Thinking about what we were considering earlier, let's
turn to Ephesians in chapter 6.
We were thinking about what Jesus said, My
kingdom is not of this world.
If it were of this world, My servants
would be fighting.
I would say that right from childhood, we
learn how to fight.
Small children fight.
It depends what we fight for.
Small children fight for toys.
We don't fight for toys anymore.
At least I hope not.
But some of the things we may be
fighting for may not be much better than
toys.
Please remember that.
When relatives fight for property, it's not very
much different from children fighting for toys.
Jesus said if My kingdom were of this
world, My servants would be fighting.
When we have heaven's sense of values, you
know Paul reminded Timothy of the good confession
that Jesus made before Pontius Pilate, that My
kingdom is not of this world.
That means if it is something worldly, then
I have nothing to do, I don't fight,
you can have it brother.
Paul said here to the Ephesians in Ephesians
6 verse 12 about fighting.
Verse 12.
And he said our fight or our struggle
is not against flesh and blood.
That means we do not fight with human
beings anymore.
Now in the Old Testament, they were always
fighting with human beings.
The Canaanites, the Philistines, the Amorites, the Hittites,
the Assyrians.
The Old Testament is full of fighting with
flesh and blood.
But as soon as you come into the
New Testament, you find it is another level
altogether.
Jesus never fought with flesh and blood.
Never.
He had no interest in fighting for anything
earthly.
Even Judas Iscariot who was stealing his money,
he never fought with him.
After all the money he stole at the
end of three and a half years, Jesus
could turn around and say to him, Friend,
if I can turn to someone who has
stolen all my money in my entire life
and turn to him and say, Friend, I
demonstrate there heaven's sense of values.
What have you stolen from me?
Paper money which has no value.
I still love you.
You cannot make me hate you.
I believe that should be our testimony, dear
brothers and sisters, towards everybody.
Can anyone harm me?
I don't believe so.
We must make a decision sometime in our
life.
I made that decision long ago that I
will never in my life fight for anything
earthly and I will never in my life
fight for, fight with people.
What will I fight for then and whom
will I fight with?
Here it says, I do not fight, we
do not fight with flesh and blood but
we fight against these spiritual rulers, the world
forces of this darkness, spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places.
These are two types of fighting.
In the Old Testament, they fought with earthly
people and in the New Testament, Jesus taught
us to fight with spiritual forces.
And the establishment of God's kingdom on earth
depends on how effectively you fight with spiritual
forces because Jesus said, on this rock I
will build my church and the gates of
hell will not prevail against it.
Not the Philistines or the Amorites or any
human being.
It's the gates of hell that are fighting
against the church and if you and I
are to fight against the gates of hell,
the powers of spiritual darkness effectively, we must
make sure that we have stopped fighting with
human beings.
I hope, and if it is not true
at the moment, I hope at least in
the future it will be true, that we
never contend with flesh and blood concerning anything.
There's a lot of fighting in Christian churches
about earthly things.
What should be our attitude?
Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, he
says in verse 1, Does any of you,
when he has a case against his neighbor,
dare to go to law before the unrighteous
and not before the saints?
And he says in verse 6, brother goes
to law with brother and that before unbelievers?
Actually this is a defeat for you.
Then he says in the last part of
verse 7, why not rather be wronged?
Why not rather be defrauded?
What an exhortation.
Why not allow other people to wrong you?
Why not allow yourselves to be cheated?
Jesus has given us an example.
People wronged him, people cheated him.
He never fought with them.
He never sued Judas Iscariot for cheating him.
He never sued the Pharisees for defaming him
by saying he was guilty.
No, he had no time for these things.
When the moment we concentrate our energies on
people, we will not be able to do
God's work in fighting against demons.
We must make one decision in our life
that nobody on earth will ever be able
to get me to fight with him concerning
anything earthly.
If a person wants to argue with me,
I stop arguing.
If a person wants to know the truth,
I don't mind explaining but not in a
spirit of argument.
Jesus is our example in all this.
Let me turn to 1 Peter chapter 3.
It's an amazing verse in verse 13.
Whom is there to harm you if you
prove zealous for what is good?
I want to say, my dear brothers and
sisters, that in the days to come, we
will need this verse.
