found in you, verse 17,
your heart was lifted up.
Pride began in the heart.
Pride is not an external thing.
There are people who act proud externally.
That's a different thing.
That's what comes out, what is inside, but
it begins in the heart.
Your heart was lifted up.
What was he proud of?
His beauty, his good looks.
You can be proud of your good looks.
God created every human being and some people
have good features, people say, and some people's
features are not so good in human eyes.
I think God created them.
God created people of different shades of color
in their skin.
You can be proud of the color of
your skin.
You're pretty close to Lucifer.
You can be proud of your good looks
when you look into the mirror.
You can be, you don't realize Lucifer was
the first one who did that.
Be careful.
You can be proud of your wisdom, your
knowledge, your intelligence.
Lucifer was the one who was first proud
of his intelligence.
It's not wrong to be beautiful.
It's not wrong to be handsome or good
-looking or intelligent or anything.
It's wrong to be proud of it.
It's not wrong to be wealthy.
It's wrong to be proud of it.
When Jesus said how difficult it is for
rich people to enter the kingdom of God,
you mean all the poor people will enter
and we've got millions of beggars in India.
They don't go into the kingdom of God.
It's not poverty that takes a person into
God's kingdom.
What is it in wealth that hinders them
from going through that narrow eye of a
needle that Jesus spoke about?
It's pride.
That's all.
There are people who have a lot more
money than you have who are humble, but
you can get a little bit and be
proud of it.
Then you don't fit through the eye of
the needle.
The eye of the needle is so small.
You've got to be small to go through
it and that's humility.
What is it that prevents a lot of
good-looking actors and actresses from getting God's
kingdom?
They're proud of their looks.
They're making money through their looks.
It's pride.
It's not the good looks.
It's not intelligence.
Why did Jesus say in Matthew 11 25,
I thank you Father you have hidden these
things from the clever and the intelligent and
revealed them to babes.
What can we do if we are clever
and intelligent?
Do we have to act dumb in order
to understand scripture?
No, that would be hypocrisy.
We are not supposed to act.
If I am clever and intelligent, I can't
do anything about it.
I was born with it.
It's the color of my skin.
I can't do anything about it.
I was born with it.
Intelligence and cleverness is something we are born
with.
You can't be proud of it.
But people are proud of it and then
God hides his truth from them.
I've seen some brilliant clever born-again believers.
They don't have revelation on God's ways.
Not because they're clever or intelligent.
Because they are proud of their cleverness.
They're proud of their intelligence.
They're proud of the college from which they
graduated.
Not some cheap ordinary college.
You know where I graduated from.
That's their attitude.
Okay.
Zero revelation in such a man.
Zero.
When I say zero, I mean zero.
Because they are proud of the wrong things.
Proud of things which God gave them.
But it's revealed to babes, Jesus said in
Matthew 11 25.
It's a great verse.
If you don't know it, look at it.
Matthew 11 25.
Very important verse for us to remember.
When we seek to be men after God's
own heart, this is a very important thing.
It's not enough to study the scriptures.
We need revelation on the scriptures.
In the Old Testament they studied and studied
and studied and God called them scribes.
In the New Testament we get revelation and
the scribe becomes a disciple.
So here he says you have hidden these
things from the wise and intelligent and not
taught them.
Teaching is an Old Testament word.
Revealed them.
That's a New Testament word.
Revelation.
Revelation is not, does not come through intelligence.
It comes through humility.
Because it says it's revealed to infants.
What is it that infants have?
Think of it.
What is it that infants have that clever
intelligent people do not have?
Or let's say most clever intelligent people don't
have?
Humility.
Humility is inward.
It's in the thoughts.
If you could look inside the thoughts of
some very clever intelligent people, you'd see a
lot of pride there.
I mean they act humble because it's disgraceful
to act proud.
So they act humble and do all the
external things.
But any person with discernment can see that's
just an act.
The guy's not really humble.
