Myself and my family and the Church, we
have so many visitors in India coming from
Western countries, preachers who conduct crusades, and I
always tell people in our Church, we don't
know anything about his private life, we don't
know anything about his family, we don't know
anything about the local Church he's in, and
that's what I'd like to know more about
before we hear what he has to say.
Because if the Gospel doesn't work in our
home, it's no use exporting it outside.
If it hasn't produced a brotherhood in our
local Church, then it's no use going and
telling other people about it.
I was born again when I was 19,
about 41 years ago, when I was in
the military, in the Indian Navy, and from
there the Lord called me out when I
was 24 years, with a very clear call
to quit my job and serve Him.
It took two years before the Navy released
me, and for the first nine years I
travelled all over the country preaching.
God gave me the gift of preaching when
I was about 23.
I've been preaching ever since.
And I travelled all over, and I saw
that though the population, the Protestant population of
India is only about 1% of its
total population, the problem is not that we
were 1%, but that that 1% was
so pathetically unchristian in the way it was
living.
And I realized that the great need was
to make disciples, and I realized that this
is where Christianity had failed.
Not only in my country, in many parts
of the world they were interested in statistics,
increasing numbers, and wanted to bring people to
conversion, but not make them disciples.
So I decided to quit all my travelling,
preaching ministry, and we started with about three
or four families 25 years ago in our
home, and from there in the last 25
years, first six or seven years we never
did anything but stay there in our own
hometown and work and build a brotherhood, and
then it grew.
We're now about 250 or so in our
local church, and from there it's gone out
to many other parts of South India, and
about 35 churches that have come up over
these years.
That's not a large number, but we've concentrated
on making disciples.
We believe that we don't have to go
looking for people as much as being a
strong witness.
I feel that India is like a large
haystack which has got a few needles here
and there, and those are those who are
longing for a godly life, those who are
needing Christ.
We're looking for them primarily, and there are
two ways in which we can find needles
in haystacks.
One is by plunging into the haystack and
searching, searching, searching, searching, and in a country
of a thousand million people as we are,
that can take thousands of years.
The other method would be to have a
very powerful magnet outside the haystack and pull
out these needles one by one.
So that's what the church is meant to
be, a very powerful magnet that draws those
who have a ear to hear.
So that's what we've sought to do, and
we've been greatly encouraged by large numbers of
young people who are eager to follow Jesus.
Things are changing in our country.
There's strong religious fundamentalism that has come up
over the last couple of years, and already
there's a lot of persecution in some parts
of the country that could spread to the
whole country.
That's about our church.
I'm married.
My wife is a medical doctor, but she's
never worked for money.
She spent 30 years helping the poor people
with their medical needs in different churches, and
I have four sons who are all born
again, grown up and left home, and are
following the Lord.
And I'm very thankful that the things that
we have taught in 25 years have worked
in my life, in our family life, and
in our home and in our local church.
And therefore I can say, like the Apostle
Paul, I'm not ashamed of this gospel, this
gospel of Christ, because it is the power
of God unto salvation.
It works in one's life, it works in
one's home, it works in the local church.
I work with other elders in our local
church, and I can say that this brother
with whom we started the fellowship, we worked
together for 25 years, and we've never had
contention between us even once in all these
years.
And that's the basis on which we have
sought to build.
So I want to share a little bit
today about building the home and building the
church, because I believe this is the culmination
of the gospel message.
All that we've heard so far is more
individual Christianity, what we need to do ourselves.
But the test of whether God has done
a work in us is when I have
to live with another person and fellowship with
another person.
If I don't, if I leave that out,
I can live in a world of self
-deception that I'm becoming increasingly holy and increasingly
spiritual.
I thought I was a very unselfish person
until I got married, and I discovered what
a terribly selfish person I was.
It's in the home, in marriage relationships that
we discover whether the gospel really works or
not, in church relationships.
And I thank God for those relationships, because
it protects us from deceiving ourselves.
In Ephesians 3, Paul says, this is a
very important passage, Ephesians 3, he says, by
revelation there was a mystery made known to
me, Ephesians 3.
And he speaks about this mystery of Christ
in verse 4, which was not made known
to the sons of men in other generations,
but is now revealed to his holy apostles
and prophets.
And what is this mystery which was not
revealed in the old covenant, which was not
known in those days, but is now revealed?
A mystery means a secret that can be
understood only by divine revelation.
We can't understand it by study.
It's a mystery.
It's as God revealed it to Paul.
And then when he tells us what this
mystery is, he says in verse 6, to
be specific, this mystery is that the Gentiles,
that is the non-Jews, are fellow heirs
and fellow members of the body and fellow
partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through
the gospel.
And when we read that and say, hey,
that doesn't sound to be so great a
mystery.
What's so great about that?
But let me explain what it means.
In our country, in Hinduism, there is a
caste system.
There is the upper caste, who are the
Brahmins.
And then there is the lower caste.
They are called the untouchables.
And a Brahmin will never drink from a
glass which is used by that person, ever,
in his whole life.
And they will not sit at the same
table.
And they would avoid them.
Particularly in the villages, it's been like that.
They wouldn't even let that person's shadow come
near you.
They would not allow the person to draw
water from the same well.
There was absolutely no possibility of contact.
These were almost like living on two different
planets.
And it's like that even today in the
villages.
