I speak this morning about faith.
In my own life, this is something that
I couldn't understand for many years in the
earlier part of my life and even in
the earlier part of my Christian life.
I wanted to get an answer from the
Word of God because I saw this verse
in Hebrews 11 and verse 6, which said,
Without faith it is impossible to please God,
for he who comes to God must believe
that he exists and that he is a
rewarder of those who seek him.
So that verse taught me that whatever else
I may do, however holy I may be,
however loving, everything else, if I didn't have
faith, I couldn't please God.
That's something we need to think about seriously.
Many of us perhaps secretly congratulate ourselves that
we are not living in sin, we are
good, we are kind and loving, but without
faith it is impossible to please God, whatever
else you may have.
I think I must have first asked Jesus
to come into my heart when I was
about 13.
I don't know.
I don't know the date I was born
again.
It's not important.
It's good if you know it.
Some people know it.
But it's not the test of whether we
are spiritually alive or not.
I say that for the encouragement of those
who are not sure of the date of
their new birth.
I say it's not by remembering your birthday
that you determine whether you're alive or not.
Well, if you remember your birthday, that's good.
But if you don't, that still doesn't prove
you're dead.
We have lots and lots of people in
our country who don't even know the year
they were born, even physically.
But I was not sure.
I asked Jesus to come to my heart.
Did he come?
I don't know.
At the next meeting I'd say again, Lord,
come into my heart.
And it wasn't just once or twice.
Over the period of six years, I must
have asked Jesus to come into my heart
more than a hundred times.
And I was never sure.
And I was like a plant tossed about
in the wind.
God had mercy on me.
One day when I was around 19, I
read this verse in John 6.37. Him
that cometh to me, I will never cast
out.
I saw there were two parts in that
verse.
One, what I had to do, which was
very simple, come to him.
The other was his part, to receive me,
not to cast me out.
And in that moment I saw what a
terrible sin unbelief was.
I was saying, I have done my part,
but Lord, you have not done your part.
That is unbelief.
Bible speaks of an evil heart of unbelief.
Now we would think of an evil heart
of adultery or an evil heart of murder
or hatred or wickedness.
That's why I said in the beginning, we
can congratulate ourselves that we don't commit these
sins.
But there are many, many Christians who don't
commit these sins, who have an evil heart
of unbelief.
They don't believe that God keeps his word.
When we confess our sins, 1 John 1
.9 says, if we confess our sins, he's
faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
There again, there's my part, there's God's part.
My part is to confess my sins.
His part is to forgive me, cleanse me
from all unrighteousness.
And when I go and confess that sin
again to God and say, well, Lord, I
did that.
And then I go a third time and
a fourth time confessing the same sin.
I have an evil heart of unbelief.
I don't believe that God did his part.
I'm doing my part.
I'm faithful.
God is not faithful.
That's why it's evil.
Unbelief is insulting God, telling him to his
face that he's a liar.
I confess my sin and you didn't forgive
me.
I came to you and you didn't accept
me.
It's not true.
That's why it's such an evil, evil thing.
When I murder somebody, I'm not saying God
is a liar.
If you commit adultery, you're not saying God
is a liar.
You tell a lie, you steal, you're not
saying God is a liar.
But when you don't believe God's promises, you
are saying God is a liar.
And that's the greatest sin of all.
And that's why Jesus rebuked his disciples seven
times for unbelief.
I counted it once in the scriptures.
I never see him rebuking them for anything,
even when they were arguing at the Last
Supper, who was to be the greatest.
I mean, if I was there and I
was in Jesus' place, I'd say, oh no,
after three and a half years of teaching
you, still you fellows are seeking who's to
be the greatest.
He was gentle.
He said, well, you know, in the Gentiles,
they seek to be lorded over others, but
it should not be so among you.
He was so gentle for something which I
would have reacted so strongly against.
But when they did not believe him, when
there was a storm, or when he had
given them authority to cast out demons in
Jesus' name, and they encountered a man with
a child demon-possessed, and they could not
deliver him.
And times like that, he said, how long
shall I be with you, you people of
unbelief?
Why is it you couldn't trust me?
Do you know when Jesus reacted strongly?
Whenever he saw unbelief, whenever he saw people
calling God a liar, whenever he saw people
who appeared to be so holy, so good,
but they wouldn't trust God.
And there are lots of people sitting in
Christian churches like that, congratulating themselves, they're so
holy, they're so good, they don't steal, they
don't do any harm to anyone, they're always
very kind when they speak, but they don't
trust God.
Can you believe that Jesus is rebuking you
for unbelief perhaps this morning?
Well, I thank God that day, when I
read John 6.37, I was around nineteen
and a half, and I said, Lord, I
have come to you so many times.
Today, I'm going to believe you've accepted me.
And I dropped an anchor that day, and
my ship has never drifted for forty-one
years.
And if any of you are sitting here
confused, particularly children growing up in godly homes,
many of you have probably asked Jesus to
come into your heart many times.
I want you to drop an anchor today.
If you've come to Jesus, he has not
cast you out.
There are no conditions.
You're to come just as you are.
That's the only way we can come.
He doesn't ask us to improve ourselves before
we come.
Just as you are.
And the worse you are, the quicker you
need to come.
It's like if a man has an accident
on the road, say, let's take you to
the hospital.
He doesn't say, no, let me change my
dress, let me clean myself up a bit
and then go.
No.
Just as he is.
And the worse he is, the sooner he
needs to go to the hospital.
Just as he is.
That's how hospitals receive people.
They don't wait there until they're dressed up
and had a bath and things like that.
No.
Just as they are, and that's how we
come to Jesus.
And it's his job to clean us up,
to give us a new heart.
But he can't do it if you won't
trust him.
If you won't believe what he says, him
that cometh to me, I'll never cast out.
And then years later, after I was born
again, and I started serving God, I felt
the need for power.
And I began to seek God for power.
Now the Bible says, whatever things you pray,
if it is according to the will of
God, we have the assurance that he hears
us.
And whatever things you pray, Jesus said, believe
that you receive them and you shall have
them.
Now there are many, many things concerning which
we don't know the will of God.
We cannot ask for them with certainty.
You're interested in marrying someone, you don't know
whether that's God's will.
You can't ask for certainty saying, God, give
me that boy or that girl.
You don't know whether it's God's will for
you to buy something for your home or
buy a house itself.
Many, many things we don't know God's will.
But there are certain things we know God's
will definitely.
It is God's will that we should have
our sins forgiven.
There's no doubt about that.
It is God's will that we should all
be filled with the Holy Spirit.
That is God's will for every single child
of God.
It's not for some spiritual elite class of
believers.
It's for everyone.
And one of the ways in which the
devil prevents people from seeking to be filled
with the Holy Spirit and saying, you're not
yet ready for that.
When will we be ready?
We'll never be ready.
Or you're not yet worthy.
Do you think a day will come when
you'll be worthy to receive the Holy Spirit?
Impossible.
You'll never be worthy to receive the Holy
Spirit any more than you'll ever be worthy
to receive the forgiveness of sins.