Because humility is something that comes forth from
within.
It's like body odor.
Pride is like that.
You know you can stink and yet you
yourself may not smell it.
We don't realize what comes forth from us.
For example when you get old, you don't
have much control over your mouth and the
odors that come out of your mouth.
You lose control of it and you're a
bad odor that you can't control.
But you don't know it yourself.
But other people smell it.
Pride is like that.
Very often we don't smell it.
We think we're quite humble but other people
with discernment can smell anything.
People with a sensitive nose can pick up
smell a long distance away.
But you look into the mind of a
baby lying in a cradle.
A one-month-old baby lying in a
cradle.
Think what was that baby thinking of?
Or a three-month-old baby lying in
a cradle.
People go there and admire and say what
a beautiful child.
It doesn't disturb that child one bit.
It doesn't get puffed up for one second.
It doesn't say look at the number of
people admiring me.
Humility.
That's the one thing.
Jesus picked up a child and said if
you're humble like this you'll enter God's kingdom.
We need to meditate on that.
We need to meditate since we can't physically
see Jesus.
We know that Jesus is the humblest person
who walked on the earth but he also
said children are humble so we can learn
from children because we can see children.
How does a child react to somebody who
hurts it?
I naughty way and hurt it.
It cries because it really pains it.
Tomorrow you go and see him.
He'll smile at you.
He doesn't even remember that you're the guy
who pinched him and hurt him yesterday.
Imagine that's humility.
It's humility that can make you look at
someone who hurt you so badly yesterday and
you don't even realize it.
You say well it's okay.
You see how difficult it is to be
humble.
You can't manufacture it.
You can try and act like that but
in your thoughts you say ah this is
the guy who hurt me.
I'll never forget it.
But the child doesn't think like that.
Humility is a deep-rooted thing.
You cannot produce it by acting.
I've seen a lot of acting of humility.
I can see through it now.
See I've been a Christian 60 years.
I've dealt with people of all types in
all types of countries and it's pretty easy
to now to discern pride when the person
doesn't see it at all in him.
I'll tell you this.
You will not get revelation on God's ways
if you're not humble.
You can understand a lot.
You can become a Bible scholar, get a
PhD from some Bible seminary but you won't
have a clue about God's ways.
God's ways and his thoughts are revealed to
those who are humble.
See most of us are clever and intelligent
but we can still be humble if we
meditate on how Jesus was and how a
child was.
Then we will get revelation and not only
revelation.
The Bible says twice in James 4 and
1 Peter 5 that God gives his grace
to the humble.
It's written twice.
James chapter 4 verse 7 it says he
gives more grace.
He gives greater grace verse 6 but to
whom?
He gives it to the humble.
James 4 6.
You know why many people resist the devil's
attacks in their life and the devil does
not leave them?
The answer is here.
James 4 6 says God gives grace to
the humble so submit to God.
Then resist the devil and the devil will
be scared of you.
You know the devil is scared only of
humble people.
He's not scared of people who wave the
Bible at him or who preach well.
He's not scared of all these people who
know the Bible well and quote verses and
all that and who say in Jesus name
I resist you.
No.
There's one thing Satan is scared of and
it's the people who have a quality that
he doesn't have at all.
Humility.
It is pride that made him the devil
and it's pride that sent him to hell
and pride will send people to hell even
today.
The big gulf between heaven and hell is
pride.
That's what sends people there.
You know the devil wants to harm every
Christian.
He wants to harm us, hinder us from
God's purposes, mess up our life, mess up
our married life but he knows he cannot
attack you because he's a defeated person.
He can tempt you externally but he can't
really harm you.
So he says, he's clever, he says if
I can't push him down let me make
God push him down and for that all
I have to do is puff him up
a little bit because it says here God
resists the proud.
He's opposed to the proud.
James 4.6. God is against proud people.
He's opposed to them but he gives grace
to the humble.