We will need to have faith in India
and we need to teach our churches to
have faith in this verse.
That nobody can harm me if I am
zealous for what is good.
I mean, they may kill me.
They killed Peter.
They killed Paul.
They killed James.
They killed Thomas Bartholomew.
They killed at least 11 out of the
12 apostles.
I don't know about John.
But they couldn't harm them.
Jesus said, not a hair on your heads
will be touched without my permission.
You are more valuable than sparrows.
Whom is there who can harm you spiritually?
The answer is only you yourself.
I have found tremendous encouragement by knowing that
spiritually there is only one person in the
world that can harm me and that's I
myself.
Nobody else can harm me.
They can malign me.
They can speak evil of me.
They can tell false stories about me.
They can physically hurt me.
They can rob me.
They can defame me.
They can defame my wife, defame my children.
They can do what they like.
But they cannot harm me.
It is impossible.
Because I live under the shadow of the
Almighty.
I hope you do too.
You must believe that.
That's why we don't fight with people.
Because our sense of values is not the
same as the world.
The world says those who fight will inherit
the earth and Jesus says the meek will
inherit the earth.
Who is right?
Are those who are fighting going to inherit
the earth or the meek are going to
inherit the earth?
Jesus said the meek and I believe that.
And I have to demonstrate to the world
that if I am meek, one day it
may take time, it may take millennium to
prove it.
But I will prove to this unbelieving generation
that the meek will inherit the earth.
And is it by running after money that
we shall meet all our needs?
That's what the world says.
If you are not always thinking of ways
and means to make more money, you will
find yourself hard up.
But Jesus says if you seek my kingdom
first and my righteousness, all your earthly needs
will be added to you.
And I say Lord, many years ago I
said that to the Lord.
I said Lord, I want to be a
living demonstration to this unbelieving generation that if
I spend my life seeking God's kingdom, not
seeking after money, you will provide not only
my needs, you will provide the needs of
my family and my children when that time
comes.
Without my running after money.
You see, this is a challenge to all
of us.
I mean, if you are from a rich
family or wealthy country, you don't have the
opportunity to prove that.
If you are from Australia, for example, I
was there in Australia where there was a
brother without a job.
There was an Australian brother and he was
telling me if I get a job, I
will earn less than what I am earning
now.
It's amazing in some of these western countries
where the government gives them social security money
and they get more money when they are
unemployed than when they are employed.
It's a very funny situation.
So when such a person says all my
earthly needs are met, that is not a
great thing.
But in a poor country like ours where
there is no social security and no free
medical coverage or any such thing, then we
can demonstrate that we spent our life devoted
to serving God, to seeking the interest of
His kingdom only.
That was the sole passion of my life.
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
God will give us our daily bread.
That's for sure.
And if you and I can be a
living demonstration of that in an unbelieving generation,
in a poor country like yours and mine,
that is a greater testimony than some person
from a rich country saying, God provided my
needs.
So take that challenge, that we are going
to prove to this generation that the words
of Jesus are true, even in the 20th
century.
But if you seek the kingdom of God
first and His righteousness, all the other things
will be added to you.
I urge you, my brothers and sisters, we
must develop faith in this.
God is sovereign.
The disciples, the example I often like to
speak about is the disciples feeding the 5000.
They were hungry and the people were eating
and they served and served and served and
served and served and at the end God
didn't give them just one plate.
Jesus gave each of them one basket full
of loaves and fishes to take home.
And I want to say to you, if
you spend your life serving the Lord unselfishly,
sacrificially, thinking of the needs of others and
not your own, I guarantee on the authority
of the word of God, the Lord will
have a basket for you when your need
arises and for your family.
He will not forget them.
Absolutely certain.
That is more certain than any social security
system in the world can guarantee your needs.
It's true.
But we must be a demonstration to this
generation of that.
God is a jealous God.
The Bible says in James chapter 4 verse
5 that he jealously desires the spirit which
he has made to dwell in us.
It could have many interpretations, but one interpretation
I find is this that God is very
jealous that our confidence must be in Him.
Supposing a person's wife is going through a
very insecure financial situation and you ask her,
who is going to meet your need?
And she says, well, I think maybe some
of my neighbors or maybe my family members.
