I want to turn today to Ephesians and
chapter 2.
In these lost days, these studies that we've
been going through, we've been seeing something of
God's wonderful purpose for us, and how that
purpose can be accomplished, how Satan has been
defeated on the cross, and how if we
cooperate with God in His working in our
lives, we can live the most useful, the
most fruitful, the most profitable life that any
human being can ever live.
Now in Ephesians chapter 2, there are two
verses I want to show you.
First of all, in verse 10.
Salvation is by grace, verse 8, through faith.
It is a gift from God, and it
is not a result of works, lest anybody
should boast.
There's nothing we can ever do that can
bring us that free gift of God, of
forgiveness of our sins.
And no works that we can ever do
can qualify in any way for even one
sin to be forgiven.
But even though it says not as a
result of works in verse 9, in verse
10 it speaks about the works that we
have to do after we are born again,
after our sins are forgiven.
It says we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus, a new creation for good works.
So just as much as no good works
can bring us forgiveness, equally after our sins
are forgiven, our lives should be full of
good works.
Many people are taken up with that first
part.
No works of ours can bring us forgiveness.
I agree.
But what does it go on to say?
It goes on to say that once you
are forgiven, God created you specifically for good
works.
And not just any good works, but good
works which God prepared beforehand that we should
walk in them.
And earlier in chapter 1 we saw how
He has chosen us before the worlds were
created.
And at that time He not only chose
us in Christ, but also prepared certain works,
or we could say a certain plan for
our life.
I believe that includes every detail of our
life.
The Bible says in John 17, verse 23,
that God loves us as much as He
loved Jesus.
It's one of the greatest truths in scripture.
We know that God loves us, but John
17, verse 23, tells us that the extent
of that love was as much as He
loved Jesus, His own Son.
So when Jesus came to earth, all that
God did for Jesus as a man, He
will do for us, because He loves us
just as much.
As much as He cared for Jesus, the
little details of Jesus' life, He cares for
us.
In little things, right from the time when
Jesus was a little baby and the angel
told His parents, Joseph and Mary, to take
Him to Egypt, protect Him from the wrath
of Herod.
So He cares for us too.
And at different times, the way the Lord
protected, the Father protected Jesus, He cares for
and protects us.
Many times in the scriptures, we read about
Jesus' life, that this thing happened so that
the scripture might be fulfilled.
Right from Matthew chapter one onwards, we read
that, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And then something else, so that the scripture
might be fulfilled.
And right through to the cross, even His
saying, I thirst, was so that the scripture
might be fulfilled.
Small little details.
When He went to Galilee, it says, it
was so that the scripture might be fulfilled.
So, all these verses indicate that Jesus' life
was specifically planned.
The place where He was to be born,
Bethlehem, the home in which He was to
be born, the exact date on which He
was to be born, which we don't know
exactly what that date was, but it was
a specific date.
The exact date when He was to be
crucified, that we know was the Passover day.
And the day He was to be raised
up and every day of His life was
planned by God.
Where He should be, how long He should
be in Nazareth and when He should go
to Judea and when He should go to
Galilee and different things.
They were works planned beforehand.
And when Jesus did them, the scripture was
fulfilled.
Now, if God loves us also, like it
says in John 17 23, as much as
He loved Jesus, I believe that God has
planned like that for you and me too.
For every little thing in our life, if
we respond to Him, we could say there
is a perfect plan that God has for
our life.
We're not just to find out the best
thing we can do and somehow do it.
Jesus didn't have to find out what is
the best thing I should be doing, where
should I go now.
He waited on the Father and the Father
led Him to some places and did not
lead Him to some places.
And that's how He lived.
And He said in John 6 verse 38,
a principle that guided Him throughout His life.
And that is why Jesus' life was one
of perfect rest.
You know, Jesus often said, come to Me
and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and you will
find rest for your souls.
That's because He Himself lived a life of
perfect rest.
We can say that Jesus lived in a
continuous Sabbath, a continuous rest in God and
a continuous fellowship with His Heavenly Father all
the time.
And we read here in John chapter 6
and verse 38, Jesus says, I've come from
heaven.
What for?
And we would say, many people say He
came from heaven to die for our sins.
That's only a very small part of the
answer.
That was only on one particular day out
of the 33 and a half years of
His life.
But what did He do the rest of
His life?
And that's summed up in this verse.
He came from heaven to do His Father's
will, to do the will of Him who
sent Him.
And in order to do that will, it
says here, He had to deny His own
will.
So we can say that the entire life
of Jesus was spent denying His own will
and doing the Father's will.