So I sought God to be filled with
the Holy Spirit and I couldn't believe that
God had answered my prayer.
And I would pray again.
And that went for a number of years
like that.
There are two conditions to have rivers of
living water flowing from us.
Only two.
John chapter 7 verse 37 and 38.
Jesus, on the last day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried out saying, if any
man is thirsty, that's condition number one, let
him come to me and drink.
I can't come to Jesus if I'm not
thirsty.
And there's a, there are different types of
thirst.
For example, I may say, well, I'd like
to have a glass of water right now.
Yeah.
But if a glass of water costs $10
,000, well, I don't think I'm that thirsty.
But supposing I've been traveling in a desert
for a number of days without water and
my body's drained out and I'm about to
drop dead.
And somebody offers me a glass of water
for $10,000.
I say, please give it to me.
I'm ready.
Any price, all that I have.
That's the type of thirst.
Not the first type of thirst.
The second type of thirst is what Jesus
is speaking of here.
That's the reason why many people are not
filled with the Holy Spirit.
They're not willing to pay any price, do
anything.
They pray, yeah, Lord, that's a good thing.
I'd like to have, I'd like to be
filled with the Holy Spirit.
It's like saying, well, yeah, I wouldn't mind
having that ice cream.
But if it's not given to me, nevermind.
I'm not going to die if I don't
have it.
And that's the way a lot of people
pray.
Well, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Nothing happened.
Okay, I've got to get on with life.
It's not everything.
God never answers prayers with such people because
he sees they're not thirsty.
They're not desperate.
This is not the most important thing for
them in life.
Yeah, it's one of the extra things like
the ice cream at the end of the
meal.
You won't die if you don't have it.
And when we treat the Holy Spirit like
that, we never experience his fullness.
Because God sees whether you value him, whether
we value.
So that's now condition number one, we've got
a thirst.
And the second thing Jesus said here was,
we must believe, again, faith.
He who believes in me, verse 38, as
the scripture has said, from his innermost being
shall flow rivers of living water.
In the Old Testament, they couldn't experience this
from the innermost being.
It says the Spirit of God, Judges 6
.34, clothed Gideon.
It was like a dress.
You could take it off and put it
on.
It wasn't part of a person's being.
David was anointed, but he said, take not
thy Holy Spirit from me.
It was a dress that could be taken
off.
It was on the outside, clothed with the
Spirit.
But now something new was going to happen
in the New Covenant.
This Spirit that clothed people for years in
the Old Covenant would now come inside.
And from the innermost being would flow rivers
of living water.
And this he spoke of the Spirit, which
those who believed in him were to receive.
For the Spirit was not yet given in
this way, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
And then some years later, just like in
the Old Covenant, my experience with being born
again, a time came when I came to
the point where I could believe.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
I want to believe that you've granted my
request.
You've filled my heart with the Holy Spirit.
And faith was born in my heart.
And my life was never being the same.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer thereafter.
And it's continuous.
There is no once-for-all experience that
guarantees that we're gonna walk with God forever.
That's the big mistake a lot of Christians
have made.
We need to take up the cross daily,
Luke 9, 23.
In Proverbs chapter 8 it says, Blessed is
the man who watches daily at my gates.
We need to listen to the word of
God, every word that God speaks to our
heart every day.
We need to be filled with the Spirit
daily, continuously.
So therefore we need to have faith, continuously.
We are to live by faith, just like
we breathe continuously.
One deep breath is not going to take
care of me for the rest of my
life.
Well, it's good once in a while to
have deep breathing exercises, but we still need
to breathe regularly if we are to live.
Faith is like that.
We live by faith just like we live
by breathing, moment by moment.
And when I understood a little more about
this, about 20 years ago, I began to
see what faith really was.
It was a confidence in God and a
dependence on Him.
Two things, a confidence, I can trust Him.
I can trust Him with my whole life.
It's like putting money in a bank.
There are banks that are not very secure,
and if you know that a bank is
going to crash, you wouldn't put your money
there.
But if you have to put your money
somewhere, you may put a little bit because
you're not very sure whether that bank will
survive, and you keep the rest with you.
Lots of Christians give themselves to Jesus like
that, they're not sure whether this bank will
crash.
Do you see the insult there is there?
Why is it that so many Christians do
not give everything they have, they are, their
time, their energy, their money, their ambitions, their
plans, everything to God and say, Lord, you
tell me how to live.
Tell me how to spend my money.
Tell me what I must do with my
life.
Totally everything is yours.
Why is it the rich young ruler was
not willing to give everything?
He felt Jesus was a bank that might
crash.
Now if I were to put it like
that to you, you may say, well, I
don't believe Jesus is like a bank that
crashes.
Do you really believe he's a bank that
will last for eternity?
Then why haven't you given everything to him?
Why haven't you put all your money at
his feet?
Have you done it?
No one can be my disciple, Jesus said,
who does not forsake all his possessions.
I cannot possess anything if I want to
be a disciple.
Now, I'm not just giving a pep talk,
my brothers and sisters.
I believe this is the central thing in
the Christian life.
If you have missed this, you have missed
everything.
It's not a pep talk to just whip
us up this morning to get us all
stirred up and go home and say that
was a good message.
I hope it will change the whole direction
of your life.
And if it's done that with some people,
if it does that with some people this
morning, I'd say, well, God's been able to
accomplish.
What he wanted to say this morning.
And that is to get you to surrender
every single thing in your life to him.
That's the way you prove that you've got
faith.
I can trust this bank.
I can put every last penny into it
and I know they will take care of
it better than I can do it myself.
You know why we have so many fears,
anxieties, worries?
If I had $500,000 in cash with
me and I had the option to put
it in a bank or keep it at
home in a town which is riddled with
crime, and I'm not very sure of this
bank, so maybe I keep $50,000 there,
I give my type to the bank, and
you understand the application, and I keep $450
,000 by myself under my pillow at night,
do you think I'll be able to sleep
properly that night?
Or any night?
There's crime, there are robbers, thieves, I won't
be able to leave my home.
I'll be worried.
I'll be anxious because I couldn't trust the
bank.
But if I put everything there, I can
sleep peacefully, let the thieves come, let them
come when I'm not at home.
That is the secret.
That is the secret of a life of
rest in God.
We who believe enter into rest, we read
in Hebrews 4.
We who have put all our money into
the bank, we are at rest.
We who have given all our children to
God, we are at rest concerning even our
children.
God will take care of them.
God will determine everything concerning them, when they
are sick, when they are healthy, when things
go wrong, when things go right, it doesn't
matter, they are in the bank.
That's what faith means.
In fact, what a wonderful offer it is,
when the secure bank of heaven says, give
everything to me, I'll take care of it.
Why do you want to try and safeguard
it yourself, when we think we can plan
our life better than God can plan it?
What does it mean?
That means I don't have confidence in God.
I don't believe that He can plan my
life better than I can plan it myself.
What fools we are.
The unbelieving Christian is like that.
He thinks he can make a better deal
with his life than what God can.
He thinks he can find a better wife
than God can for himself.
He thinks she can find a better husband,
she thinks, than God can.