How will her husband feel?
A wife should have such confidence in her
husband.
She says, my husband will take care of
me.
I think if a wife is to feel
that, if I am sick, I don't know
whether my husband will take care of me.
Some of my kind neighbors may do it.
Or if I am in financial need, I
don't know whether my husband will take care
of me.
That's how many Christians are.
They say, if I am in need, I
don't know whether the Lord will take care
of me.
Maybe GFA will, because they have done that,
but whether the Lord will, I don't know.
Is that your attitude?
That if you are in need, some organization,
some kind neighbor, and not your husband?
It is an insult to your husband.
Just think of it, my brothers and sisters.
Let's think very practically.
Supposing a time comes in India, and it
may come, we see the way in which
things are going, that the government says, all
foreign contributions for Christian work are to be
stopped.
What are you going to do?
Join some other organization?
Stop serving the Lord?
Then I would say, you were never called
to serve the Lord in the first place.
Do you think Peter or Thomas or James
or John would stop serving the Lord?
Because some workplace factor?
No, not at all.
It wouldn't make any difference.
And I want to say, before that time
comes, and it may come.
I tell you, it may come.
And if you don't have faith in the
Lord before that time, you are not going
to suddenly develop faith in that time.
Now is the time to exercise our faith.
Many Christians in Christian organizations are like people
whose legs have not had enough exercise.
They are like people who are lying in
a bed carried around on a stretcher by
the organization with all their needs met.
You know when people lie in a bed
for a long time, they are not able
to walk after some time because their muscles
have become weak.
And I think of many, many Christian workers
are not able to stand on their own
legs trusting the Lord because every time they
had a need, they depended on some man
or some organization that would see them through.
And what is the result?
They have never learned to stand on their
own feet trusting the Lord.
They are carried around on a stretcher.
And now the Lord says to you, you
take up your stretcher and walk.
And we should learn to walk, stand on
our own feet, and say, Lord, I want
to trust you.
I want to prepare myself for the future.
You know the story of the man who
was going to be thrown out of his
job?
He prepared himself for the future, Jesus said,
when he knew that he was going to
lose his job, because he did it in
a very earthly way.
But that's the way we are going to
do it.
We are going to learn to trust the
Lord in these days of ease and plenty,
so that one day, when it's going to
be difficult, our legs would have got some
exercise, and we'll have faith that a sovereign
God will meet our needs.
He will not let us down.
And anyone who wants to sincerely serve the
Lord must learn to do that.
I remember reading the biography of Hudson Taylor,
who was a missionary to China.
If you don't have that habit, I would
encourage all of you to read the biographies
of these men like C.D. Studd and
Hudson Taylor and some of these godly men
who went out to different places and sacrificed.
Those are the things that challenged me in
my younger days.
And Hudson Taylor says how in his younger
days, when he was working as an apprentice
for, I think it was a doctor, he
wanted to learn to trust the Lord.
And his boss was a bit of an
absent-minded person and would tell Hudson Taylor,
please remind me at the end of the
week, they used to get weekly salary, remind
me at the end of the week to
give you your salary, because sometimes I may
walk away on a Saturday and forget to
pay you, not deliberately, but because I don't
have a good memory.
So Hudson Taylor thought, boy, that's a good
opportunity to trust the Lord.
Here is an absent-minded boss and he
tells me to remind him.
Can I ask the Lord to remind him?
I mean, if there is a God in
heaven, God will do it.
So he decided never to remind his boss
about his salary.
And one day, Saturday, when Hudson Taylor had
almost nothing in his pocket, the Seat closed
the office and went off and said goodbye,
see you on Monday.
He had no money.
And Hudson Taylor said, Lord, I trust you.
And a little while later, that man came
back.
He said, I forgot something here in the
office.
And when he came back and said, by
the way, did I pay you?
He said, no, you didn't pay me.
Oh, I'm sorry.
And he paid him.
And it was little instances like this that
strengthened Hudson Taylor's faith when he was all
alone in China to believe that God is
a God who hears prayer.
I mean, George Muller's biography also says about
the number of times when they would have
empty plates with all these hundreds of orphans
and they would give thanks for the food
when there was nothing on the plate.
And then all types of things would happen.