One part of which was dying on the
cross.
But there were many other parts of it
in 33 and a half years.
And He could never do the Father's will
until He denied His own will.
He says that, I came from heaven, we
can say to deny my own will and
to do the Father's will.
You see, when Jesus came as a man
like us, He had a soul like us
and He had a will.
And that will had to be denied.
That means He had to say no to
what He wanted in order to do the
will of His Father.
And you see that very clearly in Gethsemane,
where it's very clear that His own will
was, I don't want to drink this cup.
And He expressed it, Father, can you move
this cup from me?
But not as I will, but as Thou
wills.
He denied His own will and finally drank
that cup.
And that is how He lived His entire
life.
Now do you know that when you break
bread and take part in it, you are
saying the same thing to God.
You're saying, Lord, let my will be broken
in this body.
Just like Jesus' will was broken in His
body and He did His Father's will, I
also want to walk that same way.
From childhood, we have wanted to do our
will.
And we've seen that earlier as the root
of all sin, when Lucifer said, I will.
And Jesus came with salvation by saying, not
as I will, denying that He did His
Father's will.
And this teaches us that if you want
to fulfill God's plan for your life, you
know, that perfect plan that God has made
for your life right from the day you're
born again, till the end of your life,
or till Jesus comes, whichever is earlier.
If you want that plan to be fulfilled
in your life, the most important requirement is
that you deny your own will, that you
give up your own choice in everything.
You know the story of that man who
went to the Lord and said, Lord, tell
my brother to divide the property with me.
If he had said, well, Lord, if you
want me to have my half share of
the property, tell him to divide it.
But if you don't want it, that's fine.
If that half share of the property is
going to ruin me, I don't want it.
Then he'd have been at rest.
Otherwise he'd be at perpetual unrest, because that
chap is not giving him his share of
the property.
You know the number of believers who are
going around in unrest because some family property
has not been divided for them.
There will always be unrest in your life
if you're not willing to give up your
own will.
Sometimes we want something.
Maybe you want to marry someone and you're
perpetually at unrest, seeing whether it'll work out
or it won't work out.
Will it work out?
Will it not work out?
You think God wants you to be at
such unrest?
You got to give up your own will.
You got to say, well, Lord, that's my
desire to marry him or marry her.
But if it's not your will, I don't
want that marriage.
It'll just mess up my life.
It may look so wonderful right now, but
after getting married to that person, I may
discover that he or she is a completely
different type of person than what I thought.
Who knows what type of person that person
is?
Only you, Lord.
I want your will.
If it's your will, let it work out.
I'm submitted.
I want your will.
Don't let the devil hinder it.
But if it's not your will, however much
I may want it, Lord, don't give it
to me.
Can you pray a prayer like that?
We have so many desires.
We want this, we want that.
You may want to build a house one
day.
You may want to travel somewhere someday.
You may want to go to someplace.
You may want to serve the Lord in
a particular field.
Or you may want to have a particular
ministry.
In all these things, you can express your
desire to God.
But if you want to be at rest,
you must say, nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt.
And if you will surrender to Jesus like
that at every point.
Jesus said, we got to take up the
cross every day.
At every point, you say, Lord, in this
particular area, this is my desire.
But if it's not your will, that's fine.
I want your will.
It's because I don't know your will, that
I'm expressing my desire.
We have every right to express our desire.
But once we know the will of God,
clearly, then our desire is gone.
We say, no, Lord, I don't want that.
Even though I wanted it very much, I
give it up.
That is the cross.
And a person who takes up the cross
every day, like that, in every decision, yielding,
yielding, yielding, at the end of his life,
when he looks back, he will see he
has fulfilled the perfect will of God.
Nothing could hinder that perfect will.
Nothing.
No man, no demon, not all the hosts
of hell, not all the people in the
world.
That perfect will.
That's why in Jesus' case, every single thing
in his life was so that the scripture
might be fulfilled.
And this was the simple secret of his
life, that he gave up his own will.
So when we read in Ephesians 2, that
God has prepared good works beforehand, that we
should walk in them.
Some of those things which God has planned,
may not be what we plan.
We make a plan for our life, and
God's plan may be in another direction.
And when we come to that place, you
have to say, well, Lord, I want your
will.
And there will never be a disappointment concerning
anything.
Maybe you apply for a job, and you
don't get it.
And you've sought to honor God in your
life.
Well, and that may not be what God
wants you to do.
It's not God's will.
It's the end of the matter.
Maybe God has something else for you, better.