What a fool such a person is.
Is it really true?
Do you know everything about the future?
You don't even know what's going to happen
this evening.
Leave alone the future.
And here is someone who knows the whole
future.
Every little trap the devil has laid out
for you.
Every little problem that can arise.
Everything that's going to happen from now till
all eternity.
And he says, let me plan your life
for you.
And we hold it back.
What fools we are.
What fools the vast majority of Christians are.
You know, there are people who, nowadays, who
invest people's money.
Investment experts.
And there are people who've got a lot
of money who don't know how to invest
it in a way that will get good
returns.
They give it to these investment experts.
And usually, if they're not very sure, they'll
just give a little bit and see how
much he makes out of that.
But if they're confident, this man's done a
good job for so many people.
He's trustworthy.
He'll give everything.
Now, can you give your whole future into
God's hands like that?
Can you put all your money in God's
hands and say, Lord, You are the greatest
investment expert I've ever known.
And all the money I have, all my
property and all my savings and all my
money, I want to lay it all at
Your feet.
Not ten percent.
That was old covenant.
All that I have, I want You to
tell me how to spend it.
How much should I spend for my home?
How much should I spend for my family?
How much should I spend on so many
things, I mean.
He's not going to make us starve.
He's not going to make us live in
a slum.
He knows.
He's given us, the Bible says in 1
Timothy 6.6.17, He's given us richly
all things to enjoy.
God is not a spoilsport.
God's given us many things to enjoy, but
He will tell us to invest it in
a wise way.
In a way that will bring returns for
all eternity.
The best way we can use the money
God has given us on earth.
I want to say a word here.
You know, the Bible says in 1 Timothy
6.
We brought nothing into this world and we
can take nothing out.
Therefore, that's why everything belongs to God.
There is a verse in 1 Corinthians 10
.26 which says, The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof.
The fullness thereof means everything that the earth
contains.
Sometimes we don't understand that clearly.
The earth is the Lord's and everything in
it.
That means all the gold and silver in
the world is the Lord's.
All the money is the Lord's.
It's not mine.
When I came to the world, I brought
nothing.
When I would go out, I can't take
anything out.
You know, that's why the Lord doesn't allow
us to take anything out when we leave
this world.
Because we brought nothing in when we came
in.
It's like if we go with our little
children to somebody's house and those people in
that house are kind enough to let my
little boy play with all their toy cars
and other toys over there.
And if one of my boys, as they're
going out, puts a few of those toys
in his pocket, well, if I'm a good
father, we go out of the door, we
check up the pockets before we leave.
And I say, well, son, when we came
to this house, we didn't bring anything in
our pockets.
And when we leave, we've got to leave
with empty pockets.
These folks allowed us to play with these
things while we were here, but now we've
got to leave them behind.
That's exactly what God says when every man
dies.
When you came into this earth, your pockets
were empty, you didn't have a thing, you
didn't have a stitch of clothing on you.
And now you're leaving, you've got to leave
everything behind.
What you can take with you, though, is
your character.
What you've allowed the Holy Spirit to work
in you during your lifetime.
The goodness, the forgiving nature, the unselfishness, the
mercy, the purity, that's yours.
You can take it with you to eternity.
But all the other things were only a
loan.
I hope you remember that.
That every single thing, you may think that's
your property.
No, it isn't.
It's God's.
He's loaned it to you.
And He says, give it to me and
I will make maximum use of it.
And if you trust Him, you will give
everything to Him.
Everything.
Lord, my time, my energy, my money, even
my body.
Everything is yours.
You can do what you like with it.
That is faith.
I remember hearing the story of a doctor
here in the United States many years ago.
I think it was the early part of
the century, perhaps, Dr. Walter Wilson.
He was once in a meeting where he
heard someone speaking about being filled with the
Holy Spirit from Romans 12, verse 1.
Now, that's not the usual verse people take
when they talk about being filled with the
Holy Spirit.
Because Romans 12, verse 1 speaks about present
your bodies a living sacrifice to God, which
is your reasonable service or spiritual service of
worship.
And the preacher said in that meeting that
who is it who wants your body?
Not God the Father, He is in heaven.
Not God the Son, He already has a
body.
It's the Holy Spirit who wants your body.
Every part of your body.
The Holy Spirit is in the world and
He is looking for people's bodies.
So give your body to Him.
So this man went home, Dr. Wilson, and
he laid on the floor, and I don't
remember his exact words, but he said something
like this.
He said, Lord, I'm going to take you
seriously.
He was already born again Christian.
And he lay on the floor and said,
from the crown of my head to the
sole of my feet, I give myself to
you.
Every part of this body in a sacred
transaction, I hand it over to you.
Eyes, ears, hands, legs, everything.
Now, Lord, you can do what you like
with this.
You can take this body and send it
as a missionary to Tibet or lay it
on a bed with cancer.
It's not my body anymore.
You can send it to Greenland or blind
the eyes.
It's not my body.
It's yours.
I have no more right over this body.
And he meant it.
Now, we can repeat the same words.
It may not mean it, but he meant
it.
And God filled him with the Holy Spirit
and power.
He never spoke in tongues or anything, but
he was filled with the Holy Spirit and
power.
And his life was transformed from that day.
He's written a book.
I think the title of it is The
Romance of a Doctor's Visit.
He was a medical practitioner.
And God used him to lead many, many
people to Christ.
But that was how he received the Holy
Spirit.
You know, the Holy Spirit, one of the
things the Lord showed me about the Holy
Spirit is there's a difference between spirit filling
and demon possession.
The Spirit never possesses people.
He fills people.
You never read about spirit-possessed people in
the New Testament.
Spirit-filled people.
And you never read about demon-filled people.
You always read about demon-possessed people.
And there's a difference between being filled with
the Spirit and being possessed with a demon.
When a man's possessed with a demon, he
has no control over himself.
He does things which the demon's got total
control of his body.
And in a sense, a man's not even
responsible for what he's doing.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
He's saying things and doing things which are
under the control of a demon.
But not when the Holy Spirit fills a
person.
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
And you have more control over yourself when
you're filled with the Spirit than you had
before you were filled with the Spirit.
And that's the test I give to people.
I say, well, whatever experience you had, if
you found you couldn't control yourself, that probably
wasn't the Holy Spirit.
There are people who say, well, I began
to blabber something, I couldn't stop.
Well, that was certainly not the Holy Spirit.
Because if it was the Spirit, you could
stop.
You see, every gift of the Spirit is
something over which we have control.
The Spirit of God fills me and I
begin to teach the Word of God.
I don't say, well, I don't know when
I'm going to stop.
I don't know, maybe three o'clock this
afternoon or six o'clock tomorrow morning, I
can't stop.
It's not like that.
The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to
the Prophets.
And I can stop when it's time to
stop.
It's not beyond my control.
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
And a spiritual person will be the person
who has maximum control over his tongue, control
over his temper, control over his eyes, control
over what he does with his hands, and
every part of his body.
But provided you've given your body time.
If you haven't given it, he won't control
it.
He's a, the Holy Spirit's a gentleman.
