One of the scripture portions that impacted my
life very early and I was I think
17 or 18 at the time.
It is that verse in the gospel of
Mark chapter 1 where Jesus said to these
young people, follow me and I will make
you fishes of men.
At first I remember reading that verse, it
was all about becoming fishes of men, witnessing
and evangelism and doing things and all that.
But eventually dawned on me, you know, what
he said was to follow him and as
I do that, my life will become like
his.
And Jesus followed his father and you know
how many times Jesus said, I do nothing
of my own.
The things I'm saying to you, I didn't
make it up.
This is what the father told me and
so I say it.
So he lived in absolute obedience and surrender
to his father and the result was, as
you know, he ministered to people and did
the father's will and he became the reason
for multitudes to understand the father's love.
And Jesus then says to his disciples, as
the father sent me, so sent are you.
Jesus did everything, everything in total fellowship with
the father, nothing of himself and that's the
reason why he said this statement, I do
nothing of my own.
You know, I heard the story about this
tourist running into three people doing the same
job, Italy or somewhere, anyway, these people were
cutting stones and shaping it and the tourist
asked the first man, what are you doing?
And he said, well, obviously you can see
what I'm doing.
This is my profession and I'm cutting the
stones and stone mason and the other person
doing the same job, little father asked, what
are you doing?
And he said, well, it's my career.
This is how I make my living.
But then the third person, he asked the
same question, what are you doing?
He said, I am building a cathedral for
my God.
So you see three people doing the same
job.
One can say what he's doing.
Another can explain how he's doing it.
And another person can say why he's doing
it.
You see, Jesus did all what he did
and you ask him, why do you do
it?
You can ask him how you do it.
He can say, yeah, I touched the man
and told him be healed or I told
him to get up and walk and explain
all that.
But that is not the critical thing.
The most critical question, why?
And Jesus would say, I'm only doing what
my father tells me to do.
And the reason for me to do everything,
why I do this, because my father told
me to do it.
And his journey ends, as he knows, the
last thing Jesus says, father, I have finished
the work you gave me to do.
I think sometimes we forget it.
The invitation, the Lord still gives to us,
to you, my brother, my sister, saying, follow
me being his.
Committed to live our life the way he
will want us to live.
That is him living through us.
And Paul was a man who was just
like us, who simply understood it.
So he told his followers.
So Timothy, follow me, Timothy, as I follow
the Lord.
The call is a perpetual call.
It is always continuous invitation every single day.
The intimacy we must maintain in this close
journey with him and being his.
See our ministry or what we do, raising
children or authorities.
The important thing is that we manifest, we
reflect his life.
It is the nature of the son to
give life and warmth.
Why?
It is basically within his nature.
God wants to be the most important person
in our life, more than all others.
Ministry, need, talents, money, health, other people's opinions.
No, he wants to be the most important
person.
Today, lots of work is going on.
People are so busy, but not eternal values
it has.
Don't have the quality of eternity in them.
We must be concerned.
In 1 Corinthians 3, it says that someday
all that we do, it is going to
be tested.
Tested for what?
Tested for quality.
Our fellowship with our God determines the quality
of our work.
And Jesus calls his disciples to be with
him, to know him, to become like him,
to be humble and broken like him, to
love like him, to be a servant like
him, to live as he lived before his
father, do the work as he did in
the power of the Holy Spirit, have the
authority as he had, be willing to die
and lay down our very lives.
You know, God did not create Adam for
he needed a servant.
No, he had millions of servants.
He created Adam so that he may reflect
the image of God.
Genesis 1, verse 26, you'll find that, to
manifest the life of God.
And Moses, with all his brilliance, you know,
it will take years for him to understand
the meaning of representing God.
And he will spend 40 days with God
before he could speak to the people of
the heart of God, the commandments.
And this is what he says in Ezekiel,
chapter 22, verse 30, he says, I'm looking
for someone, someone to stand before me.
We are rushing around and doing this and
that.
You know, the sad thing is, and which
I said it before, average believers spend less
than eight minutes a day in prayer.
But we have no problem spending 10 hours
reading and doing all kind of activities.
We simply cannot just wait.
Yet, we are called to wait and be
with him and know him intimately.
So we have in Isaiah, chapter 40, verse
31 says, those who wait upon the Lord.
Acts chapter 1, wait for the Holy Spirit.
And Acts 13, as they worshipped and waited.
John 15, abide in me, be part of
my life.
You know, the old covenant, it is Holy
Spirit came upon people for certain work they're
supposed to do.
But in the new covenant, he dwells in
us, is internal.
And that's the reason why Jesus said, out
of the innermost being, out of the inner
being, reverse living water will flow.
It is from the inside, inner life.
The emphasis is not reverse living water, but
from where it is, it is from the
inner being.
You know, the other scripture says, every plant
which our heavenly father did not plant will
be destroyed, rooted up.
The question is not whether the plant is
good, but the question is who planted it.
See, we look at, you know, somebody who
is a brilliant preacher or a book we
read, we are moved and impacted and people
give money to do great things.
But often, we don't even think about it.
What is the reason for it?
What is the source of it?
And it is important, my brothers and sisters,
that we need to understand that our activities
and what we do, the way we raise
our children, and if we are called to
serve him in some capacity or whatever it
may be, we want to make sure that
we are not doing it because it's a
nice thing to do.
And Jesus didn't do that.
Jesus did not act merely because there was
a great need or somebody invited him.
No, he acted only based on the knowledge.
This is what his father is asking him
to do.
You know, remember the story of Lazarus?
The news came to Jesus simply this, Jesus,
Lazarus, the one you love, is sick.