The way I pictured it is if I'm
really humble, if I've learned from a little
child to be humble, God will get behind
me and push me forward continuously but the
moment I become proud of anything, intellectual, physical
good looks, spiritual development, what I've done for
the Lord, ministry, whatever it is, God comes
in front of me and pushes me back.
He opposes me.
I've got the devil opposing me, I've got
the world opposing me, I've got some hypocritical
Christians opposing me, I've got my flesh opposing
me, on top of all that if God
also opposes me I'm finished.
And if you don't know it, the devil
knows it.
So all he's got to do is make
a Christian proud of something.
Proud of his good looks or proud of
his intelligence or proud of his achievements or
proud of how smart he is or proud
of his Bible knowledge perhaps or proud of
his preaching or proud of how he led
somebody to Christ or proud of perhaps he
prayed for someone and chap accidentally got healed.
You can be proud of a thing like
that.
I mean he was recovering in any case
but you thought it was you.
You thought it was you.
It was just natural healing that was taking
place.
That's enough.
That's enough to make God push you back.
Have you seen it brothers?
Act like men.
You can't be the man of God God
wants you to be if you haven't understood
this fundamental truth.
And I've seen in the 60 years I've
been a Christian the number of proud preachers
God has allowed them to fall into adultery
because of pride.
God opposed them.
You think you can keep yourself from adultery?
Maybe you can.
But if God opposes you there's not much
hope.
If you don't fall into adultery it may
be in some other way.
And the devil knows that.
God will oppose anyone who's proud.
It's like a law of gravity.
It's a law.
It's a spiritual law.
God opposes the proud.
The law of gravity pulls everything down.
There's a power from the center of the
earth pulling things down at 32 feet per
seconds per second.
And if you jump off the roof the
law of gravity is not going to check
up whether you're a Christian or whether you're
a wholehearted.
No, it just takes over.
It doesn't matter.
You can be the worst criminal or the
most wholehearted Christian.
The law of gravity will take over.
This law is like that.
You become proud.
It doesn't matter whether you're a criminal or
whether you're a wholehearted Christian.
The law takes over.
God resists the proud.
It's exactly like the law of gravity.
It will push you back because God cannot
go against His nature.
And there is zero pride in God.
Do you remember when Jesus, by the way,
the other verse you know is it's repeated
in James.
It's repeated also in case you didn't know.
In 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 5.
God is opposed to the proud but gives
grace to the humble.
Repeated twice.
James 4, 7 and 1 Peter 5.
Why is it repeated?
Just in case you skipped, missed it the
first time.
God says I want to remind you.
It's there two pages later.
So God is opposed to the proud and
gives grace to the humble.
And that's why Satan was pushed down from
heaven because God's opposed to the proud.
And he was the perfect angel, sinless.
The moment he became proud, he was pushed
down.
Never, never forget that.
God wants to support us.
He wants to use us to build his
church.
But the moment we get puffed up, God
has to, you know, it's like sin.
God can't look at sin.
It doesn't matter who it is in.
If it is in his favorite child, if
sin is there, he will turn his face
away.
And the clearest proof of it is Jesus
hanging on the cross.
There was no sin in him.
Yet when our sin was placed on him,
the Father forsook him.
That is the greatest proof that there are
no favorites with God.
If God had a favorite, it must be
his son.
But when sin, not his, our sin is
on him, God turned his face away.
You know, it says in 2nd Corinthians 5,
verse 21, that God made him to be
sin on our behalf.
You know what happened on the cross?
He who knew no sin was made sin.
It's a very strong word.
To be made sin.
I don't know what it means.
All the sin of the entire human race
of 6,000 years, all the billions of
people concentrated and put on him, God turned
his face away.
God's nature never changes.
He hates sin.
If he hated it when it was put
on Christ, he will definitely hate it when
it is found in you.
If he resists the proud, it doesn't matter
who it is, you can be like the
perfect angel and can imagine what a favorite
that angel was of God that God put
him in that position.