But the attitude of the Jew to the
Gentile was much worse than that.
They looked down on them.
And you know how difficult even Peter, after
the day of Pentecost, found it to even
visit Cornelius' house.
And what a lot of explanations he had
to give to those Jews who had become
believers.
The prejudice was so strong.
These were the two greatest opposites in the
whole world.
And the mystery is that the greatest opposites
can become one.
One body in Christ.
Now, some of you may think a brother
is very difficult in the church.
Not as far apart from you as Jew
and Gentile.
Some of you may think your wife or
your husband is difficult.
Not as far apart as Jew and Gentile.
That's why I mention Gentiles here.
That's the mystery.
That the two greatest opposites in the world
can become one in Christ.
And that was the result of the cross.
It says in the previous chapter, verse sixteen
of chapter two, he reconciled them both in
one body to God through the cross by
having to put to death the enmity.
He's made one new man out of.
He's made both into one, it says in
verse fourteen.
This is the culmination of the gospel.
The culmination of the gospel is not that
I live a victorious Christian life.
That's part of the way.
Ultimately God wants to make these victorious brothers
and sisters one body.
And if they don't become one body, their
victory is a hollow victory.
It's a deception to think that we've got
holiness.
Sanctification without fellowship is a deception.
And that mystery, how God can make two
people into one, reconciled them both in one
body having put to death through the cross
the enmity.
There is an enmity in our flesh which
prevents us from being one.
And that's why there's tension between husband and
wife.
That's why there's tension between brothers.
That's why it's difficult for people to become
one body.
And what the Lord wants, it says here
and further down in Ephesians chapter three, that
he wants to make this wisdom, verse ten,
known through the church to the rulers and
authorities in the heavenly places.
That means the Lord wants to show Satan
and all those Satanic forces, see what I
can do with these people.
You know, like in the time of Job,
all that God could point out to Satan
was, have you seen that one man Job?
He was an upright man, but he had
no fellowship with his wife.
He had no fellowship with the other preachers
who visited him.
He was a lonely man.
That was all that was possible under the
old covenant.
But now, it says, what the Lord wants
to point out to the rulers and authorities
in the heavenly places is this tremendous mystery
which was never possible from the time of
Adam till the day of Pentecost, that two
totally dissimilar people can become one.
And that is what the Lord is trying,
seeks to point out to Satan in the
heavenly places, in different homes, in different churches.
And when God doesn't find that, Satan says
to God, see I told you, it doesn't
work.
And God is disappointed.
Now, if your wife is an unbeliever, not
born again, or husband's not born again, we
can understand it.
But what when the husband and wife claim
to be believers, and the devil says to
God, that's not a believer and unbeliever.
Those are two believers.
They even go to the same church.
They're not one.
They're always having tensions and quarrels and fights
with each other, suspicions.
It's a tragedy.
And we need to recognize that.
You may think it's just little dispute in
your home.
But there's something going on in the heavenlies.
You got to recognize that what's going on
down there is a disappointment to God, when
he's trying to point you out to Satan.
And when we see it in that perspective,
we see the name of God is being
dishonored.
When God, and what is the reason for
this?
The first condition of discipleship, as we just
heard, is Luke 14.26. If any man
come to me and does not hate his
father, mother, brother, wife, children, brother, sister, he
cannot be my disciple.
The Lord requires that we put him in
the first place, in the place of supreme,
in the supreme place in our home, if
this mystery is to be fulfilled, if this
unity is to take place.
That's why when God made Adam, you know,
God could have taken two lumps of clay
and dust and simultaneously made a man and
a woman.
I mean, that may have, we may think
that would have been a better way, make
them simultaneously and breathe into them, and there
they are, husband and wife.
But he didn't do it that way.
He made Adam alone, and there was a
reason for that.
He made this man out of dust, and
then he breathed into him, and as soon
as Adam opened his eyes, the first person
he saw was God.
There was no wife, there was no Eve,
there was no one but God.
And it was later in the day that
he got his wife.
And what the Lord was trying to tell
Adam thereby was, I must be first in
your life.
When you open your eyes, you must see
me first, not your wife, me.
And that's why when God wanted to make
Eve, he put Adam to sleep, took her
rib out and went somewhere else and made
a woman, and when her eyes were opened,
she saw God.
He didn't even know there was an Adam.
And then, that was the same lesson to
Eve.
I must be first in your life.
When you open your eyes, you must see
me.
And then he brought them together.
And as if God was in the middle,
they would have been one.
What we read in Genesis chapter 3, I've
often thought that if Genesis chapter 3 began
with Adam pointing his finger at his wife
and saying, she is the cause, and if
the first eleven verses of Genesis were not
there, I would know immediately the devil has
come between them.
Because that's what happens.
When the devil comes in between, fellowship is
broken, and you find the pointing of the
finger, accusing.
It's the spirit of the accuser.
God was no longer between them.
The devil had come between.
Jesus came to save us from that.
And what was the reason?
And there are important principles here, which I
believe we need to know, if we want
to restore what was lost in Eden.
If we understand why did they get thrown
out of Eden.
Why did their relationship break up, that as
soon as the devil came, here they were
accusing one another.
When the devil came to Eve, let's look
at that first, and told her, Eve of
this tree, what she should have said was,
well, sounds like a good idea, but God's
given me a head, let me just consult
him, before I take this decision.