Somebody's bread van would break down in front
of the orphanage or the milk van would
break down or somebody God would speak on
the previous night to go and take a
sack of potatoes to George Muller's orphanage.
All types of things which strengthened the faith
to believe that there is a God who
hears.
You know, nowadays, there's a thing called satellite
communication.
You speak in a phone, the sound goes
up to that satellite and goes down to
America over there.
Something happens over there, it doesn't go directly,
it goes up via the satellite.
And that's how these people communicated with God.
They spoke to God and God spoke to
somebody miles away to do something.
And not only miles away, you know, when
Hudson Taylor was in China, things had to
happen in England at least one month before
Hudson Taylor prayed, you know, for the letter
to come by ship all the way to
China in those days.
So, it's like God knew one month later
Hudson Taylor was going to pray, so I
better start answering the prayer right now so
that when he prays, the next day he'll
get the letter with the money in it.
You see, this is the exact fulfillment of
what we read in Isaiah 65, 24.
Before they call, I will answer.
How is that possible?
I mean, this is better than satellite communication.
Before they call, I will answer means God
sees your need that one month from now
you're going to pray for something.
He's already started working on it.
Now, this is the faith we must have
in the days to come, in the sovereignty
of God.
And that's why we're not afraid as we
face the future.
We're not afraid of financial hardship.
We're not afraid of, if we go through
a difficulty, we're not afraid of persecution because
we know that God is watching every single
detail of our life.
I have a verse, one of the few
verses in my sitting room.
And it's Job 23, verse 10.
In the Living Bible, Job 23, verse 10,
reads like this.
He knows, here it says, He knows the
way I take.
In the Living Bible, it says, He knows,
in the margin of this Bible also, He
says, He knows the way it is with
me.
He knows the way it is with me.
In the Living Bible, it says, He knows
every detail of what is happening to me.
That's a lovely verse, particularly those of you
who may be going through difficult times and
you're wondering whether it's worth it, serving the
Lord, whether it's worth it, giving up all
these things which you could have otherwise if
you lived for the world.
To remember, He knows every detail of what
is happening to me.
He knows.
It says in the book of Genesis, in
chapter 8, when the world was being destroyed
by the flood and Noah was inside the
ark for 150 days, it says in Genesis
7.24, and then it says, but God
remembered Noah and all the beasts and all
the cattle.
You know, it could look when you're inside
the ark with all the rain falling for
40 days and after the rain has stopped,
days and days and days and days, 150
days, 5 months gone by.
The rain has stopped 5 months ago and
Noah could be tempted to sit there wondering
like John the Baptist in the prison said,
Are you really the one who is to
come or should we wait for another?
And here Noah sitting inside the ark, it
says, God remembered Noah.
These are precious verses in scripture that can
come to our mind in a similar situation
we may be in.
When months go by, 150 days, nothing is
happening.
The Lord is not opening the door.
He hasn't forgotten you.
He remembers.
He knows every detail of what is happening
to us.
Not only He knows, the New Testament promises
even better than He knows every detail.
Romans 8.28 says, He makes every detail
work for our good.
Not just He knows.
Knowing itself would be a comfort, the fact
that God knows, but more than that, that
He causes it all to work for good.
If you trust in God, when the Lord
called me to serve Him on the 6th
of May 1964, 34 years ago, one of
the words He gave me was, Isaiah 49
.23, the last part, Those who
hopefully wait for me will not be put
to shame.
And I want to encourage you to claim
that promise.
Whatever your need, it may be a need
for physical healing in a situation where nobody
else can help, it may be a need
for finances, it may be a need for
your children, some need, we have many needs
for our children, their physical needs, their material
needs, their educational needs, and as they grow
up, in terms of jobs and marriage, so
many things.
Here is a promise of God, those who
wait for me, those who hopefully, those who
trust in me, will never be put to
shame.
They will never be put to shame.
Trust in the Lord, brother, sister.
Let us be a demonstration to this unbelieving
generation that we do not live by the
values of this world.
We do not live to make money.
We do not live looking for comfort.
We do not live looking for ease.
We do not feel, now I have become
a senior servant of the Lord, that I
have to have more of this or more
of that.
No, I do not have to have more
of anything.
What the Lord gives, I take.