Better does not necessarily mean a higher salary,
but better because it fulfills God's plan.
Sometimes the job with the best salary, it
may not be God's plan.
Sometimes the girl with the God's plan, or
the man who is most good-looking, may
not be God's plan for you.
If you are willing to say, Lord, I
want your will, you'll find that even those
closed doors, the Lord has closed them.
One of the things you must remember as
you walk through life, seeking to fulfill God's
perfect plan, is what we read in Revelation
3, and
verse 7 and 8.
In the middle of verse 7, the Lord
says, I have the key of David, and
when I open, no one can shut it.
And when I shut, no one can open.
That is authority.
Jesus has the key to every door in
front of you.
He opens, nobody can shut it.
He shuts it, nobody can open it.
And he says to this particular church, now
in this particular case, I've set before you
an open door, which no one can shut.
You don't have power.
Verse 8, you have very little power.
You can't keep that door open.
Because demons and men may try to shut
it, but it doesn't matter.
You've kept my word, and I will keep
that door open for you.
And it's like these automatic doors.
You may have seen some of them in
some places where there is a little photoelectric
cell which signals that somebody, something has crossed
its path, and that triggers an electrical mechanism
that opens a door.
So as you come near the door, the
door opens.
And when you go past it, it shuts.
The doors that God opens in front of
your life will be like that.
You won't have to bang and bang and
break it to go through.
You pray and seek God, and when the
right time comes, when you come right up
there, it opens.
He doesn't very often open it well in
advance.
You know, when the children of Israel came
right up to the Red Sea, it is
when they came to the edge of the
waters that the Lord opened the waters and
they went through.
It wasn't many hours before that.
Later on, when they came into Jordan, it
says, when the feet of the priest touched
the water, it opened.
So very often, God opens doors for us
in our life like that.
You think it's closed, it's closed, it's closed,
it's closed, and when you come right up
there, it opens, if it is God's will.
And if it is not God's will, it
keeps it shut, and there's no use wasting
your time there.
Back up and go in another direction.
And God has wonderful ways in our life
to make us fulfill his plan, if you
are totally committed to do God's will in
your life.
Let me turn you to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139, it says, verse 16, in the
middle of that verse, it says, in your
book, they were all written, the days that
were ordained for me, when as yet there
was not even one of them.
Now, I understand that verse to mean that
before I was born, you know, verse 13,
it speaks about forming my inward parts and
weaving me in my mother's womb.
And you saw, verse 16, my unformed substance
in my mother's womb.
And when I was even unformed, there was
a in heaven, a diary that specified what
I should do with my life, where I
should go and what I should do.
And it says, all the days that are
ordained for me are written in that diary,
before I had started living even one of
those days on earth, before I was born.
Now, when we believe this, it brings tremendous
rest into our life.
We're not restless, because we believe we live
under sovereign God, who knew us when we
were in our mother's womb, before that.
And he formed us in our mother's womb
and brought us to the place one day,
where you found Jesus Christ as your Lord
and Savior.
And then allowed you to hear the message
of salvation, of freedom from sin, and how
God can fulfill up his plan for your
life.
And you opened your life to the Lord,
so that his plan can be fulfilled.
And now, your job is only to seek
that will.
Say, Lord, show me what you want me
to do, for each day of my life.
You've got a plan, help me to fulfill
it.
Lead me to the right person to get
married to.
Lead me to the right place for ministry.
Some of you may have heard of Adonai
Ram Judson.
He was an American missionary, who came to
India to serve the Lord.
But he couldn't stay.
And so, he had to get onto a
ship.
I think it was in Madras.
I don't know what were the reasons why
he couldn't stay, but he had to leave.
And he went to Burma, because his ship
was going to Burma.
And he spent the rest of his life
there, doing a tremendous work for God.
But that wasn't where he planned to go
in the beginning.
When he left the United States, he thought
he was going to come to India.
But God shut the door and opened another
one, and said, that's where I want you
to go.
And that happened through circumstances.
Circumstances which were beyond his control.
But at the end of Judson's life, when
he looked back, he would have said, well
praise the Lord.
It wasn't the way I planned it, but
God worked it out perfectly.
That's exactly where I'm supposed to be.
God wanted to do a work in Burma,
through Judson.
But he allowed him to think, for a
long time, that he was going to come
to India.
And then, he finally took him where he
wanted him to be.
You know, if you're one of those, who's
totally committed, and you've got no complaints, and
you say, Lord, whatever you plan for my
life, I want that.
You can be sure of one thing, God
himself will work out his plan for your
life.