The story might have been so different, and
the story in many homes would have been
so different, if the wife had taken that
attitude, when she got some bright ideas.
God's given me a head.
So I want to say to all of
you sisters, remember that the most important and
the most significant decision ever taken by a
human being on the face of this earth,
was here, which brought chaos and confusion to
the whole earth, just because a woman took
an independent decision, without bothering to consult her
head.
She thought, I don't need to consult him,
I know enough.
And if we want to get man back
into paradise, if we want our home to
be like paradise again, we've got to change
that.
Now, let's go to Adam.
I ask people, what was Adam's first sin?
Everybody thinks it's that he ate of the
tree.
No, I say that was the second.
You know what the first one was?
Let's turn to what God himself told Adam
in Genesis 3.17. God said to Adam
in Genesis 3.17, first of all, you
listen to the voice of your wife, and
secondly, you ate from the tree.
That's what God said.
I appointed you as the head of your
home, and you let your wife run your
home.
That's your number one sin.
Remember brothers, married brothers, that's the first sin
man ever committed.
He let his wife run his home, and
he meekly followed.
And do you know the number of homes
where that's happening today?
That's exactly what the devil wants to do.
It's what he did there, it's written there
plainly in the first pages of scripture.
And there are Christian homes today, where they
are following the devil, as we read in
Genesis 3.
And I'm not surprised that there's chaos and
confusion.
It will be there, till we come back
to God's order, where a man decides to
take his God-appointed place as the head
of the home.
And where a woman recognizes that she'll only
bring chaos and confusion into that home, if
she begins to run that home.
When she learns to submit to the authority
of her husband.
That is what God is looking for.
That is the divine order.
You see it very clearly in Genesis 3.
That was how sin came.
It wasn't just a simple question of eating
a fruit from a tree.
There were far more serious issues underneath that,
that would never have happened, if Adam had
taken his place, and Eve had taken her
place.
So, it's not always sure that all married
people understand that.
But that is God's way.
And I see that in Ephesians chapter 5,
when it speaks about the husband-wife relationship.
It says the relationship of the husband and
the wife is speaking the same thing.
You see, if there is to be this
unity, that God desires to manifest in a
home, it can only be according to God's
order.
It says here in verse 28 of Ephesians
5, that a husband ought to love his
wife as his own body.
It says here in verse 23, the husband
is the head of the wife, as Christ
is the head of the church.
The relationship of the husband and wife, if
you want your home to be patterned according
to God's order, and if you want God's
blessing, full blessing upon your home, it has
to be patterned according to God's order, where
the husband is the head, and the wife
is like the body.
And when it says head, it means the
brain.
And you know how your body is.
You know, a lot of women are afraid
of the word submission.
Okay, let me describe submission to you.
Every part of this body obeys my brain.
And when it obeys, there is such beauty
and perfection.
Have you seen a person playing a piano
or an organ?
Ten fingers, eyes, ears, feet pressing the pedals.
Such perfect harmony, such beauty, because every one
of those members in the body is 100
% submissive to the brain.
That's the glory of submission.
Now think of a body where there is
no submission.
Think of a man with a paralyzed hand.
The brain says, come on, lift it, lift
yourself up.
It doesn't lift itself up.
Or a paralyzed leg.
Is there any beauty there?
There are people who got Parkinson's disease.
The brain can't stop the shaking in their
hands.
There's no beauty there.
There's a total lack of submission.
It's just like a lot of wives.
That's not God's way.
There's something ugly about it.
Do you want to be like that?
Are you afraid of the word submission?
Look at the planets.
For thousands of years, they've obeyed God with
split-second timing.
There's beauty in the universe because of submission.
The devil has made submission an ugly word.
God has placed women in the church to
show the beauty of submission.
And if you're a submissive wife, you don't
realize what tremendous honor you bring to God
and how much God can point you out
to Satan in the heavenly places.
The beauty of a home comes through the
submission of the wife, through the body submitting
to the head.
It's ugly.
There are some people who got some disease
where the hands are always flailing around like
this.
They don't listen to the brain.
Is there any beauty there?
Think of a body which is totally under
the control of the brain.
You can sit quietly, stand up, play an
instrument, do anything.
Every part under control.
That is why God says to the wife,
submit to your husbands as the church is
to Christ.
But that's not only what it says here.
The husband is to be the head.
And what does the brain do?
The brain, boy, what a tremendous care that
brain has for every part of this body,
constant.
If there's a little injury here, the brain
immediately is concerned and gets the other hand
to come and get some water and wash
off that injury, put some medicine perhaps.
If there's a broken bone, immediately the brain
gets active and a little infection here, the
brain sends signals to the blood cells in
the body to go and fight that infection.
It's a tremendous care the brain has for
a little headache, a little stomachache and the
brain gets active.
Boy, think if husbands were like that.
Caring for, not to hurt the feelings of
their wives.
Sensitive.
This is the relationship brothers and sisters, that
God wants to demonstrate in a Christian home.
We have fallen far short and we need
to repent.
We need to fall on our faces before
God and say, Lord, we have gloried in
the fact that our homes are a little
better than those heathen homes around us and
we have lost the vision of your standard.
Forgive us.
God never designed the Bible says that a
woman to be exactly like the man.
The Bible says that God said, I will
make a helper suitable for Adam.
And when young couples were getting married, planning
to get married, come to me, I draw
a little diagram for them.