They didn't say, oh Jesus, please come and
touch him and raise him up and heal
him.
No, they knew the only thing Jesus need
to hear that he was kind of sick
and Jesus will rush and run because they
knew he, Jesus, loved Lazarus and Mary and
Martha.
But when Jesus heard the news, you know
from the scripture, he didn't go.
And the disciples thought, well, he's going to
rush.
He said, no, I can't go.
And his response, my time has not come
yet to do that.
Yet, after Lazarus is dead and buried and
stinking and everything is gone, finished, then he
says, let's go.
But then you read again there, this happened
so that the father's name may be glorified.
You see the difference?
When he heard the news, Jesus must have
simply turned his face toward the father and
said, father, as far as I'm concerned as
a man, I so bad want to go
and raise him up.
And remember, Jesus lived on earth as a
man in total dependence on his father.
And the father said, son, not now.
Don't go.
Wait.
So he dies to himself.
He give up what he wants, embracing death
to himself and what he wants and wait
so that the father's name would be glorified.
And my brothers and sisters, you know, those
of you know me, I live for one
thing, somehow to know the Lord and understand
his heart.
But I am driven with a passion to
see the lost world come to Christ.
And all night long, I dream about it.
And all day long, I work for it.
And I don't have very many other agendas
in my life.
But I'm telling you again and again and
again, often.
I'm arrested with this conviction.
What is it the Lord is seeking to
do?
What is it he wants to do?
And that makes me to wait.
Sometime our people just spend a few days
doing nothing but praying and waiting and seeking
his face.
And once we do that, what happens is
that our lives are not shallow.
It says in Psalm 42 verse 7, deep
calls unto deep.
You cannot lead people further than where you
are.
Parents, you can spend all the money in
the world, get all the books in the
world.
And I tell you, that is not going
to help your children to understand the ways
of God.
It takes your journey with the Lord.
With words or without words, they will find
the way.
You know, I didn't want to criticize, you
know, my brothers who are in the ministry
or pastors and Bible teachers.
But I simply ask this question.
Why over 80% of our young people
growing up in our so-called evangelical Bible
teaching churches, hearing this thing 24 hours, why
do they quit the church after they leave
home?
Not one or two percent.
I didn't make it up.
Why is it?
Is all this preaching and all the teachings
we do basically is from our head reaching
their head.
It is not from the inner life, our
hearts that reaching their heart.
Something to think about.
And so as we continue this journey, let
it be my prayer that as parents and
shepherds and ministers or whatever your call may
be, that God will not say, you know,
they are talking all this stuff on my
behalf because they want to talk about it
and they write commentaries and books and preach
and teach, but they never stood in my
presence and they don't hear what I am
saying.
They are only telling people what they want
to say.
And that's the reason why personally, I am
quite concerned that we as followers of Christ,
we will read God's word, not for knowledge,
although that is important, but to see the
way Jesus showed us how we must live.
And if that be the case, I'm telling
you, you read the four gospels, which I
did some time ago with a pencil looking
for the man Jesus throughout the four gospels.
And I marked the way Jesus, the man
lived here on earth.
I know he's my God and I worship
him.
He's my savior, my God.
But also the Bible portrays him as a
man, as an example for me to follow.
And when you find Jesus, how gracious and
loving and merciful he was to people who
criticized him, attacked him, and he never fought
and defended himself.
I see, not like anyone else, he's different.
And when people talk about going after the
things of the world and be rich and
famous and acquire all these material things and
comforts, I don't see the Jesus of the
New Testament, the one who said, birds are
nesting there and foxes are holes, but son
of man has no place lays yet.
And he was not living, you know, to
make money and riches.
And he didn't heal people and collect money
from them.
No, he lived before his father and he
never sought anything for himself.
And when I read that, I find in
John's gospel chapter four, someone who is hungry
and thirsty and physically exhausted, but then meeting
a woman who do not know the father's
love, his heart is breaking to the point
when the disciples came and said, Jesus, here's
some food, please do eat.
And he says, I lost my appetite.
Then he tells them, lift up your heads
and see the harvest.
It is right now ready.
Don't say four months.
He's trying to say the reality of the
lost, unforgiven, undone is so critical that my
physical needs and my hunger is not becoming
that important.
And you see, this is the kind of
Jesus we see in the New Testament, the
man who walked on earth in dependence on
the father, always thinking not about himself, but
about what the father wanted him to do
and his life reflected.
And this is my call.
Please understand me.
After 44 some years of this journey, I'm
still struggling and learning what it means to
understand him so that what I do is
not based on needs around me and people's
invitations, but rather a sense of what is
it Jesus want me to do?
It is his life, not my life.
And my life is not my life, but
his life.
And that's the reason why I said, you
know, for me, it's a 24 hour thing.
I'm saying, Lord, you died for the world,
people in Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey
and India and Sri in Africa.
Oh, God, people everywhere, people in desperate need.
And Lord, what is it you want me
to do?
And that kind of prayer and agony and
surrender makes life beautiful.
And that makes me not fall prey to
the pull of materialism and the stuff what
people think about me and their opinions.
No, something more sacred and something important is
to be his for time and eternity.
And may the Lord continue to lead you
and give you grace.
And my recommendation, please get hold of some
books and materials written by, you know, godly
men and women in the early centuries who
followed the Lord.
And my life been so impacted.
And as a matter of fact, the book
I wrote touching godliness has a lot to
do with understanding the way in which Jesus
lived and his invitation for me to follow
him.
And he still says, come follow me.
And I will make you and may the
Lord bless you and watch over you and
give you his grace.
Amen.