You don't have to be afraid.
At the right time, certain doors will open,
certain doors will close.
And that's why we are at rest.
The Bible says in Proverbs 21 and verse
1, that even a king's heart.
A king.
In those days, nowadays kings don't have much
power.
But in those days, a king had tremendous
authority.
He was everything.
His word was law.
It says, the king's heart is in the
hand of the Lord, like rivers of water.
And he can turn it wherever he wishes.
The king's heart can be turned wherever he
wishes.
God can turn it.
Have you seen a river?
Have you seen a picture of a river,
in a map of a state, or a
map of India?
No river flows straight.
All rivers are this way, and that way.
Sometimes it's flowing north, sometimes flowing south, sometimes
flowing west, and then again east.
That's how a river is.
And it says, God can turn even the
king's heart to the north, or south, or
east, or west, any way he wants, like
the rivers of water.
This is why our life is at such
perfect rest.
That if you commit your life to God
totally, and you only want his will for
your life, and you don't want anything else.
You don't want anything but God's plan.
That which is written in the heaven for
you, every detail of every day, you want
that to be fulfilled in your life.
Nobody can stop you.
You know, no human being can hinder God's
plan for your life.
No demon in hell can hinder God's plan
for your life.
Only you can hinder it, by disobedience, by
not doing God's will, by not yielding your
own will.
And in other words, you say, no, I
want this at any cost.
You're not willing to give up your will,
then of course you can miss the will
of God.
And lots and lots of people miss God's
perfect will, because they are stubborn, and they
want to do what they want to do.
And they go their own stubborn way, and
at the end of life, look back in
regret over how they lived.
The Bible says in 1 John and chapter
2, a wonderful word, verse 17, The world
is passing away in all its lusts, but
the one who does the will of God
will abide forever.
The one who does the will of God
will abide forever.
So who's the one who's going to abide
forever?
The one who seeks to do God's will
in every detail of his life.
So if you realize that God's made a
plan for your life, you must believe that
that plan must be better than any plan
you can make for yourself.
Because God sees the future.
If a man who can see the future
makes a plan, won't that be better than
somebody who makes a plan who cannot see
even what's going to happen tomorrow?
You and I don't know what's going to
happen tomorrow, but God sees all the way
till the end of time.
And he's got wisdom.
He knows all the factors and circumstances surrounding
your life.
He knows your temperament.
He knows your background.
He knows what you're fit for.
He knows what type of ministry you can
fulfill.
He trained you for that.
He equipped you for that from the time
you were born.
For a particular task in his body, in
a particular place, in a particular time, in
this generation.
And you say, Lord, I can never make
a plan better than the one you made.
So I want to know your plan every
day of my life.
I don't want to do my own will.
To make the maximum amount of money, that's
not the greatest thing in the world.
To live a but to do the will
of God, even if it means pain and
suffering and ridicule and all types of problems.
You look at the Apostle Paul.
God never told him right at the beginning
of his life what all he's going to
face.
In fact, he asked the Lord on the
Damascus road when he fell down from the
horse, Lord, what do you want me to
do?
And the Lord told him only the next
step.
Go into the city, then you'll be told
what to do.
So that's all.
God shows us one step at a time.
He went to the city, then he was
shown the next step and then the next
step and the next step.
And when he looked back at the end
of his life, that plan of God included
being beaten 195 times on his back, being
stoned three times, being imprisoned so many times
he couldn't even count, being shipwrecked and traveling
in dangerous circumstances and through jungles and danger
of robbers, shivering in the cold sometimes, sometimes
not having enough food.
It was all part of God's plan.
But at the end of his life, Paul
could say, I have fought a good fight.
Second Timothy four seven.
I have finished my course and I have
kept the faith.
Do you think there are many believers who
can say that?
People have not sought God's will, but sought
their own comfort and their own gain and
their own honor.
Well, they may have lived a comfortable life
on earth, but they can't say at the
end of their life, I have finished the
appointed course God has for me.
Paul said, now I'm ready to go because
I've finished the allotted task God had for
me.
He had that sense.
I finished it.
It was a very difficult part, but at
each point he didn't turn back.
He didn't say, well, Lord, this is getting
too much.
He said, that's fine.
If that's your will, I accept it.
Like David said in second Samuel 24 verse
24, I will never offer to the Lord
that which costs me nothing.
That's the principle of sacrifice by which Jesus
lived.
And any person who wants to do the
will of God in his life must accept
the principle of sacrifice.
There are lots of people today who are
seeking to serve God without this principle of
sacrifice.