He's gracious.
He says, I stand at the door and
knock.
If you open that area of your life
to me, I'll take it.
And a lot of Christians are like people
who allow Jesus to come into one part
of their life.
Our home is like a, our heart is
like a one thousand room house.
Have you seen these hotels at night?
These huge hotels.
Many, many.
And you know the rooms that are occupied
at night.
They've got lights.
A lot of other rooms are empty.
When we can look at our home, our
heart like that.
With a thousand rooms.
And you ask Jesus to come into your
heart.
And he's come into one room.
That's all you allowed him to come into.
Has he come in?
Yes, he has.
But has he got control over every room
in your house?
No, he hasn't.
That's the fullness of the Spirit.
To let him into every room.
Lord, every room.
Can I come into your library?
And throw out some books?
You may not want it.
Can I come into your finances room?
And look over your accounts?
And your income?
And expenditure?
And your tax papers?
Can I look through all that?
Well, he won't come in if you don't
let him.
You just want him to come and give
you forgiveness of sins?
You've got one little room lighted up in
your house?
Fine.
Can I come and control your eating habits?
Can I come and control your sleeping habits?
Can I come and control the clothes you're
wearing?
Can I look through your wardrobe and see
what type of clothes you have?
How many you have?
And why you have these type of clothes?
Can I control you a little bit there?
And you say, no, Lord.
We'll treat you like an honored guest.
Just stay in the guest room and we'll
give you a good meal.
Don't come poking your nose into all these
other things.
Oh, do we respect him?
Of course.
We respect him like an honored guest to
whom we'll give the best room in the
house and the best food.
But we don't want him to come poking
his nose into these other areas of our
life.
And we pray, oh God, fill me with
the Spirit.
You won't be filled with the Spirit in
a hundred years.
Yes, you can go to some church where
they'll give you a little experience and you
think you've got something.
You've got nothing.
Don't be fooled by all that.
There's a lot of that type of deception
going on in Christendom today.
This is the way to get it.
Confidence in God.
I can trust Him.
I can put all my money into that
bank.
I can trust Him with every part of
my body.
Here is a verse which the Lord showed
me.
1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 13.
The last part, it says, The body is
not for immorality, but for the Lord.
And the Lord is for the body.
Did you get that statement?
The body is for the Lord and the
Lord is for the body.
If your body is totally for the Lord,
the Lord will be totally for your body.
That includes even healing and helps.
I'm not saying we'll never get sick and
die.
I'm saying that as long as God wants
me to live on earth, if my body
is totally the Lord's, the Lord will take
care of my body.
From sickness, accidents, cancers, everything.
If the body is for the Lord, the
Lord is for the body.
Otherwise scripture is not true.
The problem is that a lot of people
have not given their body completely to God.
They want to use their eyes to look
at and read what they want and they
say, Lord, please be for my body.
No.
If the body is for the Lord, the
Lord is for the body.
They want God to use their tongue when
they get up to speak in the meeting,
but they don't allow Him to use the
tongue the rest of the time.
It's not possible.
If you want God to use your tongue
in the pulpit, it's got to be His
24 hours a day, 365 days of the
year.
Then, He'll be with you in the pulpit
as well.
The body is for the Lord, and then
the Lord is for the body.
Every part of us.
He can take care of it.
This body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, it says in verse 19.
So that's what we need to do.
You know, in the Old Testament, when they
offered a burnt offering to God, there were
many types of offerings, five of them, but
the burnt offering was a picture of total
sacrifice.
That was Romans 12.1, what you read
in Leviticus chapter 1, the burnt offering.
And you couldn't take a bullet and put
it on the altar like that.
No.
The Lord said, cut it up.
Cut it into pieces, and make sure every
piece is on the altar, and then the
fire will fall.
That's how it was.
I can't go to God and say, Lord,
here's my body.
Cut it up.
Then you understand it.
Say, Lord, here are my eyes.
I never want again to read anything that
you don't want me to read.
I don't want to look at anything, I
never want to look at a picture for
the rest of my life, which you will
not want me to look at.
Here are my ears, Lord, I don't want
to listen to anything that you will not
listen to.
Here's my tongue, I never want to say
anything in future that you and I can't
say together.
Piece by piece, here are my hands, laid
on the altar, and when the last piece
is on the altar, the fire will fall.
Sure.
Sometimes we say, there are people who say,
we are tearing.
Well, it's not you who is tearing, God
is tearing for you to put that last
piece on the altar, that's all.
Because the moment the last piece is there,
the fire falls.
He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit
and fire.
It's confidence, it's based on confidence in God.
I trust God.
I can trust this bank 100%.
That will take better care of my body
than I can take care of it myself.
That will get better care of my finances
than any investment banker or any investment expert
in the world.
That can take better care of my future
than even my own dad trying to plan
my future.
God can plan everything.
I believe God's got a plan for our
life.
He's got a blueprint up there in heaven,
but He doesn't show it to those who
are not hungry and who've not given everything
to Him.
And even when they do that, He shows
it to them day by day, page by
page.
He doesn't give them the whole book.
But that's the best way to live.
Moses prayed in Psalm 90.
It's the one Psalm of Moses that is
in the Bible.
He said in Psalm 90 verse 12, Lord,
teach us to number our days that we
may apply our hearts to wisdom.
Teach us, Lord, that we've got so few
days on earth, it's like having very little
money.
You know, people who've got plenty of money
can throw it around.
But people who've got very little money, and
I've seen lots of people in India like
that, and we have to, in the church,
we have to teach them how to live
within that income.
And then we teach them, cut out this,
cut out this, cut out this, and you
can live without debt.
So, teach us to number our days means
a man recognizes, Lord, I'm not a rich
man.
I've got maybe 70 years, 80 years.
That's it.
Very little.
I'm a poor man.
I've just got few days on this earth.
And I want to be very careful.
I can't afford to waste money like people
who think they're going to live for a
thousand years or ten thousand years.
I don't have a thousand years.
I've only got 70 or 80.
And I've already wasted so many of them.
I've got so few left.
Now, Lord, the few little bit that's left,
I teach me to apply my heart to
wisdom.
There are many things I can do with
these few days.
But there are only few things that will
count for eternity.
Help me to invest my life in a
good way.
And I don't know, Lord.
There are a lot of things I may
do which I may think are good.
I may discover ten years later, it was
an absolute waste of time.
And I can't afford this trial and error
method.
It's too late in life to try this
trial and error method.
To go for some new experience somebody's talking
about there.
Some other church is talking about some other
experience there.
I don't have time to waste with these
trial and error methods.
Lord, I want you to plan my life.
Every detail.
I give you my word.
You tell me to do it and I'll
do it.
Tell me to stay, I'll stay.
Tell me to go, I'll go.
I have no choice.
In any part of the world I'm ready
to go.
At any time.
My life is yours.
My future is yours.
My time is yours.
My energy is yours.
My money is yours.
My family is yours.
I put my hand to the plow and
I'm not going to look back.
And even if there are tears in my
eyes blood on that plow, I'm not going
to look back.
That's what God's looking for.
God like that.