I draw a whole eggshell.
I say, you see that?
Now if I crack it, I draw these
two halves of the eggshell with a lot
of pokey sticking out parts all around, every
side, all around.
And on the other half also equally pokey,
sharp, sticking out parts.
It's dangerous, looks dangerous.
But when you put them together, what a
perfect fit.
I said, that's how it's going to be.
You're a husband, you're a wife.
You've got strong points, but where you have
a strong point, she'll have a weak point.
Where there's a projection in the top half,
there's a depression in the lower half.
Now where she has a strong point, you've
got a weak point.
Do you believe your wife could have a
strong point too, where you have a weak
point?
God gives you someone suitable for you.
Someone who is in exact opposite.
You both love the Lord, but in so
many other ways, an opposite.
Because you can fit together.
And that helps in bringing up your children.
There are two different viewpoints put together.
It's like, if I were to take a
picture of a building from the northern side,
and my wife takes a same building from
the southern side, and we put it together,
we get a three-dimensional picture of that
building.
But if as a stupid husband, I force
my wife to have my view, and get
her down to my side, I just get
another picture just like mine.
Who's the loser?
Or if it's a strong wife who forces
her husband down to her viewpoint, the home
is the loser.
And so I say to you brothers and
sisters, don't try to change your wife.
Don't try to change your husband.
God has made him different from you.
Look at things from a different perspective.
I think of the many times in our
bringing up children at home, our four boys,
that we had to talk together, my wife
and I.
Can we permit our children to do this?
This is going on in the school.
Can we permit our children to participate in
that?
Various things.
Can we permit them to read this or
do that?
And it's so good to have two different
viewpoints, so that there's a balance.
The Bible says that the glory of God
was seen in Jesus Christ, full of grace
and truth.
There's a balance.
It wasn't all grace, it wasn't all truth.
It's a balance.
And that's what comes when a husband and
wife value one another, value each other's opinions.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 11, Behold
the kindness and the severity of God.
There's a balance in God.
And we are to represent God to our
children.
What must they see?
Kindness and severity.
And we all tend to be imbalanced.
I may be very severe.
Well, thank God if I have a wife
who's kind.
There's a balance.
We're not in competition.
It's kindness and severity.
I don't think any of us have got
it in perfect balance.
We need another to balance us out.
There's beauty when there's grace and truth.
I look at it like this.
Truth is like the bones in my body.
But if I only had bones, I'd be
ugly.
If you're walking down a dark street and
a skeleton came up walking up to you,
you don't exactly feel attractive.
And if all that your children see in
you is severity, severity, don't blame them if
they don't feel attractive to you or to
your God.
But God has made the body such that
those bones are covered over with flesh.
There's grace.
And that's what makes a human being attractive.
Now the opposite is also true.
If I were only flesh and no bones,
I wouldn't be attractive again.
Like we heard the other day, we'd be
just a glob or a blob or whatever.
Well, it's, you know, in the church too,
it's got to be like that.
Grace and truth.
Both are necessary.
And that's why God gives husband and wife
so that we can balance one another.
Maybe a decision that you're planning to take
in your home may be very severe.
Maybe the punishment you're planning to mete out
to your son or daughter for some mistake
they made is severe, but you discuss it
with your wife and you're able to manifest
God a little better there with kindness and
severity.
Or maybe you are just a wishy-washy
type of person who just lets everything go
and thank God if one of the two
in the home is a little strict.
There's a balance.
And that's why the most important thing to
bring up children is for husband and wife
to have fellowship with each other.
If that is there, then the children will
grow up right.
If that isn't there, we're going to lose
our children.
This is important.
This is why Jesus died.
That he might make two into one.
Whatever holiness you may preach, brother, sister, if
it's not making you one with your wife,
one with your husband, gracious and compassionate, forgiving,
it's not holiness.
You know, husbands and wives can sometimes have
tension.
We all know that.
And wherever I've gone in our churches, I've
asked people this question.
When a husband and wife have a conflict,
who should take the first step to restore
the relationship?
I say, I'll give you the answer from
scripture.
When God and man had a strain in
their relationship, who took the first step?
God.
Why?
Because he was more spiritual.
So when a husband and wife have a
conflict, who should take the first step to
restore that relationship?
The one who is more spiritual.
And since both of you think you're spiritual,
you should be just running into each other's
arms.
What are you waiting for?
Don't you think you're spiritual?
Don't you think the problem is with your
husband or with your wife?
Well, then you should be the one to
take the first step.
That's what God did.
While we were enemies, God sent his son
to reconcile us to himself.
The devil's got us all upside down in
our thinking.
We need to humble ourselves.
We need to be quick to go and
restore that relationship.
Something is going to be lost.
It's like getting a hole in the vessel.
If you've got water in that vessel, you're
going to keep losing until you fix that
hole.
The sooner you fix it, the better.
God designed that a husband and wife should
be one so that Satan can be kept
out of their home.
There's a promise in Matthew chapter 18 which
reads like this.
Many people are familiar with this verse, where
two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst.
Let's apply this to a husband and wife.
Where two, two is enough.
Where two are gathered in my name, the
Lord says, there am I in the midst.
But, this verse begins with the word for
or because.
So then you've got to go back to
the previous verse to understand this verse.
And lots of Christians know this verse, but
they don't know the previous verse.