All I can say is they completely miss
the will of God in their life.
You'll never find the will of God in
your life if you don't accept the principle
of sacrifice.
I will never offer to the Lord that
which costs me nothing.
To follow the Lord means a way of
painful self-denial.
There's something I want to do, and God
says, no.
And I yield my will and my will
is broken.
That's the meaning of the breaking of bread.
Let me repeat.
Every time I break bread, Jesus said, do
this in remembrance of me.
That's the way he went.
So even though the way is painful, when
you come to the end of life, you
look back and say, well, it was worth
it.
All the few sorrows and difficulties are all
forgotten because we were able in a life
of service and self-denial to show Jesus
that we were grateful to him for dying
for us on Calvary.
To say thank you Lord for dying for
me in that way, that is the question.
And it's not something that you just say
today at the end of this meeting and
say, well, I've done it.
No, it is a decision that you have
to renew every day.
Jesus said, if you want to follow me,
take up your cross, deny yourself daily.
Say no to your own will daily, Luke
9, 23.
Say no to your own will daily.
Take up your cross, put that will to
death and do the will of God.
You have to renew it tomorrow morning.
And day after tomorrow, you have to renew
it again.
Say, Lord, today I choose your will.
I say no to my own will.
I want to do your will.
And it's not just once a day, many,
many times during the day we take decisions.
Say, Lord, I'm going to go the way
of the cross.
And finally, 10 years from now, you will
become a spiritual man if you have taken
those decisions day by day, by day, by
day, by day, by day.
Another brother or another sister who's heard the
same message, but does not respond in that
day to day way to the Lord and
denying himself or herself at the end of
10 years will either be exactly where he
or she is today spiritually with no growth
of maturity, or what is more likely they'll
be further behind than where they are today.
It is the decisions you take every day
in relation to God's will and your own
will that determine what you're going to be
five years from now, 10 years from now.
This is why you find two people born
again on the same day, 10 years later,
they're completely different spiritually.
One is still a carnal Christian.
Another man has become a man of God.
How did that happen?
It didn't happen overnight.
It didn't happen because they were just baptized
in the Holy Spirit.
Maybe both were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
But one man took up the cross every
day, denied himself, painful, gave up his own
will, chose the will of God, was upright
before God, chose God's will, allowed the circumstances
of life to break him, and finally came
through to maturity.
And as he continues like that, one day
he'll be able to say at the end
of his life, I finished my course.
I accomplished what God wanted me to do.
And you know, it's such a blessed thing
if you can realize this when you're young.
How sad if you discover this truth when
you're 50.
I discovered it when I was 20.
I'm very thankful.
I'm thankful I didn't discover it late in
life, because so many years would have been
wasted.
I think of so many brothers and sisters
I've met.
They're good brothers.
They don't commit gross sin.
They're good brothers sitting in the church, but
they don't have a passion to fulfill the
will of God for their life, to make
their life count for God on this earth.
They are just drifting.
They are good church members, like passengers in
a train, sit there, sleep there, and the
train takes them somewhere.
No, God doesn't want us to be like
that.
God doesn't want you to be a passenger.
He's got a plan for your life.
He's got something to fulfill, and you'll never
find that if you don't seek Him.
And if you resist all the circumstances that
come in your life where He's trying to
break you, it'll never be fulfilled.
Maybe one day God will just give up
on you and say, go your way.
I won't disturb you anymore.
That'll be terrible.
I think I've seen some believers like that.
I can't explain any other way.
They never, they, the strongest message in the
world will not shake them.
They're like icebergs.
Nothing can melt them.
They're there just the same year after year
after year, never seeming to learn the lessons
God wants them to learn, because they are
not willing to deny their own will.
When you seek to go this way, sometimes,
as I said, it's painful.
One of the that can really help us
is 2 Corinthians 12, 9, which says, my
grace is sufficient for you.
That means in every situation, exactly what your
need is, God will give you grace for
that.
He won't give you grace for tomorrow.
He'll give you grace for today.
Jesus said in Matthew 6, 34, sufficient unto
every day is the evil that there is
in that day.
Every day has got a certain quota of
evil that we encounter.
And the grace God gives us is sufficient
to overcome that day's evil.
That's enough.
It's like God saying, every day, whatever your
expenses are, I'll give you the money for
that.
Isn't that enough?
If you have more expenses tomorrow, I'll give
you more money.
If you have less expenses tomorrow, I'll give
you less.
My grace is exactly sufficient.
So we can face the whole future with
confidence.
Maybe a time of tremendous persecution.