There's a beautiful verse the Lord showed me
once in John chapter 17.
The secret of Jesus life.
I believe this is the reason why Jesus
lived such a fulfilled life on earth.
The most wonderful life that anyone could ever
live.
He wasn't rich.
He didn't have a big house to live
in.
He was one of the poorest people in
Palestine.
But no one ever lived on this earth
a more fulfilled, fulfilling, satisfying life than Jesus
did.
It was a life of faith.
That means a life of total confidence in
his Father.
Total.
Without any hesitation or reservation.
John 17 verse 10.
There's a little sentence here which sometimes we
read through John 17.
You may have missed it.
John 17 and verse 10 it says, All
things that are mine are thine.
And all that are thine are mine.
It's wonderful.
What an exchange.
All that is mine is thine, Father.
And all that is thine is mine.
Don't go the way of 10% and
say, Lord, 10% of mine is thine
and 10% of yours is mine.
I don't want that.
All that is mine is thine.
What do I have?
I have a certain amount of money.
I have a certain number of years ahead
of me on this earth.
I have health.
I have strength.
I have a house.
I have children.
I have so many things.
All of that.
Make a list of your possessions.
Forsake them all.
You'll be a disciple.
All that is mine is thine.
And all that is thine is mine.
It's an exchange.
And you see the folly of so many
Christians in not making that exchange.
I think of myself like a a beggar
woman a beggar woman sitting on the roadside,
and we see many of them in our
country with a little tin can and I've
got maybe two or three cents in it.
That's all I have.
Even the man who's got millions.
In heaven's eyes it's nothing.
Two or three cents.
And here is this wealthy handsome prince who
comes by my way Jesus Christ and says
to me I want to marry you.
I want to give you everything I have.
If you'll give me everything you have in
that tin can.
Lord let me think about it.
Three cents.
You mean you want all three cents?
Yes, I want all three cents.
Can you imagine this foolish beggar woman and
interesting thing, the wonderful thing is he still
waits.
He doesn't say okay, if you don't want
to forget it I'm giving you such a
good offer.
No, he waits.
And he waits year after year patiently.
When will we have wisdom?
When will we say Lord teach me the
number of my days that I may apply
my heart to wisdom.
And say Lord it's unbelievable, the gospel is
unbelievable.
That he'd give me everything he has for
my two cents.
And what fools we are to say I
want to pray about it.
I want to think about it.
Do you have confidence?
You don't have faith.
You can be a very good person, a
very kind person, a very helpful person and
not pleasing to God because without faith it
is impossible to please God.
If you don't have confidence in him.
If you have confidence you'll say all that
is mine is thine.
And he will say he'll always do his
part.
All that is his will be mine.
Every blessing in the heavenly places will be
mine.
The Lord's asking me to give the little
things that he gave me back to him.
He's just testing me, that's all.
He doesn't want it.
He owns the heaven and earth.
What does he want with my petty millions?
My body, he's got hundreds of bodies.
But he still asks for me because he
wants to make my life so rich and
so useful and so fruitful.
So that when I stand in eternity at
the judgment seat of Christ, I'll have no
regret because I have total confidence in God.
There's a little poem I read many many
years ago.
Which says something like this.
When I stand at the judgment seat of
Christ and he shows me his plan for
me.
The plan of my life as it might
have been.
And I see how I checked him here
how I stopped him there.
And I would not yield my will will
there be grief in my saviors eyes.
Grief.
Though he loves me still.
And it goes on to say in that
poem I quoted in that book of mine,
Finding God's Will.
I stand there stripped of everything but his
grace.
And I bow my uncrowned head and I
look back over the parts I cannot retrace
now.
Sit down forever.
He would have me rich but I stand
there poor.
Stripped of all but his grace while memory
runs like a hunted thing.
Down the parts I cannot retrace.
Think of it.
We're going to stand there one day.
And our memory will run over the years
we lived.
The places we would not yield our will.
When he told us to humble ourselves and
go and apologize to someone.
We stood on our pride.
And that day we will see the years
of our life which were wasted.
That restitution we would not make.
That self justification where we stood on our
rights.
And what we missed for eternity.
And we'll never be able to live our
life again.
And it goes on in that poem in
the last verse to say, Lord of the
years that are left to me I give
them to thy hands.
Take me, break me, use me.
Fulfill the pattern you have planned.
And that's why I say it's wonderful if
you young people can be gripped by that
now.
Before you waste all your life.
To have confidence in God.
To put everything into that bank of heaven.
And say, Lord it's worth it.
I'm so thankful as I look back over
40 years of my life.
As far as I can remember from the
time I gave my life totally to Jesus
I never sought for money.
I said, Lord I want your will.
Because I know your will is the best.
I want to do your will.
Many times I've made mistakes.
I've blundered.
I've slipped up.
But when I knew something was God's will
I'd say, I don't care how many people
misunderstand me.
I don't care how many churches throw me
out.
I'm going to stand for your will.
And I've never regretted it till today.
I want to say to you.
I want to recommend that part to you.
I'm not saying that after one or two
years.
I'm saying that after 41 years.
That's the best way to live.
The Apostle John, the age of 95.
After having walked with God for 65 years
writes these words in 1 John chapter 5
verse 3.
His commandments are not a burden.
Think of that testimony.
From a man who's walked with God for
65 years.
Saying, none of God's commands are a burden.
I was so happy to keep all of
them.
The devil has always been going around saying
to people, well it's a burden to obey
God.
It's a burden to obey God.
It's a burden.
Oh, you can't keep all the commandments.
That's a burden.
And then Jesus lived on earth and proved
that the devil was a liar.
That it was not a burden to obey
God.
It was a burden not to obey God.
Come to me all you who are burdened
and heavy laden.
He said, my yoke is easy.
My burden is light.
And throughout these 2,000 years God has
wanted living testimonies in all parts of the
world who will prove to the world and
to the principalities that God's commands are not
a burden.
That His commands are the best for us.
That God can find people on earth who
will give everything to Him so that He
can give everything of His to them.
Total confidence in God.
That is faith.
But it's more than that.
Faith, I also said, is dependence upon God.
See, I have confidence in God.
This is a thing God showed me about
20 years ago and I've written it in
a book called Secrets of Victory.
Faith is the leaning of the whole human
personality upon God in absolute confidence in just
what I said just now.
His perfect wisdom, He can plan my life
better than anyone on earth can.
His perfect love, He loves me so completely,
totally.
I don't have to doubt Him.
I can leave everything in this bank.
And His almighty power.
God's power is so sovereign.
It controls all the events of my life.
All the people who got to deal with
me are all controlled by God.
You know, I could never think of living
a life of victory if it were not
that God's almighty power promises me that He
will never allow me to be tempted beyond
my ability.
There's a wonderful promise like that in 1
Corinthians 10.13 So, the devil is planning
a massive temptation for me.
God tests it out first.
Is He able to bear it?
Not yet.
So, He filters it.
Won't come to me.
And the temptations I faced last year, if
they had come to me 25 years earlier,
I may have fallen.
Just too much for me.