And that's why this verse is never fulfilled
in their life.
What does the previous verse say?
Because where two are gathered in my name,
there am I in the midst is dependent
on the previous verse.
And the previous verse says, if two of
you are agreed.
And the Greek word for agree there is
symphonio, from which we get the English word
symphony.
If two of you are like a symphony.
It's a musical word where instruments are all
playing together.
Where two instruments are playing together.
Same scale and the same pace, the same
melody.
It sounds beautiful.
And he says, if two of you are
like that, you can ask for anything.
It will be done by my Father in
heaven.
And he's speaking about binding satanic powers in
verse 18.
Because even verse 19 begins with again I
say to you, it's referring back to verse
18.
The ultimate purpose, if you want to understand
verse 20 and verse 19, you've got to
go back to verse 18.
It's talking about binding satanic powers that seek
to disturb your home.
It's speaking about losing your children from the
bondage of Satan.
Speaking about binding and losing.
And he says, the way to do it
is two people must be in symphony.
Two people must be agreed in spirit.
Now even if you don't know that verse,
the devil knows it.
And he knows that all he's got to
do to enter your home is get you
as husband and wife to get a little
tension between you.
And once he's got you having a little
tension between you, he comes right through to
attack your home and your children.
Remember that.
I want to ask you sisters, when your
children are rebellious, where did they get that
infection from?
Where did they learn to speak in that
rebellious way to you?
Rebellion is like chicken pox.
It starts with somebody in the home and
then goes to the others.
Did they perhaps learn it from the way
you speak to your husband?
I heard a brother once say in a
meeting, somebody asked him, he said, brother, how
are your children?
Are they sort of submissive to you now?
And she said, well, when I'm submissive to
my husband, my children are usually submissive to
me.
There's a verse that says, Proverbs in chapter
14, verse 1, the wise woman builds her
house, the foolish tears it down with her
own hands.
Remember, it's the woman who builds the house.
Why doesn't it say the wise man?
The wise woman.
That is, it's the woman who brings the
spirit of submission, which is the spirit of
Christ.
Jesus lived in submission all these 33 years
on earth to the Father.
It's the woman who brings that spirit into
a home.
What is the opposite of submission?
Rebellion.
How did sin originate in the universe?
Through the rebellion of Lucifer.
How did salvation come from sin?
Through the submission of Jesus Christ.
Who's going to bring that spirit into a
home?
First, long before the children come.
It's not the man, it's the woman.
And if she brings that spirit into a
home, and children are born into such a
home, she builds her house.
But a foolish woman, she just tears it
down with her own hands.
I just want to say a word about
those who have difficult wives, like Job.
He had a difficult wife.
I often think when God said to Job,
God said to Satan, everything he has is
in your hands, you can destroy everything.
Satan destroyed all his property, took away all
his children, and he kept his wife alive.
You know why?
God gave Satan permission to kill his wife,
but Satan said, she's better off alive for
my purposes.
That's sad.
She became an instrument in Satan's hands to
nag that poor husband who was already suffering
so much.
A foolish woman tears down her home.
Yeah, some people have difficult wives.
John Wesley had a very difficult wife.
I don't know whether you know, John Wesley
was one of the greatest men of God
in the history of Christianity.
He changed the face of England 200 years
ago.
One man God used so mightily to change
the face of England.
You know what type of wife he had?
One who would pull the hairs from his
beard, was suspicious of him.
If he went preaching somewhere, she would follow
him on a horse to see if he
was running after some woman.
She would open the letters that John Wesley
had written before mailing them and add naughty
sentences in between and mail them.
She would insult him in the presence of
his co-workers who esteemed him as a
prophet of God.
This was his wife.
He never spoke an unkind word about her.
He preached entire sanctification and he got a
wife to test it, whether it was true
or not.
And he demonstrated that God had done a
work in his heart.
Now, what I say is, you don't have
to have a cooperative wife to be a
prophet of God.
It's not always a happy marriage that produces
the greatest results.
Sometimes a difficult marriage can make a man
godly beyond anything that a happy marriage could
have done.
All I say is, don't complain about your
wife.
You know, I think in the final day
of judgment, if you stand before God and
the Lord asks you, well, why didn't you
live for me?
And you say, well, Lord, it was my
wife.
Because of her, she never cooperated, she never
helped me, she nagged me.
God says, just wait, let me call somebody
here.
John Wesley, come here.
And the Lord shows you a videotape of
John Wesley's wife and his home relation, the
problems he faced at home and he says,
now tell me and your mouth will be
shut.
Yeah, I believe God will have in that
day husbands who will stand as a living
testimony to the fact that they love Jesus
more than their wife or children or anything
and nobody stopped them from living for God.
Maybe you have a difficult husband.
That doesn't hinder you from being a godly
woman.
We have a big responsibility to bring up
our children in the fear of God.
Bible says, fathers, the responsibility is placed squarely
on the fathers to bring up the children
in the discipline and the instruction of the
Lord.
The instruction is the teaching them the principles
of God's word and the discipline is disciplining
them when they go wrong.
And if we have disciplined them when they
are small, we will not have a problem
with them when they are grown up.
I believe firmly with all my heart that
if you train up a child in the
way he should go when he is old,
he will not depart from it.
Either that is true or the word of
God is false.
It's true.
If my children go astray, I can't say,
well, children are different.