Let's say a time of tremendous persecution comes.
In fact, many of our fellow believers in
other parts of India are being persecuted right
now.
And let's say, like in the third century
and all, they begin to torture Christians in
prison.
Start pulling out the nails and burning them
at the stake and throwing them to the
lions or harming us in some way.
And when we look at it, you and
I may say, boy, I can't imagine how
will I face it if they start pulling
out my nails and burning me and cutting
off my parts of my body.
Will I deny the Lord?
Well, right now we don't have grace for
that because we don't need grace.
But at that particular moment, you'll get grace
and you'll be able to bear it.
It's like, you know, if you need only
50 rupees today, that's all he'll give you
today, 50 rupees.
But in that day, you may need 5
,000 rupees.
He'll give it to you.
That's the wonderful promise of God.
My grace is sufficient for you.
And there's another wonderful promise in this connection
in 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 8, where
it says, God is able.
This is a fantastic verse.
It's one of the most wonderful verses about
grace in the whole New Testament.
God is able to make all grace abound
to you, so that always, always means 24
hours a day, you will have all sufficiency.
You need 50 rupees, you get 50 rupees,
you need 50 lakhs, you get 50 lakhs,
all sufficiency in everything.
Nothing is excluded, so that you can have
an abundance for every good work that God
has planned for you to do.
Wonderful.
God, it's not a question of you are
able.
Notice those words, God is able.
If you look at my ability, your ability
is nothing.
But God is able, according to your need,
to give you grace, to put your own
will to death and to do the will
of God, to face the future, to face
any situation that can ever come into your
life, difficult or easy, to conquer it and
to be more than a conqueror in Christ.
This is our calling, to demonstrate to the
world that Jesus conquered Satan, and that we
follow in Jesus' footsteps.
We may be mistreated, abused, persecuted, but we
conquer Satan.
Our goal in life is not to have
comfort.
Our goal in life is to conquer Satan,
to do the will of God and accomplish
his purposes on this earth before we leave
it.
And now I want to say a few
words to those who feel that they have
missed God's will some way, or made a
mess of their life, or you've fallen so
often into sin, and you say, well Lord,
there's not much hope for somebody like me.
I'm always falling.
I heard these messages before.
I'm still defeated, still frustrated.
Remember this word, God is able.
What is God's plan for those who have
failed in their life?
The Bible is full of encouragement for such
people.
So I want to spend a few moments
speaking specifically to those who feel your life
is a failure, those who feel I'm perpetually
defeated by sin.
I never seem to overcome.
I'm always discouraged.
I'm always gloomy, depressed, no matter how many
messages I hear.
In Genesis chapter 1, we read that when,
we already spoke about that, that when the
world was created perfectly by God and Lucifer
came and sinned and messed up the whole
thing, we read the earth became chaotic, empty,
dark.
And what did God do?
God had a perfect plan for the heavens
and earth when he made them, but Lucifer
came and messed it up.
Did God give up on that?
Did he destroy that heaven and earth?
No, he remade it.
That's what you read in Genesis 1.
The first day he did something, the second
day he did something, and every time he
said, that's good, that's good, the third day
it's good, it's good, good.
Finally on the sixth day, he completed everything
and he says, it's very good.
So what is the message in the first
chapter of the Bible?
That God can take a situation or a
life that has been messed up by Lucifer
and the devil and he can work on
that life and that situation till finally what
comes out is very good.
That's the message in the first chapter of
the Bible.
It's a message for failure.
It's a message for those who have messed
up their life.
It's a message for those who feel the
devil's messed up their life.
1 John 3 verse 8 says, the Son
of God has come to undo all the
works of the devil.
And I pictured it like this.
When we are all born, let's picture that
we've got a nice beautiful ball of string,
you know, a big ball of string neatly
wound up together like a ball.
But from the day we were born, as
we've grown up, we have opened out that
string and tied it in knots.
And today there are hundreds of thousands of
knots and it's such a mess.
It's no longer like that beautiful ball of
string we got when we were born.
And the Bible says, Jesus has come to
undo all those knots.
I can't undo it.
I get discouraged when I look at it.
But he has come to undo all those
knots and put it all back in and
says, here's your ball of string.
Isn't that good news?
It certainly is.
And that's what you see in Genesis 1.
And you move on to Genesis chapter 3
and again you see failure.
In fact, the Bible begins with failure.
You see, Adam and Eve, God had made
a perfect plan for Adam and Eve's life
and they messed it up.
You think God wanted them to sin?
Certainly not.