It's like you wouldn't allow a little child
to carry a heavy suitcase.
If we are traveling and we've got many
pieces of luggage, we distribute the luggage according
to the ability of each child.
Well, that little child can carry a little,
small little bag perhaps.
And the older one can carry something heavier.
The older one's still heavier.
And the strongest one can carry the heavier
suitcase.
That's how God is.
He will never allow us to be tempted
beyond our ability.
That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 10,
13.
But in every temptation, He will make a
way of escape for me.
Either that is true or it's not true.
If both of you are not familiar with
that verse, I encourage you to turn to
1 Corinthians 10 verse 13.
It says in the middle of that verse,
God is faithful, and there it specifically says,
God is faithful to ensure this, that you
will never be tempted beyond your ability.
But with every temptation, He will provide a
way of escape.
That means every temptation can be overcome.
I don't have to be trapped there.
Temptation is like a mouse trap, which the
devil has got for me.
There's a bait there, and like a foolish
mouse, I go in, and I bite the
bait and I get trapped.
But there's a way of escape.
I don't have to fall in that temptation.
I don't have to be trapped.
The Holy Spirit will warn me.
When I am to turn to the left
or the right, say, turn away from there.
There's a temptation there.
If you're sensitive to the listen of the
voice of the Spirit, there's a way of
escape in every single temptation.
Otherwise, God is not faithful.
It says your God is faithful.
And that's why we can boldly proclaim that
sin will not have dominion over us.
Because we're under grace.
Because God's almighty power will ensure that it
doesn't go beyond my ability to bear.
Sometimes people say, well, if we follow these
Christian principles, and we always turn the other
cheek, and never retaliate, and never take revenge,
and never sue the fellow who's trying to
sue me.
People will take advantage of you, they say.
People will just treat you like a doorman.
That's true, if God is not almighty.
I agree fully.
I'd be scared to obey those commandments if
my God were so small that he couldn't
control those people.
But, if my God is almighty, what do
I have to worry?
I've faced some tremendous pressures from people who
hated me and wanted to harm me in
many ways, and I'll give you my testimony.
In 60 years, nobody's ever succeeded in harming
me.
All things work together for my good.
For my very best.
Because I have a big God.
Sometimes I sit outside and look at the
stars, and I think, boy, what a huge
universe.
Massive stars.
I read in a science book once, that
there's one star, which is so big, listen
carefully, which is so big, that the entire
solar system, that means the sun, moon, star,
earth and the planets, can all rotate inside
it, if it were hollow at the correct
distances.
You know how big the solar system is.
Millions of miles.
And that's the diameter of this one star,
which is so far away that it looks
like a little speck.
This massive universe that God runs and has
run for millenniums and thousands of years, in
the midst of this massive universe, there's a
small little speck called the earth.
A little speck of dust.
And on that little speck of dust are
still smaller specks of dust like you and
me.
And this small little person has got a
problem.
Another speck of dust is trying to harm
it.
Or 25 specks of dust are trying to
harm it.
And this person's God cannot help him.
It must be some other God.
I sit back there and say, oh God,
what a fool I am to think that
any of these is a problem big for
this huge almighty God who's running this universe.
I would encourage you sometimes to sit outside
and meditate and say, what is man?
How great my God is.
What is there that he cannot handle?
That difficult person, a thousand difficult people, a
million difficult people.
Sometimes my faith is so strong, I say,
Lord, I can handle the whole world.
Let all six billion people stand against me.
I can handle all of them if you're
on my side.
And the Lord says to me, all you've
got to do is keep your conscience clear.
Never have anything on your conscience between you
and me and between you and your fellow
being.
Always do more if you're in doubt.
I remember once when I had to return
a certain amount of money when I was
converted and I was baptized, the Lord told
me to make restitution to the government of
taxes that I'd cheated the government on.
And I was calculating at that time, it
was about three or four months of my
salary that I had to return at that
time.
And I was thinking now, how much is
it, Lord?
I'm trying to calculate all the taxes I
owe back and not sure whether it's one
thousand rupees or one thousand two hundred rupees.
I wasn't sure.
Is it a thousand rupees I have to
pay back or a thousand two hundred rupees?
You know how human nature is.
When we are in doubt, we take the
lower amount and say, okay, let me pay
back a thousand rupees.
And that day I was reading Numbers chapter
five.
I read Numbers chapter five, that if a
man commits a sin and is guilty, verse
seven, he must confess his sin that he
has committed and he must make restitution in
full and add twenty percent and give it
to him he is wrong.
It was so exact.
The Lord said, not one thousand, add twenty
percent and make it one thousand two hundred
and give it back.
And I gave it back.
It was a large amount of money for
me then.
It was about four times what I was
earning and I was earning a good salary.
It was about four months salary.
But if I hadn't done it then, I
would have not had God with me.
I would have been dragging a chain for
thirty eight years and wasted my life.
Always err on the side of doing more
rather than less.
Of giving more rather than less when you
are in doubt.
Zacchaeus didn't want to make any mistake.
He said, I'll give back four times what
I took interest in everything calculated so that
nobody ever feels that I cheated him.
And Jesus said, salvation has come.
And the second thing the Lord said to
me was keep a good conscience, that's one.
And second, always humble yourself.
Always humble yourself.
Because I give grace only to the humble.
And that's what I sought to keep before
me always.
Never to compare myself with other people because
that's easy to get puffed up that way.
But to compare myself with Jesus then we
have no problem being humble.
You know that the reason why God can't
support some people is because they are proud.
And you know how pride comes.
Here you don't go to school.
Children go to mostly home school but in
India there is no home schooling.
Everybody goes to school.
And I use this illustration from school.
I said, supposing a child studying in a
school gets 15 percent in mathematics.
Can he come home rejoicing and happy saying,
mommy I came first in the class?
I said, yes he can.
If all the others in the class got
5 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent.
The one who got 15 percent came first.
How does pride come?
I mean 15 percent is very poor marks.
But he's still proud because pride comes by
comparison.
Lord I thank you I'm not like other
men.
They got 3 percent, I got 5 percent.
Okay, now you take that same child and
put him in another school where everybody is
getting 90 percent, 95 percent, 98 percent, 100
percent and suddenly he becomes humble.
How is that?
Humility comes by comparison also.
So that's the answer.
All the pride there is in any human
being, whether pride of good looks or pride
of intelligence or pride of spirituality or pride
of the way he prays or the way
he preaches or Bible knowledge or anything, always
comes by comparison with other people who are
inferior to him in looks or intelligence or
preaching ability or Bible knowledge or everything.
Always by comparison.
How shall we be humble then?
Very simple.
Looking unto Jesus.
Lord, I want to keep my eyes on
you.
I want to compare my Bible knowledge with
yours.
I want to compare my preaching ability with
yours.
I want to compare my healing ability with
yours.
I want to compare my anointing with yours.
And I want to compare my looks with
yours.
And I want to compare everything with you.
You'll never have a problem with pride for
the rest of your life.
But when you turn your eyes away from
Jesus like Peter when he turned his eyes
away from the Lord and he's walking on
the water you know what happened.