Somewhere I did something wrong.
Somewhere I gave priority for the world or
for money or something else in my home
and my children saw it.
And it's good for us to judge ourselves.
And let me give you a word of
warning.
This is not for you to judge somebody
else.
It's not for you to sit here and
say, well, thank God that man is sitting
here and listening to this message.
Then you are in fellowship with the accuser
of the brethren.
It's for you.
Lord, let me judge myself.
Train up a child in the way he
should go when he is old, he will
not depart from it.
And that's why the Bible says in 1
Timothy 3 that a man, if he is
to be an elder in God's house, he
must be able to keep his children under
control in his home with all dignity.
Because if a man cannot run his own
family, how in the world can he be
an elder in God's church?
That's not possible.
And that verse teaches us that God tests
us in our home before he gives us
responsibility in the church.
And that's why we must never neglect our
home.
I know preachers who have neglected their homes
and gone traveling here and there.
There's an example in scripture.
The Lord told Samuel about Eli's children, how
they were going astray and Eli was not
rebuking them and how Eli lost the position
and his ministry.
And Samuel grew up and his children went
astray.
Why?
Because he was traveling all the time, it
says.
He had no time for his family.
He was busy.
And his ministry.
He was a very godly man.
But you read those, I don't have time
to show it to you.
I think it's 1 Samuel 7 or 8
or something.
But in close connection those verses come.
It says Samuel was traveling here and there
in a circuit.
And maybe I should show it to you
because it's an important verse.
It's good for you to know what it
says there in 1 Samuel and chapter 7
verse 16.
1 Samuel used to go annually on a
circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and
he went here and there and he returned
to Rama for his house was there.
And chapter 8 verse 3.
His sons did not walk in his ways
but turned aside after dishonest gain.
You see the connection?
He was so busy in his ministry that
he had no time for his family.
Something is wrong when we're so busy in
the ministry we have no time for the
family.
I saw this when I was a young
Christian before I got married.
The children of preachers going astray.
And I said, Lord, I'm not here to
judge them.
You're their judge.
But please, please save me from this.
And so all these 32 years that I've
been ministering and being a father, I have,
whenever my children have needed me, I've been
there.
I'm even willing to cancel ministry to be
at home.
The order in my life is first the
Lord Jesus Christ, second my family and third
my ministry.
And the devil says, put the Lord first,
do His work.
And ultimately his aim is to destroy your
ministry by destroying your home.
Be careful.
And if you're a mother, you have a
very, very important responsibility.
Think of Moses.
Pharaoh's daughter gave that baby Moses back to
the mother, not knowing it's the mother, saying,
nurse him for me and then give him
back to me.
And Moses' mother knew that she had that
little boy just for a few years.
And then he'd go into the most wicked
palace that existed on earth at that time,
with money and sinful pleasures.
Can you imagine how that mother worked with
that boy?
And we read that beautiful verse in Hebrews
that when Moses grew up, he refused to
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
That, what his mother had put into his
head in the first 7 or 8 years,
I don't know, maybe 7 or 8 years
or 10 years, that's all.
But that remained with him forever.
He rejected the pleasures of Egypt.
He rejected the treasures of the world, of
Egypt, because of the work his mother had
done in him in the first 8 or
10 years of his life.
Take that as a challenge, sisters.
Timothy had a mother who was a God
-fearing mother.
His father was a great businessman who had
no interest in family prayer or God or
any such thing.
And that mother single-handedly brought up that
little boy, so that when he was about
18 years or so, he was so wholehearted
that Paul took him into his team and
he grew up to be an apostle.
That was the work of one mother.
It's tremendous what a mother can do.
Who knows, but your little boy may grow
up to be an apostle.
But that depends on you.
It's a tremendous responsibility we have to manifest
a home where divine principles are seen for
others to see.
This is the way God intended a home
to be.
I want to move on to the church.
In Ephesians 1 we are told that the
church is the body of Jesus Christ.
We've seen that.
The church is not to be a preaching
center where one man, one powerful gifted man
gets up every Sunday and gives a wonderful
sermon and everybody sits there like in a
cinema theater and nodding their heads.
Appreciating it and going home.
That's not the church.
That's the preaching center.
The church is a body where everybody has
a function.
Now, everybody may not be a preacher.
It's a good thing everybody is not a
preacher.
God calls some to be apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some shepherds, some teachers.
He gives different gifts.
Some He gives gifts of administration, healing, tongues,
helps.
There are different gifts.
But like every member in this body has
got a function, every member in the body
of Christ has got a function.
And the true servant of God is the
one who is able to make the members
fulfill their function.
Not just the one who is able to
get everybody to nod their heads and say
Amen when he preaches.
Now, that's not the great servant of God.
Christianity today is full of preaching centers.
It's a one man show.
And when that one man dies, that's the
end of it.
God never intended the church to be like
that.
God intended the church to be one where
people are one with each other.
And that's where we need to take up
the cross.
It's impossible for me and another brother to
be one unless we die to ourselves.
In our relationships with one another, there are
differences.
And I need to see that that person
is different from me.
I'm imbalanced.
His viewpoint is different and it's necessary to
balance out my imbalance.
We're not all called to do the same
thing.
Think of evangelism.
Making, we can say, to make someone who
is not a member of the body of
Christ, a member of the body of Christ.