And as soon as pride came, he was
rejected immediately.
It's very important for us to understand that.
Let's turn to Philippians 2, verse 3.
Do nothing from selfishness.
How many things am I supposed to do
with selfishness?
Nothing.
Do you know that you can live with
that word and work on it for the
rest of your life?
Because we are so saturated in selfishness.
And I have to work towards the goal
of doing nothing with selfishness.
Or empty conceit.
Do nothing from pride.
Don't ever say a word which comes out
of pride.
But with humility of mind, teaching us that
humility is in the mind.
It's not in the way you act, the
way you put your head down or the
type of clothes you wear or any of
that rubbish.
It's in the mind.
Humility is in the mind.
If you don't have it there, you don't
have it.
It's the way you think.
It's the way you think about yourself in
your spare moments when you've got nothing else
to think about and you sit down and
think of your accomplishments.
Humility is in the mind.
With humility of mind, regard one another, not
as more spiritual than yourself, that's impossible, as
more important than yourself.
I am supposed to regard every human being
as more important than myself.
I mean within the limits of my humanity,
which means I must never be too proud
to talk to anyone.
Have you seen pastors who feel it's beneath
their dignity to talk to some ordinary person
in their congregation, but if some big wealthy
man came along, he'd have time for him?
Such people are hypocrites, agents of Satan, not
servants of God.
Regard everyone as more important than yourself.
Very important.
Some people say you must assume he's more
spiritual.
No, you can't do that.
That would be a lie.
Paul told the Corinthians, you're carnal, I'm spiritual.
You don't have to pretend that your heart
is black when it is white.
No, there's no humility there.
But important than yourself, the perfect example is
Jesus.
Have the same attitude in you, verse 5,
which was in Jesus Christ.
What is the attitude he had towards other
people?
You see in John chapter 13, it's a
wonderful introduction.
The introduction to Jesus washing the feet.
See how the Holy Spirit puts it.
He's going to write that Jesus washed everybody's
feet, but see the introduction to it.
Verse 13, Jesus knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands, that he
had come forth from God and he was
going back to God.
What's he going to do now?
Get up and give a sermon?
No.
He guarded himself and took a towel, poured
water into a basin and began to wash
the disciples' feet, including Judas Iscariot's.
And he came and told the people after
that, verse 12, do you know what I've
done to you?
You call me teacher and Lord?
You're right, I am your teacher and Lord.
He didn't pretend that he was not their
teacher and Lord.
We don't have to pretend that we have
no gift or we have no ministry or
I'm not an elder.
No, we don't have to pretend.
There's no pretense in a true Christian.
You call me teacher and Lord?
You're right, and so I am.
But if I, the Lord and teacher, washed
your feet, you ought to wash one another's
feet because I give you an example that
you should do as I've done to you.
And then, the slave is not greater than
his master, nor is one who sent greater
than the one who sent him.
Jesus took the position of a slave.
You know, in the Jewish culture, it was
the slaves who washed the feet of the
guests who came in.
And here was the guest room where Jesus
said, I don't want anybody.
But like in Jewish custom, the bucket of
water was there to wash people's feet because
people came with sandals on dusty roads and
every rich home, they'd have a slave to
wash the feet.
And so here was this bucket of water
and a towel and nobody to wash the
feet.
Peter wouldn't do it.
He says, I'm the chief of the disciples.
I don't do such things.
Matthew is the chartered accountant.
He doesn't do wash people's feet.
And everybody's got something or the other.
Judas Iscariot is the postgraduate.
He's not going to wash people's feet.
So Jesus says, I seem to be the
only one around here who's a slave.
So he picks up the bucket.
Is that how you think when you sit
with other believers?
There was such abundant grace on Jesus as
a man because God saw his heart.
He really had low thoughts about himself.
And then he goes on to say in
Matthew, I'm sorry, John 14, when Philip said,
verse 8, Lord, show us the father.