He sank immediately.
Didn't even take a second.
That's when we begin to sink.
When our eyes are off the Lord.
Dependence upon Him.
That's the way of faith.
Looking unto Jesus.
I see that looking unto Jesus is just
another way of saying have faith.
That's what faith is.
Looking unto Jesus.
Dependence upon Him.
With absolute confidence in His wisdoms.
Perfect wisdoms.
Perfect love.
His almighty power that controls the people who
come into my life.
That controls the circumstances of my life.
And makes everything work together for my good.
That is God's will.
For that's the way He wants us to
live.
I think of two miracles.
In fact all the miracles that Jesus did
teach this principle but I just want to
point out two in John's gospel.
The first and the last.
In John chapter 2 it says there was
no wine at this feast.
I mean they ran out of wine.
And then we read here that Jesus was
there in the midst of the servants.
He's usually found among the servants.
And He told them to fill those six
water pots with water.
And then He told them to carry it
out and give it to the servants.
Now Jesus could have filled those water pots
with wine from He could have converted the
air into wine.
Don't you think so?
Would that have been more difficult?
Those empty water pots He could have just
filled them with wine.
But then He would have done the miracle
all by Himself.
And that's just not His way.
He always wants to use man.
And so He gives them a part to
do.
He says you fill the water pots with
water.
I'll turn it into wine.
You do the easy part and I'll do
the difficult part.
That's God's way.
And they do the easy part and He
turns it into wine and they go out
serving and those people don't know that Jesus
did this miracle over here.
It was only water.
By the time it came to them it
was wine.
That's the way to serve.
It's not difficult to serve the Lord.
He never asks us to do more than
we can.
He tells us to do the easy part.
Many times, I cannot think the number of
times in my life when I've got up
to speak and I said, Lord it's only
water.
But by the time people get it it's
wine.
It's wine.
And they don't know that I didn't produce
it.
They don't know that I just went with
a little water to Jesus and He turned
it into wine and gave it to people.
It says here, they did not know where
it came from.
Verse 9.
But the servants knew and I know even
if you don't.
It's so easy to serve the Lord if
you have faith.
But if you don't have faith if the
servants say, well what's the use of water?
What the folks need here is not water,
they need wine.
If they had gone under that argument, nothing
would have happened.
When we don't have faith when we can't
say, Lord I trust you.
It was the same in the feeding of
the five thousand.
Don't you think Jesus would have produced loaves
from nothing?
Don't you think He would have produced fish
from nothing?
But no.
He takes that little boy's lunch packet and
says, give it to me son and let's
you and I do a miracle here.
And He multiplies the loaves.
That's all we got to do.
We have only so little and we give
it to Jesus and He can feed multitudes.
Rivers of living water.
And I can imagine that little boy went
home that day and said, Mommy I and
Jesus fed five thousand people today.
Notice the order.
I and Jesus fed five thousand people today.
That's the way human beings are.
I've often thought, what is it to serve
the Lord?
It's like if I'm carrying a big table
from one room to another and my little
three year old boy comes and says, Daddy
can I help you?
I'll never say no.
I say sure son.
Come and hold that little corner.
And he holds that little corner and I'm
carrying the table across to the other side.
And he's so happy.
And he goes home and says, Mommy I
and Daddy carried that table to the other
room.
When people boast about what they have done
for the Lord and how many souls they
brought to the Lord and well they've gone
here and they've done this and that and
the other.
It's something like that.
Never forget it.
But it's so easy really.
When all that little that we have, our
two cents we give to Him.
All that is His is ours.
Now coming to the last miracle.
John chapter 21.
That was the last miracle Jesus ever did
on earth and He was teaching them a
lesson there.
He was telling them He was teaching them.
It was a picture of life under the
law.
New covenant and old covenant.
It's old covenant and new covenant there in
that last miracle.
There we read the disciples saying you know
Simon Peter says verse 3, I'm going fishing.
You see he's the one who's just denied
the Lord and he says well I tried
being an apostle.
I'm a failure there.
I denied the Lord.
But there's one thing I can do.
I've been a fisherman so many years.
That's the field I can.
If I'm no good as an apostle I'm
pretty good as a fisherman.
I'm going to go fishing.
You know all of us have got certain
strong points and that's the point at which
God wants to break you.
In Peter's case it was his fishing.
I don't know what it is in your
case.
But that was Peter's attitude.
Well even if I'm no good as an
apostle I'm pretty good as a fisherman.
And the Lord from heaven says okay go
ahead and try.
And they try 8 o'clock no fish
10 o'clock no fish, 12 o'clock
no fish.
He's never had a night like this.
He's learning about the new covenant here.
He didn't know that.
2 o'clock no fish, 4 o'clock
no fish, 4.30 Well he said we
better give up.
And they turned their ship to go home
and there they see Jesus standing on the
beach.
He always comes at that point when we
have come to the end of ourselves.
That's what the law teaches.
It says in the Old Testament when the
men of war who came out of Egypt
in the wilderness, the men of war had
all died to the last man.
600,000 of them.
Then he took them into Canaan.
You understand the principle there?
The men of war every last one has
to die.
And that took it took 2 years for
them to go from Egypt to Kadeshbania where
they were in the borders of the promised
land and then it says they wandered for
38 years till every last man of those
men of war died.
God said now you are ready now all
the men of war have died.
All the strong fellows are dead.
All the experienced warriors are all dead.
Ok now you are ready to go in.
Kill these giants and occupy Canaan.
It's the lame who take the prey.
That's what the scripture says.
Let the weak say I am strong.
Let the poor say I am rich.
Because of what the Lord has done for
me.
That's God's way.
And so he waits till they have come
to an end of themselves.
It's like that other man you know in
the pool of Bethesda we read.
There was another man lying there.
You know for how long?
Anyone knows?
38 years.
Exactly the period they wandered from Kadeshbania.
It's a picture of life under the law.
He lay there for 38 years in the
pool of Bethesda.
He tried every time to jump in when
the angel stirred the water but he always
missed it.
Somebody else got in before him.
Maybe after the 10th year he said boy
I am going to try harder next year.
But still somebody else got in.
By the time it came to 38 years
he stopped trying.
He said I will never make it.
And then Jesus comes to him and says
do you want to be made whole?
He says Lord I have got no man.
You don't need any man.
You just need me.
And he healed him.
What is the message in all these things?
You have to come to that zero point.
To the end of yourself.
Where your confidence in your own ability is
gone.
Where your dependence on your own strength is
gone.
Abraham Sarah probably couldn't produce a son but
Abraham could.
So he did.
Ishmael caused problems for God's people for 4000
years.
Right up until today.
And then a day came I think when
even Abraham's ability was gone.
Then God said ok now I will give
you a son.
When Abraham was 86 Ishmael was born.
At that time it was difficult for him
to get a son through Sarah.
By the time he was 100 it was
impossible.
And then it was done.
There are 3 stages in God's work.
Difficult.
Impossible.
Done.
So if you are in the difficult stage
you have got to wait a little longer.
Till you realize this is impossible.
Then it will be done.