I am happy.
We do not complain about anything.
God knows exactly what is right for us.
We do not have any aspirations.
I mean, I rode a scooter 36 years
ago and I ride a scooter today.
That takes me from place to place.
We do not have aspirations that I must
be this or I must be that.
I am nothing.
I am to be a zero.
I am to be satisfied with whatever God
provides.
My goal in life must not be comfort,
must not be money.
Let other people seek it.
I am not here to judge them.
Let other servants of the Lord seek it.
Let other servants of the Lord in your
own organization seek it.
Do not judge them.
Say, Lord, You are my example.
What You give me, I will take.
I am not saying comfort is wrong.
I am saying do not seek for it.
It is not what you get.
It is what you seek for.
That is dangerous.
What we must seek is only one thing,
the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
That is all.
Nothing else.
When Jesus said, Seek first His kingdom and
His righteousness, I do not think it meant,
well, once I have sought that, I seek
a lot of other things.
I will tell you honestly, if you really
start seeking first the kingdom of God, you
will not have time for anything else.
There is no time for anything second.
Because the kingdom of God in itself is
so great.
And you seek for His righteousness.
That means to become like Jesus totally in
our life.
What a pursuit that is.
Where is there time for anything else?
And if we seek His kingdom, promoting His
kingdom on earth, establishing His kingdom on earth,
demonstrating to an unbelieving generation what the values
of heaven are, that's what it means to
seek His kingdom.
That in your particular place, God has placed
one person, that's you, to show a different
way of life.
You don't seek for position.
You don't seek for honor.
You seek to serve.
If they kick you and tell you to
get out, OK, you go away and you
wait for another opportunity that may come where
you can serve them.
And you go back and serve the people
who kicked you out last month.
But that is another...
You have no dignity to maintain saying, Oh,
I've got some dignity.
The fellow kicked me out.
I'm going to have nothing to do with
him.
You'll never be able to serve people like
that.
We go back to the people who kicked
us out and say, Brother, can I help
you in some way?
That is the spirit of Jesus.
It is so different from the values of
this world.
We have no grudge against anyone.
Because why?
Because nobody can do me any harm.
I have often publicly said, I'm 58 years
old and nobody has ever done me any
harm in 58 years.
Nobody.
And it is impossible for any man to
do me harm.
Because the Bible says, He makes all things
work together for my good.
And each of us God places in different
places because all of us cannot go around
with this testimony everywhere in India or Nepal
or Bhutan or Sri Lanka or Burma or
anywhere.
So God places you in your locality.
India itself is so vast.
And says you be a demonstration in your
locality that you believe in a sovereign God
in heaven who takes care of all those
who seek His kingdom first.
That your trust is in the Lord and
not in any organization.
That you are not seeking for money or
comfort or all these things primarily.
If God gives them to you, you take
it and use it.
If God doesn't see, if God gives you
a bed, I'm not asking you to sleep
on the floor.
That is stupidity.
That is Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoga.
And we don't follow that.
If God gives you a bed, sleep on
the bed.
But if God doesn't give you a bed,
then what do you do?
Praise the Lord and sleep on the floor.
And if God doesn't give you a room
to stay, well, the railway station is always
open.
We sleep with others there.
I'm happy to do that.
We are not.
But if God gives us a room to
stay, we stay there.
The point is not what you use.
The point is what do you seek.
There is a lovely verse in Jeremiah 45
where the Lord spoke to Baruch who was
a co-worker of Jeremiah.
Baruch was a co-worker of Jeremiah who
wrote down the things that Jeremiah spoke in
verse 1.
We read Jeremiah 45.1 The message which
Jeremiah spoke to Baruch which he had written
down in the dictation of Jeremiah.
And then, you know, being a co-worker
with this great prophet, Baruch must have thought,
well, you know what happened to Elisha who
poured water on the hands of Elijah.
He became the next prophet.
And the Lord says to Baruch, You said,
Ah, woe is me, for the Lord has
added sorrow to my pain.
I am weary with my groaning and I
have found no rest.
He had some complaint, Lord, you are not
giving me a comfortable life, even though I
have been a faithful servant to Jeremiah.
You are to say to him, Thus says
the Lord to Baruch, Behold, what I have
built, I am about to tear down.
