You know, I like that phrase in Matthew
6.
The phrase that Jesus uses.
Matthew 6, it helps me.
Verse 32, Matthew 6, 32.
The Gentiles means the non-Christians eagerly seek
for these things.
It's not just the two, three things listed
there.
There are many things that non-Christian, the
world eagerly seeks.
I've tried to make a mental list.
You can write it down also if you
like.
Of all the things which the world non
-Christians eagerly seek, you don't need me to
tell you.
You know what people in the world seek.
Money, sex, comfort, pleasure, sinful or otherwise, position,
power, to have a name even after one
is dead, that one was a great man.
Is there anybody in the world who doesn't
seek for these things?
I mean even a beggar, if you have
the opportunity, you'll seek for these things.
Bigger house, better car, more cars, etc.
They seek after these things.
Some of these things are sinful, some of
them are not.
But the world eagerly seeks after these things
and the Lord said, don't do it.
Let these be added to you as you
spend your time eagerly seeking, verse 33, kingdom
of God and holiness.
See, there's a law in God's dealings with
man that it's only those who seek Him
with all their heart, Jeremiah 29 verse 13,
who seek Him with all their heart who
will find Him.
The others won't find Him.
So if you didn't find Him, it's because
you didn't seek with all your heart.
And you didn't seek with all your heart
because you didn't think it was so important.
You know, people who don't seek for the
fullness of the Holy Spirit with all their
heart, chances are they'll never be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Do you think God's going to fill somebody
with the Holy Spirit who doesn't value the
Holy Spirit?
Do you think God's going to lead somebody
into the new covenant who doesn't value the
new covenant?
You've heard me use this example.
If you lost 50 paise a coin, I
used to say 5 paise, now 50 paise
is just about the same value.
If you lost 50 paise a coin in
the night when you're walking along the grass
somewhere and you discover it 5 minutes later,
how long will you spend looking for that
50 paise a coin in the grass in
the dark?
What do you say?
5 hours?
1 hour?
15 minutes?
I doubt even 5 minutes.
Why?
Why do you say that?
After all, it's only 50 paise.
I can't spend all my time looking for
that.
But supposing your office had entrusted you with
200,000 rupees in cash which you have
to take somewhere else tomorrow and in your
hurry you misplaced it somewhere.
How long would you spend looking for that?
15 minutes?
Say, oh, it's only 200,000 rupees.
It's okay.
You see the difference?
You take leave the next day from work.
You won't sleep the night.
You shall seek me and find me, says
the Lord, when you search for me with
all your heart.
When you treat God like a 50 paise
a coin, no wonder you don't find him.
When you seek for the fullness of the
Holy Spirit like a 50 paise a coin,
no wonder you don't get filled with the
Holy Spirit even after 20, 30 years of
praying for it.
I'll tell you, you won't find it in
the next 20, 30 years.
You don't understand the entry into the new
covenant life even after listening to it for
20 years.
Well, you won't enter it for the next
20 years because you treat it like a
50 paise a coin.
When it becomes everything to you.
You know why Sadhu Sundar Singh had a
vision of Jesus when he was 14 or
15 years old that turned him from this
religion to Christ?
Because he was so desperate to find God.
So desperate.
His mother used to take him to a
little guru as a young person and he
wanted to know about God.
God and his mother died and he didn't
know which is the true God.
And he said, I'm so desperate.
I got to find you before 5 o
'clock this morning.
Otherwise, I'll go and put my head on
the rails.
Now, don't say things like that because we
got more life than he had in his
day.
But he was not one who knew the
Bible.
Suicide is not the answer.
But he was...
I'm just trying to say how desperate he
was.
And I've asked myself, have I ever sought
God so desperately that I'd rather die than
not get to know Him?
Boy, if I did, maybe I'll also be
having visions like Sadhu Sundar Singh.
And you will too.
You see how weak our longing for God
is?
And we wonder how these great men of
God lived the life they lived.
Accomplished what they accomplished.
Why God gave them gifts to serve Him
which He never gives you.
And you always excuse yourself by saying, ah,
but I don't have that gift.
No, that's because God didn't feel you were
worthy enough to give it to.
That's all.
You can excuse yourself all your life like
that, but you may discover in heaven that
God wanted to give you some gifts but
He never sought them wholeheartedly for it.
The Bible says, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
That's the verse.
1 Corinthians 14, verse 1.
Earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.
A person who's earnestly desiring something else, not
surprising he doesn't get spiritual gifts because he's
not so passionate to serve God.
How passionate are you to serve God?
Lord, I can't serve you without the supernatural
gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I remember when I started preaching, I'd never,
I was scared to stand in public.
I was, never took part in public speaking
competitions in my life.
I was just shy and reserved and withdrawn.
You think I'm bluffing, it's true.
Ask people who knew me when I was
15, 16, 17.
And I was so reserved and shy and
timid and when I got selected to the
National Defense Academy, my classmates said, hey, you
going to defend our country?
That's what they said.
That's what they thought of me.
But when God filled me with the Holy
Spirit, it was completely different.
It changed me.
It says, you'll be turned into another man.
That's the answer.
I would not dream of trying to live
on this earth a single day now without
being filled with the Holy Spirit.
I'd never dream of getting into a pulpit
to speak for even five minutes without being
filled with the Holy Spirit.
I'd waste people's time and I waste God's
time and I'd waste my time and I
don't want to do that.
It's serious business.
You think a surgeon who's doing a delicate
brain operation in a theater is doing a
more important job than I'm doing here?
You got to be crazy to believe that.
The maximum he can do is kill that
man.
If I don't preach the true truth, I
can send people to hell.
That man may die and go to heaven.
But if I don't preach the truth up
here, clearly people can go to hell, believing
me.
I'll make sure nobody goes there unless he
chooses to go there himself.
Dear brothers and sisters, the New Covenant is
a wonderful life.
You can enter into it.
There's no partiality with God and you don't
need to be educated.
Peter didn't come first in his class.
He probably failed in a few classes.
He was a fisherman.
But he entered in the New Covenant and
you can.
It's not how clever you are.
It's got nothing to do with clever.
You can be clever like Paul.
He came first in his class.
He can be a child of God too.
You can be clever or stupid.
It makes no difference.
You got to have a heart that longs
for God.
It doesn't matter what your head is like.