But when they did sin, God said, don't
worry, I'll sort this out.
The seed of the woman will crush the
serpent's head.
And there itself, he had already planned that
Jesus Christ should come and destroy the power
of Satan.
Right there in Genesis 3.15. What does
that teach us?
You mess up your life, God can sort
it out.
That's what God did on Calvary.
Sorted out, messed up lives and failures.
Calvary is a tremendous power to do that.
Now, there's a verse in Revelation 13 verse
8 which says that the Lamb of God
was slain from the foundation of the world.
I mean, in some places it says the
book was written from the foundation of the
world or the Lamb was slain from the
foundation of the world.
And anyway, I believe that God who knew
the end from the beginning, knew that Jesus
Christ would die on Calvary's cross.
And do you know that the world would
never have known the greatness of God's love
without Calvary?
We could have heard about God's love, God
telling us, we love, I love you so
much, I love you so much.
But there was never, there could never have
been such a demonstration of it as there
was on Calvary.
And then when we asked ourselves, was Calvary
part of God's perfect plan?
Or was it his second best?
Well, I know it was part of God's
perfect plan.
But then you say, do you mean that
therefore God planned that Adam should sin?
No.
Adam's sin was a failure.
Now, if a man fails, how can God's
perfect plan still be fulfilled?
The devil says, according to logic, impossible.
Right.
According to logic, impossible.
But according to God, possible.
That even though Adam's failure was not in
God's perfect plan, yet the cross of Calvary
was.
Now, if you ask me to explain that,
I can't explain it.
There are a lot of things in the
Bible I can't explain.
But one thing I discovered, that God can
fulfill his perfect plan for your life, even
after you have messed it up like Adam.
Not his second best, but his best.
Now, if you can have faith for that,
it'll be fulfilled in your life.
But you say, then why, how can my
failures be part of God's perfect plan?
Do you know that even in failure, God
is teaching you something?
We know that our Christian life is an
education.
Not an education like in school, where you
have to get every sum right and get
100%.
But in this school of God, he teaches
us many lessons through failure, which we cannot
learn by constant success.
For example, when the disciples went out fishing
all night, they caught nothing.
They tried, they failed, they tried, they failed,
they tried, they failed, just like you have
tried so often to get victory over sin
or something or the other.
You try and you fail, you try and
you fail, you try and you fail, and
it's perpetual failure.
That was how those disciples were that night.
Perpetual failure.
And then in the morning, Jesus came and
filled their boat with fish, and it was
success.
Now, there was a difference there.
On the other occasions, when they went out
and caught fish and brought it in, they
could be proud of their catch.
But this day, they couldn't be proud.
They had to be humble and say, we
didn't catch this.
God gave it to us.
And that is the reason why God allows
you to fail again and again and again
and again.
Because through those failures, God works humility in
you.
I believe it's very easy for God to
give us victory over anger, the lust of
the eyes, the love of money, bitterness, jealousy,
any sin.
God can give us grace to overcome.
But the difficult thing is, after you have
got the victory, to remain humble, that's very
difficult.
God can give you grace to accomplish a
tremendous ministry for Him, to bring many souls
to Christ, to build churches, to do a
work for Him.
Very easy.
But after you've done it, to keep you
humble, very difficult.
Have you noticed that?
Even if you bring one soul to Christ,
have you noticed how your head becomes a
little bigger?
And you have to tell somebody about how
you brought that soul to Christ?
Can you imagine what would be the size
of your head if you bring 10 souls
to Christ?
Or a hundred?
Or you do a work for God?
You build one church from scratch.
I mean a scholarship of people.
Can you imagine what the size of your
head will be?
The difficult thing is not for God to
bless us, that's easy.
But to keep us humble so that He
can continue to bless us, very difficult.
That has been the history of so many
people in Christian work.
He anoints them, they begin to do a
work, and they see the blessing, they get
puffed up, and the Bible says, God resists
the proud.
And He has to resist them, because that's
His nature.
So He blesses and then He resists, because
it allows to become proud.
And that's why God takes us through repeated
failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, failure,
failure, till we have come right down to
the dust and say, Lord, I'm a total
failure.
I'm a wretched man.
And then God fills our boat with fish,
fills our life with victory and blessing and
anointing.
And we can never be proud of it.
Our head does not increase in size one
bit.
We say, what have I that I did
not receive?
We can never look down on another person.
This is how it was in my life.
The years I struggled for victory, and I
was only failing, failing, failing, failing thousands of
times.
But I'd say, no, the Bible says, sin
will not have dominion over me.