That's the purpose of preaching the gospel.
Basically, to make someone who is not a
member of the body of Christ, a member
of the body of Christ.
And the illustration the Lord has given me
in this connection is like this.
Here is a potato on the plate.
It's an unbeliever.
It's not a member of this body.
And I want to make that potato a
member of this body.
That's what preaching is.
That's what evangelism is.
That's what ministry is.
What do I do?
Many parts of this body has to work.
The first part is evangelism.
The hand going and taking that potato and
putting it inside the mouth.
But if we stop there, what's going to
happen?
That potato will get rotten inside my mouth.
I'll spit it out after a while.
And that's exactly what's happening with a lot
of evangelism today.
Here is an evangelist picking up potatoes all
over the place and putting them in and
they never get digested.
They never become a part of the body
and they get finally thrown out.
And then some other evangelist goes and picks
them up.
But how does this potato become a part
of the body?
It goes in and this is a very
gentle action and the potato likes that.
But once it gets inside the mouth, there
are a few problems.
Have you found that once you get into
a church?
There are teeth that are grinding you and
reducing you to your proper size.
You got all these high thoughts about yourself
when you come to the church and you
get crushed.
And then you finally think it's all over
and you go down to the stomach and
boy it's worse there.
They get acids thrown at you over there.
Prophetic ministry cutting here and there and finally
this potato doesn't even look like a potato.
It's lost its individuality.
Oh people speak about individuality.
It's lost it.
It has disappeared into some other form.
But wait a few weeks and lo and
behold that potato has become part of this
body.
That's how we are to build the body
of Jesus Christ.
When people come in, they all come in
with high thoughts about themselves.
We've got to reduce them to size.
Godly elders who know how to discipline them,
keep them under authority.
Yeah we say we don't have rules and
regulations and chains and all in the church
but that doesn't mean there's no discipline.
If a woman walks into my church consistently
with an immodest dress, I'd have to talk
to her.
I'd say sister that's not the way to
come into the midst of God's house, the
midst of God's people.
And if you're not happy with that, well
there are many other churches that will accept
you.
You can go there.
But we believe in Godly standards.
So there is discipline.
There is a place for that.
Ultimately, but it's in love.
Ultimately the purpose is that this potato becomes
a part of the body.
And if this potato at any stage, whether
it's when it's in the teeth or in
the stomach, does not want to be part
of the body, it has the option of
being vomited out.
Fine, there's no compulsion.
You can go out.
But those who submit to authority, loving, gracious
authority, you know like I said, the brain,
caring, finally become a part of the body.
That's how God wants to build his body.
Brothers and sisters who are in fellowship between
whom the devil cannot come.
The Bible says there was no place found
in heaven for the accuser of the brethren.
He was cast out.
We spoke the first day about days of
heaven upon earth.
That's how our church must be.
There must be no place found for the
accuser of the brethren in the midst of
the church.
He must be cast out.
I want to ask you brothers and sisters,
are you willing to cast the accuser of
the brethren out in Jesus name?
Because he's trying to bring a division between
you and a brother.
He's trying to separate two sisters.
Jesus said, if you've got something against a
brother, go and talk to him in private
and win him.
Don't go and talk to everybody else.
When some brother comes to my house and
begins to speak something evil about some other
brother, I listen and I say, okay, let's
tell that brother about this right now.
He said, no, no, no, no.
I didn't mean you to go and tell
somebody else.
I didn't mean you to go and tell
him.
No, if I hear something from you about
another person, I have to go and tell
him.
And I'll tell him that you told me
that.
That way I have saved my house from
a lot of gossip and slander.
I would recommend that course of action to
all of you.
That's loyalty to the body of Christ.
If somebody tells me something about you, the
very next time I meet you, I'm going
to tell you, so and so told me
this.
Is it true?
Perhaps it's false.
We need to preserve the church in these
days if it is to be an army
against which the gates of hell will not
prevail.
And I want to say something about valuing
each other in the body of Christ.
You know, we read in Acts chapter 13
about the time when the Holy Spirit said,
separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work
to which I have called them.
Acts 13.2. In the Old Testament, God
used individual men.
There was a Noah.
There was an Abraham.
There was a Joseph.
There was a Joshua.
None of these people had any fellowship with
anybody.
They were lonely men.
I don't know anything about their family lives.
I know that Moses quarreled with his wife,
but I don't know much more than that
about his family life.
He had no fellowship with others.
There was an Elijah.
There was an Elisha.
And these prophets, they were all lonely men.
And it's interesting if you read about these
prophets.
There were other prophets also in Israel at
the same time when there was another prophet
here.
Apparently they didn't have much connection with each
other.
But as soon as you come to the
pages of the New Testament, you read Jesus
sent out his disciples two by two.
Because now he was building a body.
And one person can never be an expression
of a body.
The minimum is two.
And so we find the Holy Spirit says,
separate me Saul and Barnabas for the work
to which I have called them.
And if you know the personalities of these
two, you know why he called them.
Saul was hard, severe and Barnabas was kind
and gracious.
Together they would manifest the kindness and the
severity of God.
Saul couldn't do it alone.
Barnabas couldn't do it alone.
And the devil succeeded in separating them.
That's a tragedy.
Over some silly matter, Paul said, we must
never take that fellow John Mark again.
He's not wholehearted.
He's not radical.
That's the severity of God.