And that's enough for us.
Just let me see what the father's like.
And Jesus said in verse 9, Have I
been so long with you?
Have you not known me?
Listen to this sentence.
If you have seen me, you saw me
washing the feet right now, right?
You've seen what the father is like.
That's what the father does.
One day when we get to see God
the father, I look forward to that day
like we sang in that song.
Father of Jesus loves reward.
What rapture will it be?
I sing that often, often.
And I imagine myself prostrate before thy throne
to lie and just gaze and gaze on
thee for all eternity.
Won't be boring.
And I'll see when I see him face
to face, I'll discover that he's the type
of person who wants to wash my feet.
That's the God I worship.
And if you worship this God, you will
be like that.
You look for the lowly jobs.
Today we don't need to physically wash feet.
We're all wearing socks and shoes.
But the meaning of that is, I say
in our church in Bangalore, I say, Are
you one of those who will silently, when
nobody's watching, go and clean the restrooms and
you come away before anybody discovers it?
Making life easier for your fellow believers.
That's washing people's feet.
And not letting anybody know about it.
Doing quiet jobs for cleaning out the dirt.
The dirt could be in the restroom.
Maybe some child used it, never pulled the
flush.
And so you go and clean it up.
And other things like that.
Especially if it's something which you can do
without people seeing it.
Sometimes we serve when people see it, we
can't do anything about it.
We still serve.
But we have no longing to be seen.
That's how God is.
Isaiah 45, we read, Isaiah 45 and
verse 15.
Isaiah 45, 15.
Oh God, truly you're a God who hides
himself.
It's a characteristic of God.
He hides himself.
That's why there are so many atheists around.
Imagine if every morning with the sunrise, God
would say, Hey, I'm here.
I created this universe.
I'm the father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There wouldn't be a single atheist in this
universe.
But God has hidden himself so well.
And the clearest proof is there are so
many atheists.
And atheists is to me the proof that
God has hidden himself in this universe so
well that people actually think he doesn't exist.
Imagine.
What a clever way he's hidden himself that
people think he doesn't even exist.
I say, Lord, let me learn from that
to hide myself, not to promote myself, project
myself like worldly people are.
You want to be a leader?
You want to be one whom God can
accomplish his purpose through?
Let this attitude be in you, which is
in Christ Jesus.
That's close to that verse.
Philippians 2 and verse 5.
We saw it.
Let this attitude be in you, which is
in Christ Jesus.
I've often said with that one verse, you
don't need any other verse in the Bible
to live the rest of your life.
There are more than 31,000 verses in
the Bible, but you need only one to
live your whole Christian life.
Whatever area, you look at any situation, what
should I do, Lord?
Let this attitude be in you, which is
in Christ Jesus.
Somebody has treated you badly.
What should I do?
Let this attitude be in you, which is
in Christ Jesus.
You're handling a lot of money.
You suddenly became rich.
Let this attitude be in you, which is
in Christ Jesus.
Maybe you're struggling through trials.
Let this attitude be in you, which is
in Christ Jesus.
It's a verse that's enough to take us
through every situation for the rest of our
life.
And especially it refers here to his humility.
As God, he humbled himself and became a
man.
Step one.
Verse six.
When he became a man, he didn't become
a king.
That itself would have been humility.
He became a bond slave.
Verse seven.
Step two of humility.
And then, as if that was not low
enough, he died as a criminal, which is
even lower than a slave.
The Romans didn't crucify slaves.
They crucified criminals.
Even death on a cross.
Humility right down to the bottom.
So, there are three stages in God's, Jesus'
humility.
God became man, man became a slave, and
then he died as if he were a
criminal.
So, I often say the three secrets of
the Christian life are humility, humility, humility.
If you've understood it, you've understood the three
secrets of the Christian life.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, it's so easy to understand these
things in our mind and to think we've
got it.
Please give us revelation.
On the humility of Jesus, we pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.