What I have planted, I am about to
uproot the whole land.
Everything on this earth is going to be
shaken.
Are you going to seek for earthly comfort?
And you, are you seeking great things for
yourself?
Do not seek them.
That's a word of the Lord to you,
my brother, sister.
What are you seeking?
Great things for yourself, to be a well
-known preacher or well-known servant of God
or somebody advertised or photographed and put here
and there and here and there.
There was a magazine which asked me for
an article and I wrote an article and
they said, Please send me a photograph.
And I said, See, nobody will become spiritual
by looking at my photograph.
They may be spiritual by reading my article.
What do they want to see my photograph
for?
Just put my name, that's enough.
I said, I have a little conviction on
all these things.
Do you seek great things for yourself?
Do you seek to promote yourself, my brother,
sister?
Everybody must know who you are.
Is that the spirit of Jesus?
Be honest with yourself.
Don't go by my conviction.
You ask yourself, The Jesus whom you worship,
whom you serve, I hope you understand His
spirit.
This is eternal life, to know Jesus Christ,
to know how He would do it.
Do you seek great things for yourself?
Are you in competition with somebody else?
Do you seek comfort for yourself?
Seek them not.
Do not seek them.
You could put many things there in place
of great things for yourself.
All the great things in the world, money,
comfort, honor, do you seek them for yourself?
Do not seek them.
It's all, all created things are going to
collapse.
Live for the things that are not created.
The things that are seen, are visible, temporary,
they are all going to collapse.
The things that are unseen are eternal.
Many of us started like that when we
were young Christians.
How is it today?
Have you begun to live more for the
things that are visible?
I tell you, I've been a Christian nearly
40 years, but I find, I have to
battle.
If I look around at what's happening in
a lot of Christian leadership today, I say,
Lord, it's not a good example.
I'm sorry, I don't want to judge them,
but I want to look at Jesus, and
I say, how did you live your earthly
days?
He lived his earthly days misunderstood, maligned, never
replying back.
Are you willing to be maligned?
Are you willing to let people speak evil
about you, spread false stories about you?
And not only you keep quiet, but you
love them.
And you seek to do good to them
whenever you get an opportunity.
That's how Jesus was.
It's a totally different sense of, set of
values.
It's heaven's set of values that you are
to demonstrate in your earthly life.
And I'll tell you, my brother, sister, you
will never be the loser.
You will never be the loser.
You would have lived a worthwhile life on
this earth.
Many people in eternity will be thankful that
in your town, in your country, you demonstrated
heaven's values and drew other people to heaven's
values.
Don't be satisfied with gathering a large number.
If all that large number of people in
your church have still got earth's values, one
person with heaven's values is going to be
a light.
Rather than a thousand people in your church
who got earth's values.
What's the use of that?
Values of purity.
If people can see your purity.
If people can see the way you conduct
yourself with the opposite sex.
What a need there is in this corrupt
generation to have servants of God who are
upright in this area.
Who will not visit a home if there
are only the ladies in the house.
Not because...
You may say, I'm not going to be
tempted.
But it's not just that.
What sort of example are you to other
younger people who may be tempted?
Think of that.
Purity.
Who are upright, absolutely honest with money.
Who trust in God and not in any
organization.
Whose mind is always occupied with how can
I promote God's kingdom?
How can I be more like Jesus?
Seeking His kingdom and His righteousness first.
I believe it's...
There's a great need in our land, in
all these countries for such people.
Don't seek great things for yourself.
Everything that we see is going to collapse.
And we are living so close now to
the time when Christ will come.
The night comes when no man can work.
There's still a little few more minutes left
of day time.
Let us make the opportunity...
Let us use the opportunity fully so that
when you come to the end of your
life, you will have no regrets over what
you lived for.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, You placed us in different places.
There's a very small bit of work only
that each of us can do on this
earth.
Very, very little.
The work is so vast.
The need is so great.
The fields are so ripe.
The laborers are so few.
And among the laborers, faithful laborers are even
fewer.
So many are seeking other things.
We don't want to judge them.
We don't want to judge anybody else.
But help us to live before Your face
and be faithful in these days to live
with eternity's values and view.
We humbly ask in Jesus' name.