Barnabas represents the kindness of God and says,
listen Paul, God gives all of us so
many chances.
Give the fellow another chance.
Don't just write him off just because he
made one mistake.
And it says in Acts 15, the disagreement
between them was so great that they separated.
That which the Holy Spirit said was to
work together, they got separated.
Who was right?
I believe both were right.
We had an instance like that recently in
our church.
A brother and I, who are elders in
our church, who I told you we worked
together for 25 years.
We were considering the matter of a certain
discipline for a young brother.
And I said, I feel we must deal
with that person in a very strict way.
And this is what we've got to do.
And my fellow elder said to me, well
brother Zach, I don't agree with you.
I think we've got to just give him
another chance.
Let's see if he'll change.
So I went home and thought about it.
I said, God's given me this brother to
balance me out.
So I called him up later.
I said, yes brother, let's please speak to
him again.
And if you still feel that way, I'll
go along with you.
And you know what finally happened?
That young brother came through.
And I saw through that, that when God
calls two people together, they will have strong
differences of opinion.
But they're meant to work together.
They're meant to balance out each other.
If they don't, it's those young people in
your church who are going to suffer.
And I thank God, here we cast out
Satan, who tried to come between us.
I want you to think about that in
your situations.
There are particularly some of you who are
very gifted.
We are the ones who can be the
biggest hindrances to the building of the body.
Strong personalities.
And the more gifted you are, the more
you stand apart from others, the more you'll
be a hindrance to the building of the
body of Christ.
The first principle of all effective service is,
Jesus was made like his brothers in all
things.
We have to become like the others.
We have to let them feel that even
though my gift is different from you, I'm
a brother, like you.
I need you, you need me.
And God arranges circumstances where we sense our
need like that.
When I'm sick, I get other brothers to
come and lay hands on my head and
pray for me, so that I can be
healed.
And initially they were hesitant to do it,
but I encourage them to do it.
And when I get healed, they say, it
works.
Yeah, and when they're sick, I pray for
them.
We're not to be like in so many
denominational churches, pastors who go on our pastoral
visits to drink coffee and eat biscuits in
different homes once a month or something like
that.
I'm going to be a brother, not a
leader to you in the sense of that
you're dependent on me and I'm not dependent
on you.
I need you and you need me.
There is no, you know that amazing verse
which says, even the head does not say
to the feet, I don't need you.
Who's the head?
Jesus.
He doesn't say to the feet, I don't
need you.
Where are you and me?
I asked a brother once, one of our
elders, whom I have to watch over.
I said, brother, do you ever call a
younger brother?
Have you ever in your life, in your
church, called a brother younger to you and
said, please come and pray with me, I'm
going through a struggle here?
Never.
I said, do you know that even Jesus
called Peter, James and John when he didn't
get so many and said, come and pray
with me.
I need your help to get through this.
How big we have become that we don't
need our younger brothers.
Where are we?
Even the head does not say to the
feet, I don't need you.
It's the gifted brothers, the people with strong
personalities who hinder the building of the body
of Christ.
We need to humble ourselves.
We need to pull back and give room
for others to grow.
I've seen this in India so much.
Strong people come from America or Europe and
dominate some poor brother there.
They've got money, they've got power, they've got
everything.
The body of Christ is not built.
It's no different from Coca-Cola coming and
setting up an office in India and promoting
their work.
Not much different.
It's not the body of Christ.
The stronger we are, the more we are
a danger to the building of the body
of Christ in our locality.
God has to break us.
God needs broken people.
Only broken people can become one.
Only broken people.
So don't think you're going to build the
body of Christ with your gift.
Thank God for your gift.
And your gift can be tremendously useful if
God can succeed in breaking you.
Then your gift will be useful in the
body of Christ.
May God help us to build His church
wherever we are.
One last word I want to say in
this connection is in Luke chapter 22 where
Jesus said about lording it over others.
He said, the kings of the Gentiles, verse
25, lord it over them.
Those who have authority over them are called
benefactors.
That's how my NASB translates it.
Benefactors.
You know who a benefactor is?
A very rich man who graciously condescends to
help some poor man.
He's not a brother.
Condescension is not compassion, is not love.
And when you condescend to somebody who you
don't really feel is your equal.
But you the great man, you the great
gifted man, condescends to fellowship with him.
I'll tell you, I'll prophesy, you'll never build
the body of Christ in that place.
Not in a hundred years.
We got to come down.
He was made like his brothers in all
things.
And when we are willing to become like
our weak, stupid brothers in all things and
let them see that we also are weak
people like them.
And I need them and they need me.
And I refuse to allow them to give
me some throne to sit on.
Then we can build the body of Christ.
May God help us.
Let's bow before God.
Lord you've given us a tremendous task on
earth.
The time is short.
You're coming soon.
We wasted many years.
Help us to wake up in our homes,
in our churches to do your work before
you come again.
Give us wisdom Lord.
Give us wisdom.
Give us humility.
Give us brokenness.
That we can build our homes and build
our churches for your glory.
That Satan can be put to shame.
That our sons and daughters can be delivered
from his hands.
That our brothers and sisters in our churches
can be delivered.
Lord do a great work in the many
places that are represented here in this congregation
this evening.
Do a tremendous work Lord of building the
body of Christ.
Building godly homes.
We humbly ask in Jesus name.
Amen.