Till you realize you cannot get into the
pool even if you try for another 10
years.
And then the Lord says do you want
to be made whole?
Do you want to live a life of
victory?
And that's what the Lord says here too.
Who said Jesus didn't have a sense of
humour?
He said well boys you got any fish?
He knows the answer.
Fish?
No.
He said ok.
Cast your net on the right side.
He doesn't say just wait I'll do a
miracle I'll make the fish all jump into
the boat.
You got to do your part.
Who said man doesn't have any part?
If sanctification was all God's part you know
all of us would be perfect.
Why are we not perfect?
If it was all God's part it certainly
can't be all God's part then we got
to blame God for all our unsanctified life
and behaviour.
It's not all God's part.
We have to do a little part.
We have to give our 5 loaves and
2 fish.
We have to fill the empty water pots
with water.
We have to cast the net on the
right side.
We got to do something.
It's very little.
The miracle is His but we got to
do something.
We got to take up the cross.
He's not going to put it on our
shoulders like the Roman soldiers do.
Putting it on Simon of Cyrene's shoulder.
He never forces a cross on anyone.
Roman soldiers do that.
He says if any man will let him
take up the cross.
That's God's will.
We got to do our little part.
It's so little.
It's like that little child of mine holding
the corner of the table.
We're co-workers with Jesus.
What an honour.
I just held the little corner of the
table and he calls me a co-worker,
a partner.
It's unbelievable.
I give my little 2 cents and he
says you and I are partners from now
on.
He with his millions and I with my
2 cents.
I can't understand how anybody won't be a
wholehearted Christian.
I can't understand how foolish believers are.
I mean I can understand why the unbelievers
are foolish.
Their eyes are blinded.
But what about believers who say their eyes
are open to see Jesus.
You haven't seen him.
You haven't seen how wonderful he is.
You haven't seen how loving he is.
You haven't seen how wise he is.
You haven't seen how almighty he is.
I want to say this my brothers and
sisters.
Have you come to the end of yourself?
Have you come to the place where you
say Lord I tried, tried for victory and
I failed.
Don't think that was a wasted time.
That was also part of your education to
teach you that you cannot make it.
That human strength cannot make it.
You know if God gave me victory over
let's say anger.
Very quickly.
What would happen?
I would be proud.
It would be like God pulling me out
of a 10 foot pit called anger and
my falling into a 100 foot pit called
spiritual pride.
Is that victory?
That's not victory at all.
The most difficult thing for God is to
give a man victory and keep him humble
at the end of it.
And in order to accomplish that God allows
us to be like these people who went
catching fish.
We try and we try and we fail.
Why didn't Jesus come at 6.30 the
previous evening?
Why did he wait till 4.30 the
next morning?
Was it because he thought they may make
it?
No.
He knew right in the beginning they wouldn't
make it.
But they had to learn a lesson and
you have to learn a lesson too and
I have to learn it too.
We have to try and fail and try
and fail.
That's what the Lord taught the Israelites for
1500 years.
They tried and they failed and they tried
and they failed.
He said okay.
In the fullness of time God sent his
son.
In the fullness of time God sent his
son there to the sea shore to fill
their boats with fish and in the fullness
of time he will come to you as
well.
When?
What is that fullness of time?
When you come to the end of yourself.
This is not a pep talk.
This is not theory.
It really works.
It's true.
But I have to come to the end
of myself.
That's when I experience the power of his
Holy Spirit.
When I'm weak, then I'm strong.
But I have to become weak first.
My strong point you may say well I
can't do this but I can do this.
God says okay go and try.
I can't be an apostle but I can
fish.
Okay go ahead and try.
He'll make us fail.
If he loves you, he'll make you fail
and fail and fail and fail till you
come to the end of yourself and then
he'll fill your boat with fish.
That's God's way brothers and sisters.
He's on your side.
I want to say one last thing.
God is always on your side against Satan.
Please remember that.
No matter how deep you're sunk into sin,
no matter how much you're backslidden as a
believer, God is on your side against Satan.
Even if you've sinned, you've been disobedient, you've
been rebellious, if there's somebody here like that,
I want to say to you God is
still on your side against Satan.
He wants to help you through.
Think of this.
Supposing your 12 year old boy is a
very very naughty, rebellious stubborn naughty boy who's
been disobedient all his life and one day
he's been especially disobedient and he won't listen
to you and he bangs the door and
goes out of the house and then a
little later in the yard you hear him
screaming and you go out and you see
him standing there with his back against a
tree and a cobra, one of the most
poisonous snakes, standing with its hood up, ready
to sting him.
What will you as a mother say?
Go and sting him, sting him, he deserves
it.
He's been rebellious, he's been stubborn sting him
to death.
Which mother will say that?
Anybody here?
Which father will say that?
Do you think God is worse than you?
You've been stubborn, you've been rebellious, you've disobeyed
him all your life.
You've banged the door on God and gone
out and now you're in trouble.
God's better than your father or mother.
That mother will take a stick and kill
that snake and bring you back in.
And that's what God wants to do.
He's always on your side against Satan.
And he'll try till the day you die
to bring you to this glorious life of
faith, but you have to do your little
part.
You have to say, Lord, I trust you,
you're the best bank I can give, put
everything I have in and I want to
do it this morning.
Will you say it?
Let's pray.
It's time for you to take a decision.
But I don't want to pressurize you into
it.
Jesus said, sit down, count the cost, and
if you still value your two cents, keep
it.
But if you think this is the most
fantastic exchange program you've ever heard in your
whole life, say, Lord, what a fool I
have been.
So many years of my life wasted when
they could have been years of rich, fruitful
service to other people, which I could have
spent building the church, glorifying God.
Here, Lord, take every part of me, from
head to foot, my eyes, my ears, my
tongue, my hands, my feet, my passions, my
future ambitions, my money, my property.
It's all for your kingdom.
Nothing for me.
It wasn't mine to begin with.
You gave it to me as a loan.
I thought it was mine like a fool.
I realize today it's all a loan.
My body is a loan from you.
I give it back to you, Lord.
All that I have, and all that I
am, this moment in a sacred transaction, I
lay it on the altar.
Send the fire, Lord.
Consume it.
Burn it up.
Send the fire of heaven upon my life.
Fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Baptize me in fire.
And keep me glowing till the end of
my days.
Keep my vision on the things that are
unseen, that are eternal, that I might live
for that all my days.
Lord, in this simple act of surrender, I
give myself to You, and I believe the
transaction's done.
As I have sincerely offered myself to You,
I believe You have done Your part.
I have confidence in You.
I want to live the rest of my
life leaning upon You.
Looking at You, not looking at others.
Looking at You.
Walking in Your footsteps.
Help me, Lord.
Lord, Lord, answer the prayer of those who
are sincerely crying out to You this morning.
You see hearts.
You see longing hearts, thirsty hearts, who'd be
willing to pay anything for the living water.
Please, fill with Your Holy Spirit.
Answer by fire from heaven, without emotion perhaps,
but with a deep work inside the heart.
With or without emotion, we leave it to
You, Lord.
But do a deep work of setting people
on fire today.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.