One of these days it'll be true.
I don't know when, but I'm trying to
catch fish, and I'm getting nothing, trying, trying,
trying, trying, trying.
And I learned through all those failures, I
can never make it.
Lord, it is impossible.
I can never get victory.
Maybe other people can get it, but I
can't.
It is impossible.
And then God fills my boat with fish
and suddenly I get victory.
And I realized that wasn't me.
I can never be proud of it.
I see another brother losing his temper, and
I say, Lord, I can't despise him.
I'm worse than him.
I see another brother sinning in some way,
and I cannot despise him.
Impossible.
God has allowed me to fail so many
times in my life before he brought me
to victory that I can never now despise
one human being, no matter how deep they
fall.
I say, well, it's God's mercy, God's grace
that made me different.
I'm no better than him.
How does he accomplish that work of giving
you victory and keeping you humbled by repeated
failure?
So you see how failure itself is part
of God's education.
It's no use getting victory and then being
proud.
Pride is a deeper pit than any other
sin.
Supposing you get victory over anger, that's like
coming out of a hundred foot pit.
And then you fall into spiritual pride, which
is a thousand foot pit.
Is that victory?
That's not victory.
And that's why God has to allow you
to fail.
In that failure, he teaches you a lesson.
And if you can trust God, Lord, I
trust you.
In spite of my failures, you're going to
teach me a lesson like you taught those
disciples who repeatedly tried to catch fish.
And you will fill my boat with fish.
You will make me more than a conqueror.
And even through these failures, you're teaching me
something.
You're humbling me.
You're breaking me.
You're crushing me.
You're accomplishing your purpose.
This is part of my education.
And I'm going to come through it triumphantly
because I seek your will.
And you'll find at the end of all
those years of failure, where you think where
the devil says, God can never fulfill his
perfect plan for your life, my fellow, because
you have messed up his plan so often.
And you say, no, I believe God will
still fulfill not his second best, but his
perfect plan for my life.
I believe it.
The things that are impossible with men are
possible with God.
But supposing after hearing this, you say, oh,
well, brother, you don't know my condition.
My life is an absolute mess.
I don't believe God can do it for
me.
Well, according to your faith, be it unto
you, God can't do it for you.
Not because God could not, but because you
would not believe.
And one day at the judgment seat of
Christ, you will see some other brother who
was whose life was a much bigger mess
than yours, but who trusted God and fulfilled
God's perfect plan for his life.
And you say, oh, Lord, that man's life
was worse than mine.
And he fulfilled God's plan.
God will say yes, because he trusted me.
But you wouldn't trust me.
You kept on looking at yourself.
Don't have any regrets when Jesus comes.
I tell you the things that are impossible
with men are possible with God.
God can fulfill his perfect plan for your
life, even if you have messed up everything
right today.
You know those people who came to work
at the eleventh hour?
Eleventh hour means eleven out of twelve into
a hundred is what?
It's more than ninety percent of their life
wasted.
And they came and gave the rest of
that ten percent of their life to God.
And God did something through them.
And they got a tremendous reward.
All these things in scripture are written for
our instruction and encouragement.
Don't look at the past.
Put the past behind you and say, Lord,
let me learn lessons from my failures.
And I want to trust you today that
you will accomplish your perfect plan for my
life.
Will you trust him?
Let's pray.
I want you to respond to the word
of God that you've heard all these days
and especially this evening.
Trust him.
This is the work of God that you
believe.
He doesn't want you to do anything else.
Just say, Lord, I trust you that you
will accomplish what you have planned in my
life, even though I made a mess of
it in so many ways.
I trust you to accomplish your perfect plan
in my life.
And that even through my failures, I will
learn something.
I will learn humility.
I will learn never to despise another human
being again.
And I will learn to give you all
the glory and never take any glory for
myself because I've received everything freely from you.
And I believe at the end of my
life, I'll be able to say, I have
finished my course.
I have fought a good fight.
I did not get discouraged by God's grace.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word
of God that encourages us, that lifts us
up, that picks up the weakest person, the
most discouraged person and makes him a conqueror.
And I pray that every brother and sister
here who has listened to the word these
days will have faith that in Christ, he
or she can be a conqueror and can
fulfill your perfect plan for their life.
Lord, help us to trust you.
The devil's a liar.
He's always been a liar.
Jesus Christ is victor.
Your word is truth.
We believe it.
And we believe that for the weakest and
the most desperate person here, you will fulfill
your will, lift them up and encourage them
and make them walk and triumph all their
days.
We ask in Jesus name.
Amen.